Route Setting with Ben Read

Every week here at Volume 1 we reset an area of the wall: it could be the slab, it could be the comp wall, it could be the prow walls – but either way, you get some fresh routes to play on each week. Co-owner Ben Read heads up the route setting schedule and is extremely passionate about setting, so I thought: let’s get some juicy, honest details about the ‘behind the scenes’ action at the wall. Enjoy!

Why did you decide to get into route setting?

I got into route setting for all the wrong reasons: ego was the main one! When I began to start climbing the harder grades, I wanted to showcase this and test other people. I think a lot of hard climbers think that this is a good way to do it – by setting routes. Sadly this does not produce the best results! So, I got into it for the wrong reasons, but over the years it’s developed into the right reasons, which is to see people enjoying your problems and the movements that you’ve created. Now, being a wall owner, that’s gone even further for me because not only do you get to see people climbing the problems that you’ve set, but they’re on the wall and the community you created too which is immensely satisfying.

What was the hardest thing about starting?

The hardest thing I think most people find is being given an opportunity at a centre. There are so many people that want to do route setting but so few opportunities available. So finding a centre willing to take you on – especially if you haven’t got any experience, is always going to be a challenge.

How did people try to teach you?

When I started out sixteen years ago there was a lot less pressure because expectations were so much lower – that’s because setting wasn’t really at a stage where people really knew what a good or a bad problem was, people would just go and climb it. However over the years, the expectations of a route setter has become higher, so I can imagine that the pressures getting into it now are so much higher. That being said, someone that I did learn a lot from was Mark Croxall, who I believe was very much ahead of his time with regard to the style that he was setting and the way he was forcing movement – something a lot of the setters are doing now but they weren’t doing ten plus years ago.

What’s the hardest thing about putting up a new set?

The hardest thing for us is that we set a whole section in one go, so making sure you’ve got a variety of styles in each grade bracket is the biggest challenge. A lot of that comes down to communication on the day between setters, but something you can do is look at the hold selection you’ve got and make sure you’ve got some interesting ones – not just for the hard climbs where the interesting holds seem to end up but also for the easier climbs.

What do you look for in a guest setter?

One of the most important things is of course experience, you’ve got to be a good route setter that has respect for all the grades. I’m not that interested if you can set 7Cs and 8As, I’m more interested in how you set the easier problems and mid-grade problems as that is where the majority of our climbers climb. I have in-house setters that are more than capable of setting hard problems and it’s great to get a bit of variety but where I need this variety is in the low to mid grades. The other thing that is just as important is that they are a team player, and that throughout the set we have ongoing communication. The setters that continue to get work here are the ones that have that communication, and we’re not just three or four independent route setters going about our thing, we’re working as a unit and that makes sure that the whole set, the end product, is as best as it can be and that you’ve got a variety of styles within that set.

How are you going about training up members of the V1 team for route setting?

So we have a few people that we are training up, and the plan is to use them as additional people rather than as a key person on the set. The reason for that is that I don’t want them to worry about how many problems they are setting, I want them to focus on the quality of the problem. So even if they only set two or three, if they are really good and they’ve learnt about the process then that’s brilliant. And then as they join more and more sets, the amount of problems they are able to set will naturally increase. We have great communication throughout the day, so throughout the set we are constantly talking, and that’s not just with the apprentice route setters, that’s with all route setters, that constant dialogue about how it’s going, the problems they’ve set, the constant feedback is a vital part.

If someone climbs hard, does this make it more likely they will be a good route setter?

This is always an interesting question but firstly just because you are a good climber this does not automatically make you a good route setter. There is also a similar misconception that only short route setters can set for short people. If you are a good route setter then you should be able to set for all sizes, ages and abilities.

If you are a good route setter and able to climb harder grades, then you definitely make yourself more useful when you have a small team on a set as you will be able to set across all of the grades needed and test everything that you set. However, many walls are now using larger teams of route setters and also setting in specific grade bands, so there are more opportunities opening up for people to get involved in setting, even if they are not yet climbing the upper grades.

What ideas or changes do you have in mind for the future?

We have recently made quite a few changes to how we route set and where we focus – that was off the back of exiting lockdown. We were trying to look at how we could be more efficient and make sure there was less disruption for our climbers during the daytime. So that’s been a really useful change as it’s given us more time on the problems and I feel the quality of the problems has increased significantly since reopening. Going forward we are going to continue doing much the same: now we’re at this good level it’s almost harder to defend the castle as we are starting to build a very good reputation for the quality of setting! We need to make sure we continue to set to this high standard. Things that will help are that we are continuing to invest in the hold pool and regularly get new holds in, and we’ve got some exciting new BIG volumes that you’ll see making their way on to our walls in the next few months, so look out for those!