One of the newest trends to hit British climbing walls is the advent of setting specific bouldering circuits. Bouldering circuits were first seen in the forests of Fontainebleau but are now popping up like mushrooms all over English indoor climbing walls.

One of the first gyms to put circuits in practice was the Climbing Works bouldering gym in Sheffield, England. Percy Bishton, an IFSC chief setter, owns the gym and decided to make circuits a very big part of it.

Other gyms have followed suit with their own brand of circuits. At the Castle Climbing Center in N. London, Audrey Seguy, manager and World Cup boulderer, told us, “At The Castle, we’ve been trying out a mini-circuit of 6-7 problems with a theme. This month it’s “Test your Technique”- 6 problems at the UK5a (V3) grade. We’ve had some really good feedback about it.”

So are circuits the future of indoor bouldering? For the new generation of bouldering-only gyms, only time will tell.

Mr. Bishton took some time earlier this month to explain what a circuit is, what it takes to set one, and why it’s so user friendly.

What is a circuit?

Each circuit consists of 40 problems all set in the same color holds and all within a specified grade range. Within each circuit there is every style of climbing and every angle of wall, from roof climbing to slabs.

At any one time we have 6 different 40-problem circuits set (or 240 circuit problems!). The circuits are set so the next problem should be close to the one you’ve just done so it’s nice and easy to find your way around.

How do you go about grading the circuits?

The grade range might be say, Font 6a to 6b+ (V2 to V4 ish!). Each problem in the circuit is numbered (1 to 40) and the number is placed next to the start holds. Our circuits cover all grade ranges with our easiest starting at Font 2+ to 4, but the majority of the circuits cover the mid-range of our customers ability, at around Font 5 to 6c, and we usually have a couple of tough circuits too, the hardest one normally covers the grades from Font 7a to 7c.

Because of the variety of styles we often find even the most talented climbers struggle to finish a circuit at their limit, because they will complete 95% of the problems and then find a couple that aren’t their style (eg: slabs for the strong boys, roof work for the technicians.)

Its so user friendly, and you don’t have the problem of grading everything. The circuit has a grade range, and on our topo sheets (free to download on our website) individual problems are just marked with an easy, medium or hard for the circuit, so no problems with people arguing whether a problem is V4+ or V5- anymore.

Why did you start setting circuits?

The concept of setting these types of circuits came about because we finally had a gym big enough to do it properly, and because we reckon that completing a circuit of boulder problems is way better for training purposes than climbing routes in a gym – you get more climbing done a lot quicker, no standing around belaying, the climbing involves just hard moves (no climbing easy sections to get to the crux of a route!), and is easily accessible (you don’t need to find a partner – just turn up and try and finish your chosen circuit in an hour)!

Can you explain how you go about setting these circuits?

As route setters the idea of building a circuit rather than just setting a load of problems is interesting. Once the problems have been set, tested and tweaked to make everything as you want, you then need to look at all the problems as a circuit and number the problems in an order that will give the best climbing.

For example, many of the circuits we have the first 5 to 10 problems at a fairly easy level of difficulty, and then build the difficulty to peak at around problem 25. The difficulty then tapers down for the last 10 to 15 problems but we might make the problems longer towards the end for an endurance work out.

Obviously, in order to complete a circuit properly you really need to complete the problems in the order that the setter has numbered them. This means that you have to give extra thought to how you want the circuit to climb once the actual setting has finished.

Do you guys set themed circuits?

It’s nice to mess around with specific ideas – circuits of long problems, or circuits of short intense blocs. But we don’t really set themed circuits, although we might try it out if there’s a demand (eg: a pocket circuit, a sloper circuit, etc)

What’s the key to having good circuits?

At The Climbing Works we use a load of talented guys to set circuits – so far we have had circuits set by Jacky Godoffe, Ian Vickers, Jamie Cassidy, Ron Barraclough, Sam Whittaker, Prajak Kundrat and myself. Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and it’s pretty easy to get a good variety of setting styles with a bunch of setters like this.

The real key to making this style of circuit work in a gym is to have enough space so all the problems aren’t set on top of one another.

The circuit concept has been a real success with all our customers, and we will continue to use this style of setting.

Climbing Works will open their second bouldering only gym in Bristol (in south-west UK) in November 2007 which will be 50% bigger than Climbing Works Sheffield.

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