When it comes to getting perspective on competitions, Routesetter.com likes to get as many angles as possible. While everybody has an opinion about how a comp should run, one opinion that rarely gets aired is that of the Chief Setter.

The Chief for the recent Mammut Bouldering Championships held August 8th & 9th was Jason Danforth.

Jason is known for his snappy dressing and his distinctive, outspoken thoughts about the future of climbing competitions and how to grow the sport.

Routesetter.com caught up with Jason for a finals round problem by problem break down and his thoughts on setters “sweat equity”.

Here he is in his own uncensored words; giving us a little insight into how the Bouldering Championships are run.

Problem #1
Men: v9
Women: v6/7

A little something straight out of the box to get things started. It’s a little scary to take big risks on the later problems, so problem 1 isn’t as hard, but if you’re not on your game it’ll throw you. I was super happy with how these turned out.

Problem #2
Men: v9/10
Women: v6/7

The slab is genius. Seriously, it’s a route-setting revolution. If you could distill the setting philosophy of the Bouldering Championships it would be increasing the diversity of style and decreasing the difficulty. A round of problems that puts the full range of styles on display demonstrates the depth of the sport and it opens up the event for a few surprises.

[It should be noted that this "slab" is not a traditional slab but more of an "American slab". In this case 25 - 30 degrees overhanging to vertical finish.]

Chris Sharma is the definitive legend, but if the problems are impossibly hard he won’t get as far as Daniel [Woods] or Paul [Robinson]. They’re stronger, but are they better? Chris has won in SLC two years in a row now, and it’s because he’s got no weaknesses: he’s got power and technique, creativity and determination.

Daniel and Paul are right there, and when they win it’s going to be absolutely wild, but Chris Sharma is an icon, he knows how to win, and that’s exciting to watch.

Problem #3
Men: v10+
Women: v8

We pushed it out here, but I really don’t think those were too hard. I’m pissed at myself for M3 because all it needed was a tick mark. The last move had ton’s of guys with a bunch of tries, and they were going to a good hold, but I don’t think they knew where the good spot was.

Just one of those situations where it could’ve gone but didn’t. Womens #3 was great. It was straight up power into a dicey mantle. There was no way around it, but a hard lesson that I’m constantly learning is that it’s not enough to force a move.

You can draw a line between a technical problem and a confusing one, and in comp setting you need to give it away. If it’s cruxy and out of the box, the climber needs to understand that there is only one way up.

Problem #4
Men: v10-
Women: v7

These were the show stoppers: super fun to watch and super straightforward. This is a style I’ve always struggled with, so I was super pleased with how they balanced out the rest of the problems. They were probably a touch too easy, but I’d rather that than too hard.

Both stopped big names like Rands and Landman, and both problems set the stage for dramatic performances from the winners.

When no one does the final problem it’s a let down, everyone leaves wondering what could’ve been. Even though Ethan [Pringle] and Chris [Sharma] had sent, Daniel’s performance on #4 was jaw dropping and got everyone out of their seats.

If he was going to battle back after the slab, it was on #3, but #4 gave him the chance to showboat a little, and that’s something this sport desperately needs.

RS.com: The first finals problems seemed to be harder then the second. Was this on purpose, perhaps a wake up call?
JD: Men’s 2 was much harder than Men’s 1, something like 4 tops vs. 14. For the women, I was a little surprised how it turned out, but again, the most important thing is the diversity of styles. Top Score gives us 4 problems of equal importance, so if we look at it as 3 women stuck the big dyno, whereas 7 could handle the techy slab, I’m cool with it.

RS.com: What are your thoughts on how qualifiers went?
I thought quals was great. It wasn’t perfect, but that’s because we banged it out in a day. Hell, we didn’t even get setting at all until Tuesday afternoon. I know you and I have chopped it up a bit over this in the past, and the bottom line for me is putting on the show. [indeed, Routesetter.com has busted Jason's chops over ties in qualies.]

Unless its flashing every problem in finals, I’m not terrified of ties. Ties happen. It’s sports. I’m way more concerned with getting finals dialed and making sure our logistics are pinned down, than I am with getting the pitch perfect qualifiers. As long as the more recreational competitors have fun, the field is broken up, and we get some good intel on who’s killing and who’s getting killed, I’m happy. Let’s go get some sleep.

RS.com: Before the comp even went off there was lots of talk in the setting community about the wage being payed (or not payed) to the setters. Do you care to comment?
JD: All I know is that I’ve been doing this shit for 3 years, YEAR ROUND, and haven’t made a goddamn dime. We’re for profit: this is a business, and we’re all putting in sweat equity. We’re creating a huge platform to grow the sport of climbing.

Where USAC is grassroots, which is crucial in its own right, NE2C is top-down. Any emerging sport needs top events supported by industry (as opposed to membership). If the sport of climbing can’t demonstrate value to its own core companies, we don’t have a chance, and the Bouldering Championships are the only events with the focus on marketing value, on the production and entertainment, to bring in bigger investment.

And here we are, killing ourselves to get this done, year after year, for nothing other than the desire to see this sport blow up, and people want to gripe behind our backs because we’re not paying out a couple hundred dollars for route-setting?

Fucking fuggetaboutit! Our lighting guy worked for free, arranged all the rentals, built the lighting schematic, BOUGHT HIS OWN TICKET, and I didn’t even know the fucking guy! He just reached out on our myspace page and said he wanted to be involved.

As setters, we need to get paid. I put food on the table by setting. But if I’m trying to build something that I believe in, I’m willing to suffer for it. I want to give a big thanks to Jason Kehl, Abbey Smith, and Rocco Bocchicchio (you guys hooked it up huge for us!), but the core team, Kyle McCabe, Jackie Huftle, Joel Zerr, those guys killed themselves to help pull off one of the top climbing events in the world, bare none.

Jackie and Joel banged out brilliantly high quality problems and graciously handled the less glamorous work that had to be done. No complaints, no egos, just a pile of hard work at all hours.

Kyle… Jesus Christ. We’ve done three comps in a row now, and I don’t ever want to do another without him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone, ever, in any situation, work as hard as Kyle. He worked me under the table Friday night. He’s got a incredible discipline, a very systematic approach, he’s incredibly strong, and almost as good looking as Zerr. What can you say? Kyle’s a prince. I’d go to war with that guy. Also, he can drive a trailer, build a stage, and operate a boom lift. A key skill set at the Bouldering Championships.

Ranting aside, we’ll pay our staff before we pay ourselves. Pete Ward (one of the other two managing partners of NE2C) and I are both setters, we know how crucial it is. To say that we don’t value setters is bullshit.

Everyone involved in NE2C is doing it for the love, and it’s paying off huge. Anyone who doesn’t get it should start paying attention, because ’09 is gonna be nuts, and it’ll be built on the grit and determination of people like Kyle, Jackie, and Joel.
RS.com: Whats up for the rest of the year?
JD: We’re launching a clothing line, Dawn + Relentless (coming soon), that embodies the lunatic drive that goes into everything we do: think small business start-up meets comp week meets all night disco after party meets the sexiest damn t-shirts you’ve ever seen. Really psyched about this, so keep an eye out.

And have you heard about the Nor’easter powered by Eastern Mountain Sports? Next month we’re running a weekend long festival celebrating the outdoor lifestyle. It’s three days of sport, music, and conservation just outside of Rumney, NH. We’ve got the bands Tapes ‘n Tapes and State Radio headlining a two day concert, the Reel Rock Film Festival, clinics, pro climbers Chris Sharma, Dave Graham, Lisa Rands, Daniel Woods, Heidi Wirtz, Tommy Caldwell, Kevin Jorgeson, and others… It’s huge, one-of-a-kind, and top-down like the Bouldering Championships. Don’t sleep on that radness.
Then I’m going to sleep for the month of October.

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