By Kyle Mrohs

My personality does not afford me the pleasure of stressing over esoteric questions. Rarely does an issue overwhelm me to the point of paralysis.

But lately a seemingly innocent question has been plaguing, haunting my dreams and conversations. It drove me so nuts that I buzzed my hair so I wouldn’t keep pulling it.

The question begs: Is there a difference between setting routes and setting boulder problems?”

“Why so serious?” as the Joker keeps asking on all the “Dark Night” posters lining my local theaters. Cause this is serious stuff! This is not just semantics! This could be a deep-seated treasure trove of truth, buried by a subtle pile of ambiguity.

Or is it? After stressing for days while searching for some insights into the differences between these two disciplines, which I worked so hard to differentiate, I found…not much.

There are the obvious differences, such as the apparent height of the wall. If it’s big, you set routes with ropes. If it’s small, you set boulder problems over pads.

If it’s smaller but still needs a rope, you might set a boulder-style route with a minimal amount of rests….well, you get the point.

Trying to extrapolate on these seemingly trivial and obvious differences drove me to question if there was a difference between anything at all, or if it all just came down to scale and size.

But then there is style. Ah, finally something not so quantifiable. Something subjective, murky and difficult to judge. Yes, maybe the differences between the two could be found in the style of which they are created.

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