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