Setting for the Heist

Epic problem that Lil set

Last weekend was the Heist. It was the third year that it was held, and I feel like it gets better and better every year. This year, there were so many female setters from all over North America. Flannery Shay-Nemirow was head setter again. She's really great to work with and I'm psyched that she's joined Central Rock Gym as a setter. Shanese Furlow from Colorado (City Rock), Lil Kraus came in from Eastern Canada (Allez Up), and Selena Wong, Co-Head Setter, came in from Western Canada (she lives in a van and I don't know where she sets). Kelly Adams (formerly CRG then she moved to Western Mass and now climbs on real rocks), Renee Lemieux (MetroRock), and Nicole Myers (BKB Somerville). Also shout out to Brittany and Andrea for putting on an awesome comp again. We had an amazing team this year and it was really fun. We even talked sometimes. Sometimes we didn't want to wait in line for the bathroom.

The ladies are stealing the show...and also the bathrooms. It's ours now.

I really love setting for the Heist, it's such a fun time, and I learned a lot this year. Getting to set with so many professional females setters was really great for me. I didn't realize how many there were. I assumed more than seven, but still, probably not much more than that.

This is what it looks like behind the curtain.

A lot of people group the female climbing style into the balancey - static climbing style. While, many women climb like that, we had no problem setting a wide variety of problems, even with a team of all women. Taylor Nystrom, who climbed in the comp and also held a clinic on Sunday about being a climber and a professional mentioned after competing that even the slab problems weren't 'gimme' problems. We really definitely devoted even more time this year to really making the problems amazing for all of the categories. The problems also just looked really cool.

We hung out behind the curtain when we needed to destress.

 During setting, I found out that I am pretty good at setting slab. Which I totally didn't realize because I've never had slab to set on until that comp. I kind of want to set more slab. It's so fun. I would also like to set on steep overhangs. Mostly, I just want to set on wall angles that I've never gotten to set on before.

I set this yellow thing for the Badass category. Yeah, slab!

On Monday, we focused on trying to get a lot of the harder problems up. Because I don't really climb (send) very hard (V2-V5 depending on the gym) I'm almost always setting above the level that I climb. I don't mind setting the harder stuff, but I can get really self conscious about it during forerunning because it's such a big part of the setting process. It's pretty hard to make other setters believe that your problem not only goes, but is also hitting the correct grade and is enjoyable when you can't climb or sometimes even get on the start of your problem. Setting for the Heist was great for me in that way in that it wasn't required that I be able to climb everything I could set, so I could really feel free to set V6, V7, even V9 or V10.

I set this purple thing also for the Badass category. Also slab.

Not being able to climb that hard, I found that sometimes, I would miss the grade, I'd intended to hit. I had tried to set a V6 on a slightly overhung wall and it ended up being a V10. I was told it was really cool, but it was also really hard. I used the tron disks as hands (thumbderclings and underclings) and a bunch of long rails at 45 degree angles as feet.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time setting with such awesome ladies. As someone who's been trying to get into the industry as a setter, it's been really inspirational for me to be able to be around so many ladies who already made it in. Also I had a blast.

Thanks a bunch to Flannery, Britt, Shane and Eli for letting me crash on their couch for a couple of days. Also thanks to Mary for letting me stay in her guest room the night before the comp. I would have said, "good morning" if I'd realized sooner that I didn't have to be at the gym until ten. I really appreciate being able to set again this year. Huge thanks to everyone who made this event happen. It means a lot to me and I'm sure it means a lot to a bunch of other ladies.

Coming Soon -- I'm setting for an ABS Local comp at CRG Hadley!

Portland, OR

Hello all! Happy New Year!

I am in Portland. I can tell this is a cool place. I bought a postcard with a cat on it. The cat was in outer space and it's amazing. I haven't really done much exploring, but I got the chance to check out a few places while I've been here. Hopefully, I'll get to check out the new Planet Granite which I just found out is within walking distance of the apartment I've been staying at. I'm not really able to exercise until the end of the month because of medical reasons, but I'm still going to look around try not to let myself climb, but remembering that there were a few days when I could barely get up, taking it slow is not a bad idea. Not being able to exercise for the last half month has given me the opportunity to check out other parts of Portland and by that I mean grocery store chains and restaurants.

I went to Chipotle twice. It's not like I don't have it where I'm from, it's just that my family really likes Chipotle.

Laughing planet is a restaurant with dinosaurs in it. They have a lot of vegetarian options and their cookies are delicious.

Jim and Patty's is this really cool coffee shop that we've been going to almost every other day to buy prison food which is their day old baked goods. Their day old baked goods taste better than some of the fresh baked goods I've had.

Pizzicato has amazingly delicious pizza. We got an arugula pear salad, a veggie pizza and a wild mushroom pizza. It's important to check if a city has good pizza. Portland does.

Whole foods is a grocery store that I'd never been to before. We bought organic stuff. It was pretty cool.

Safeway is a grocery store that I've always imagined was a gas station. It just sounded like something you would name a gas station. I think we bought egg rolls there. They were yummy.

Trader Joe's was the closest grocery store so we went there a lot. We bought a great deal of cheese and crackers from them.

Powell's is this epic bookstore that sells new and used book. I was drooling. It was amazing. If I didn't have a preference for large books, I would've bought something.

We also went to Ikea for lunch. I bought space band-aids there. They are super cool.

Portland has like 4 or 5 REIs within 11 miles of where I was staying. I've never been to a city with that many REIs, but you know a city is good if it has an REI and Portland has 4.

Also I interviewed Molly Beard probably six months ago and still haven't put the full interview up, so since I'm in Portland, now seems like the perfect time.

Jenny: Any cool plans for setting or climbing in the future?

Molly: lol, Heading to Ten Sleep in late Sept for 3 weeks. That place stole my heart nearly 10 years ago. Setting...looking to keep teaching for a few more years, (I really like teaching!) and hoping to do a few more big comps before my age catches up ;)

Jenny: That's cool. I'm planning to go to red river gorge in the fall.

Molly: Love that place! Gonna go back soon I hope myself!

Jenny:  Do you have a favorite at Red River Gorge?

Molly: The entire Muir Valley ;)

Jenny: That's good to hear that so much of it is awesome. 6:33 PM

Molly:It's kinda ridiculous how overall good that place is!

Jenny: What would you say is the ideal ratio for climbing vs setting? I've heard of setters who set once a week and other who set full time.

Molly: For me for a long time it was 3 days/week. As I got more things going on outside of climbing I brought it down to 1/week. It is super hard on your back to sit in a harness day-in and day-out. I have a lift where I work now so that's a huge plus. Mostly its all about balance, every setting day is a climbing day no matter what. Do I want to spend that many days away from my own training away from my other goals? Not anymore!


Jenny: I finally know the feeling of sitting in my harness all day. It's definitely not my favorite thing about setting. It's probably why I really like setting boulder problems. Do you have a preference?

Molly: Ropes. I really like ropes and the challenge of creating something that is both long, accurate for grade, interesting and engaging. Boulders are a hill of fun too! But if I had to pick I'd pick ropes.


Jenny: Is there a grade on ropes that you really like setting?
I feel like that might be an odd question to ask...

Molly: Not really! I really like 11's they are such a good blend of strength, technique, and interesting movement. And you get to watch tons of people try them. 12/13 is also very fun, but in most places they get so little traffic. You almost get stuck setting to a very small slice of your clients.
Love setting ridiculously hard things for 10-year-olds!

Jenny: I definitely like to watch people climb my routes. Determined ten year olds can climb pretty much anything they want. So this had to come up eventually, but it's definitely something I've been thinking about.
I go to an engineering school so there's not many girls out there in the first place. When I first started setting, there weren't that many female setters (or climbers), but it didn't really seem weird. I've been realizing how few female setters there actually are and I wonder if you might want to talk about that.
Why do you think there aren't that many of us out there? Should we do something about it? And what can we do?

Molly: I'd love to. It's something that has made me crazy for years. I've been involved with USAC (and all it's older names) since 1999. For a decade I was the only woman doing this at a high level. I thought by now the numbers would be more representative, but it's still less than 1%.
Why?
I think about this all the time. It is hard work, but it's not insurmountable.
It does require a certain amount of muscle mass but not that much.

Jenny: I didn't realize it was less than 1%. That's mind blowing even compared to the 14%  women in my major.

Molly: We do need to be smarter about moving weight, using aid systems and such, but these are learnable things!
Ya. I'm the only woman with an L5. There are 2 others with L4, and 2 more with L3. Compare that to 12 male L5, nearly 40 L4, and a very large number of L3. It's wild.

Jenny: I definitely remember the heaviest hold I tried to set with. It was the praying hands from soill. I ended up moving the hold five times trying to set that route. I definitely learned I had to be more decisive. Will you talk about those systems?

Molly: There is not much else to do than to encourage women to get involved. The USAC does do this, but women, by and large, do not.
Yes. Better to show you in clinic

Jenny: It's definitely daunting for me starting out seeing how many people have a Level 1 cert. Do you think the prerequisites might be one of the barriers?

Molly: Looking at my math it's more like 3%
No. The pre-reqs for L1 are a guideline not a rule. L2 is different.

Jenny: Oh yes, sorry I meant the prereqs for Level 2.

Molly: L2 is harder to get into because at L2 you are actually commiting to a comp setting path. We select folks who have set lots of comps and understand that part. We select folks based on recommendations from Regional Coordinators, gym owners, other high level setters who've worked with them because these candidates are getting a shot at earning a cert that would allow them to run a Regional Championship event. These events are a pretty big deal nowadays, and we have to be sure that the folks who come are close-to-ready to pass.

Jenny: That makes a lot of sense.
You might have heard of some of the recent all female comps coming out. There is the Heist at Central Rock Gym in MA and MetroRock is also coming out with a series called Iron Maiden, do you think that these kinds of comps could lead to more interest from women to set?

Molly: I sure hope so!

Jenny:  Me too!
I'm actually setting for the Heist. If you are unfamiliar with the format, it has citizens bouldering and open, so there's going to be a lot of bouldering routes. Do you have any advice for setting a lot of good routes in a somewhat short amount of time?

Molly: Good for you! We'll actually cover a lot of efficiency stuff in clinic. The biggest thing is that you should always be moving. If you find yourself standing still, staring at the wall or the holds, just stop! Make a decision and put the hold on the wall. Analysis-paralysis is what you cannot afford during comp setting times! Practice a few fun things before hand and then try to execute them later.

Jenny: Cool. Back to getting people to set especially women, in your opinion, is learning to set as you learn to climb a bad thing?

Molly:No. In some ways it might actually be better. You learn good habits before you get silly-strong (as we all do), and develop an ego. All good routesetting should start from a desire to make people smile. Whether they like being challenged, learning a new trick, mastering a type of hold...the majority of climbers want to climb something that physically feels good, and that means mastery of movement knowledge.
*The setter should have mastery of movement knowledge

Jenny: I've wondered if I should have waited until I got better, but setting is really fun. Definitely something I've experienced and I would imagine most setters experience is the point where they are setting above their level past the point of a route you can project or forerun in pieces before it gets taken down. Do you think it's okay to set a route you probably won't be able to send if you think it'll be fun?
For example, a V3 climber setting a V10 or even a V8 is unlikely to be able to forerun their route. But newer climbers might think of crazier ideas than more experienced climbers.

Molly: I think it is ok to set above your current level, but with a few caveats: if you have never climbed that grade, you will be unable to say with certainty what that grade is. If you have climbed that grade and are not in the same shape, you still have that knowledge, and should be able to say with certainty what the grade is. So! If you set above your total experience level you need other people to help you confirm what you've done. This can be a trust issue depending on the crew you have to work with. The fun part is very subjective. Is it fun? The answer is in how many people climb it. If it gets no traffic then it wasn't fun. This is another place where having forerunner assistance is key.

Jenny: Do you have advice for new setters who want to set but don't have access to gym to set in? How can they get started?
What is your favorite movie, book, or song? If you were to set a route based on it, what would the sequence be?

Molly: Oooh. That's a tough one. Volunteering is not always easy or welcome, but the big thing is to keep trying. Don't be a pest, but do try to be helpful. Find a friend with a home wall. Volunteer at a school or ymca. If you are really motivated you'll find a way.
Movie: Amelie. Book: Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, William Gibson, or Glen Cook. Route that would be: Complex, technical, spicy and committing!

Thank you so much to Molly Beard for letting me interview her and for being patient in me posting this interview and thank you so much to Portland for being a fun place to be.