Danforth is a good dude and has the right ideas in mind. I always tell him the same thing every year, “Its getting there.”

Let’s examine “Good” and to be more amicable… “Not So Good”

“Good”
1. Venue– Much better than a gym. Draws a bit of cross traffic and can host a larger crowd. I’ve always said that a comp of this size needs to be in a very public place/ampitheatre/outdoor mall/ something other than a dingy gym.
2. Lighting– Kinda goes together with Venue as far as adding professionalism to the presentation and provides greater marketability and brand exposure to sponsors.
3. Walls– Very cool. Very simple. I do agree with the “Slab” Comment however. It would be bad ass to see a real slab– That nice slight overhang into a real slab rather than a vertical wall would have been much more interesting.

“Not So Good”
1. Unpaid setters. Come on, you pay for quality. Yes the setters may have done a good job… But I bet if you paid, you would attract more talent and get a higher quality product. No one should work for free. Haven’t these volunteer setters heard of opportunity cost?
2. Problems. When I told JD I thought nothing was that interesting in the comp, he replied “Did you SEE the holds we had to work with?!” I guess these sponsors only provide a set amount of holds and that the setters are SOL? I don’t know– I have never set a comp like this. But this should not be an issue. Is this always the case? Either way– I watched the first few competitors do the problems, and then grew bored because it was just climbing. Nothing looked impossible or cryptic or… FUN. Besides mens 4, I had little desire to climb these problems– probably because they were no different than anything I see Joe Czerwinski crank out on a daily basis at our gym in AZ. The competition is once a year for the best climbers in the world– the problems should have been more spectacular.

And I don’t remember seeing Paul Robinson at all. I think he bailed pretty much right after quali’s and went to Joe’s valley.

Also, other forerunners who were invaluable were Jody Hansen, Kate Reese, and Kelly McBride for women and Andre DiFelice for men (who stayed late on the last night to help Jason, Joel, Kyle and Sweeney finalize the men’s problems and who was the only person to stick the hard middle crux on men’s four before we made it easier).

Also this kid Mac from the east coast came out and did major banner/set screw/tape work for us that helped us get to bed at 6:30 am instead of 7.

Thanks guys!

I feel I need to tell you that Routesetter.com is not run by USAC as your friend has told you. And I don’t believe we’re harsh critics of anybody or anything. Routesetter.com is a site – a trade journal – for the indoor industry. That means we concentrate on the business side of things.

The article and the interview with Jason Danforth were posted so as to be helpful to other comp organizers around the world. Its also the media’s job to ask the tough questions to get to the heart of the matter so my readers can learn something.

In full disclosure I, Mike Helt, founder and editor, do occasionally set for USAC events. I work hard to produce content that is unbiased, balanced and impartial and feel I do this well.

But if you ever feel that Routesetter.com strays from these goals please let me know.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Mike

Thanks to the Mammut guys for the insight into comp setting. Great article. I flew out to the OR show and had a great time at the comp. From a layman’s perspective, the walls and problems were amazing and really fun to watch. I don’t know much about the technical or business issues that jelly was talking about, but it looked like the organizers did their best – I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it rain to give certain competitors an advantage, but they were well prepared with towels and tarps. As for the money, well, does anyone climb to get rich? I wont be quitting my day job.

A friend at the gym told me that that routesetter is run and contributed by USAC so its understandable that they’d be such harsh critics. I just want to say to Mammut to keep up the good work! I’m a fan after 1 comp and look forward to more!

The comparisons above to world cups is not very relevant. The world cup scoring sytem is convoluted and their competitions in general have not changed for many years. The world cup circuit is not growing, so I would not follow their model if you want to grow a tour or the sport.

Hopefully, this concept will take off and lead to bigger and better venues with more sponsor support in the industry and some non industry support for the entertainment value. This might be the only hope for the sport getting bigger so that event organizers and route setters can get paid a fair wage for their services.

I have never understood the constant bashing that goes on in the climbing industry in general or over events like this one (see jelly comments). The CEO sounds pretty excited about what they are trying to do, so props to him, his staff and all of their energy.

More importantly, though, it’s sweet to see New Jersey hero Rocco B gettin’ some props!

a few things warrant a comment:

“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 is no revolution. There are often REAL slabs on World Cup Bouldering walls and many routesetters in places other than the United States have been using this philosophy quite effectively for years now.
As a spectator at the last two Trade Show comps, there is not a great deal of diversity of style that you speak of. At last years event, there was only one problem in the Finals (Women’s # 4 or 5) that seemed to be different than any of the other problems. At this years event, no noticable difference in routesetting styles.

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

It is not entirely accurate to use Ty Landman in this example. He climbed all of the final problems in succession WITH NO RAIN DELAY. Of course he is going to be more tired when he reaches problem number 4. Chris and Ethan enjoyed a 30 minute rest before attempting this problem due to the elements. No routesetter in their right mind would say that Chris and Ethan received no benefit from resting that long.

“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.”

I can’t say that this is wrong, because it is your opinion, but it is not really fair to the competitors that never make it to finals. I mean, 90% of your PAYING competitors climb on nothing else except the Qualifying problems. Shouldn’t you put just as much effort into their climbing experience as the relatively few finalists?

“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.”

If this is a business, then it sounds like your business model is a bit flawed.

“…Bouldering Championships are the only events with the focus on marketing value, on the production and entertainment, to bring in bigger investment.”

From a marketing standpoint, those banners all over the place look like shit, very low – production. I realize how necessary they are, as it is one of the only pieces of collateral that you can offer to a potential sponsor, but there must be a better way for you to offer exposure to potential sponsors.

“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?”

Actually, other routesetters were griping to your face when they refused to accept the very little to no money in order to be a part of the MBC. I can’t imagine that ne2c convinced the owner of the bar to host the afterparty for free like the routesetters were asked to do. Perhaps some of that money could have been offered to routesetters? Or, if the afterparty is that important, then why not cancel the comp and just have the Mammut Afterparty Championship?

Jason, thank you for putting all of the hard work into this event. It is great that you have the passion to work so hard for so little return. Overall, I think that the MBC at OR was a great comp, but it is not something that took things to the next level or pushed any kind of standards of competition climbing higher. Beautiful lighting, absolutely gorgeous walls, but NOT revolutionary in any other aspect.