It can oftentimes be intimidating to stare up at a blank wall and know exactly what to do. The thought that in a few hours you need to have a complete, perfect route up for your customers can reek havoc on ones creativity.

In cases like these it helps to know a few simple rules that can help guide one through the myriad of options.

But what are the rules of routesetting? And more specifically what is the #1 rule? This is the question we posed to our Global Advice Panel.

Here’s what our panel thinks and you too can give us your two cents by commenting below.

Johan Andersson – Build the problem or route so you yourself can’t wait to get on it!

Louie Anderson – This one seems easy to answer. Make your climb fair to all climbers.

Whatever the difficulty, the climb should be that difficulty for all who climb it; regardless of size, gender or familiarity with the facility or holds. Bottom line: when a climber steps off the climb (whether having succeeded or not) they should grade the climb similar to their peers.

If there are height dependent moves on your climb – make sure there are alternatives (of a similar difficulty) for other sized climbers.

If a setter can achieve this goal of fairness (regardless of the difficulty level being set), they will seldom get complaints.

Continue reading »