I agree that a stripped down gym looks awesome. In some way almost unrealistic.
I'm sure it is a big difference from the norm. and it is good to see the walls stripped. However these pictures look ... well... How do i put it... They don't look "clean" or "Neat" in any way.
I mean look at all the things going on.
10 million colour holds
volumes of all sorts of colors.
Tape around the volumes, the quickdrwas and ofcourse (?) the holds
the fact that the wall is not uniform coloured dosn't help.
I understand that this is the way it is done in the US but I feel that it should be possible to make it more "cleaner". Let me explain:
1. Climbers can use everything. So if there is only a single route on a wall there is really no need to mark the holds is there?
2. Why are the quickdraws marked? Just Clip the bottom biner in the bolt for each quickdraw that that does not have to clip. If another quickdraw is used for another route at the same time then these routes are to close for safety anyway.
The result: the climber can clip everything you come across.
3. I undertand the need to tape off a volume. But why is it done everywhere and using two coloured tape or using a different colour when a matching colour is available.
4. [euro rant alert on :-)]
For a competition it should be possible to use unicolored holds. At the moment climbers will have to look at the colour of tape. so they will have to look at the colour anyway.
I do have two questions though:
How do you geys deal with colour blind people? do you choose the colours of the tape carefully?
What are the marked Crosses on the floor for. Presumably that's where the route starts but what is it's formal status? (based on the regulations)
These walls look much "Cleaner":
http://competitie.climbing.nl/2008/nkherenverslag.html
Just to prove that I don't have all the answers: this is the last comp that i was involved in:
http://competitie.climbing.nl/2009/p1finaleverslag.html