Volumes on a 5.9 and Learning to Bump!

Hey Everyone,

It has been a full two weeks since our last post! It has been busy at Base5 since Hayden and Matt left and its pretty much just Kyle and I doing all the stripping and setting right now!

Last week however, we did have a guest route setter! Tristan Ploughman was back and delivered two stellar new routes, and several top quality boulder problems! Look for the initials T.P. on the grade cards!

This week Kyle and I tackled a bunch of the old Black and White routes, and re-configured a few colours to hopefully make things a little easier to see (The biggest improvements being white on the Main Event and Black on the Centre Auto-Belay)

I also took the time to do something special with the 5.9 on the slab! Usually we hog all the volumes for the boulder wall or hard routes, and this wall has a super low angle so I thought it might be nice to give the newer climbers a chance to experience that type of climbing. The start of the route might feel hard the first few times you do it but give it a chance!!

Another thing I was thinking about this week was building a problem that was a trainer for “bump”. Essentially I used a little tiny crimp as an intermediate on almost every move through this problem, while the “main” holds get further and further apart as you go. I think its a pretty fun problem, and if you’re someone who struggles with powerful moves this could be a good training problem for you!

Also – Stronger climbers, not only can you try and skip all the intermediates to make it harder – its a great problem for doing 4×4’s on because you can easily adjust the problem to how strong/tired you are.

Next week should be a fun one!! New cave problems and routes – and there is a high chance of there being some new holds 🙂 Fingers Crossed!!

Thanks for reading!

The Week That Wasn’t Crazy.

Hey Everyone,

Well that was nice – A pretty standard week here in route-setting land! Hayden and Matt are both gone to Italy for Youth Worlds (Hayden to crush, and Matt to coach) so let’s start this one of by sending them some good luck and encouragement!! With that kind of time off they both better be all kinds of “inspired” when they get back….

New purple on the Pillar and Yellow on the arch – both 11c!

Kyle and I got to work setting a whole host of new stuff for you guys! Almost all the new routes this week are red, and since most of our red holds are juggy this means a lot of new routes that are 5.10a and below!!!

New 5.8 on The Auto-Belay

This 5.8 on the Auto-Belay is a particularly interesting one – I set it with the theme of “leg power” so the holds are all really big, like 5.6 big – but the majority of the moves require you to walk your feet up high, and then stand up straight for the next hold. A great route for building your leg strength if you’re just getting into the sport, or for warming up your big muscles if you’re getting ready for a red-point burn!

New 5.10a on Archway!

New 5.10a in the Chimney!

We also re-set the “Less steep” with 12 new problems V0-V7! We used a brand new volume configuration and a whole bunch of fresh holds from Metolius!! I am pretty happy with the new set on this wall, a lot of fun problems with some different movement! Highlights are definitely Kyle’s White V2 and my Green V5!

Kyle setting some problems!

Super psyched on the new holds we got from Metolius! Thank Jim Sandford the next time you see him!

Also this week the setting program scored some new toys!! We got a new tool chest too help us keep everything organized, and move it all around easier – as well as confirmation that hold orders from both Kilter and Friction have shipped!!

The Gods bought us a fancy tool chest so we can work more efficiently!! Thanks Dan & Colby!

Luigi from Friction Climbing sent me this picture of our upcoming order! We have some currently un-released stuff coming our way 😀

Next week is going to be a fun one!! Guest Setter Tristan Ploughman will be spending a few days at Climb Base5, setting both routes and problems! Tristan is one of my closest friends and one of the best commercial setters in the country! He is currently based in the gym-less, cattle-ridden, “town” of Red Deer so I am sure he has a lot of pent up creativity!

I will also be visiting The Hive Vancouver to guest set for their T.N.T. event on Monday night. I worked an event with Dustin and Andreas (the Head, and Assistant Head Setters for The Hive) at True North Climbing about 4/5 years ago and had a blast – I am really excited about getting a chance to work with these guys again, in a new city, at a different gym!

Thanks for reading!

Open Team Selection Camp!

Hey Everyone,

This week at Climb Base5 we hosted our first “Open Team Selection Camp” – The purpose of this camp was to bring together B.C.’s top competition climbers and select the top 5 men and top 5 women to represent our gym in this years Local and National competition circuits!

Hannah Block on a Women’s Slab problem – Photo: Kyle Rurak

Andrew Wilson, Matt, Hayden and I got together pretty early on Friday night and started preparing to set for the Open Selection Camp. We needed to set an entire “Qualification” and “Finals” round as if it was a real comp. We set 8 Men’s and 8 Women’s problems that tested a wide variety of movement patterns and skills.

Scott Williams getting funky – Photo: Kyle Rurak

For setting competition it’s really important to make sure that no one style of movement dominates the set of problems. For this camp we tried a different way of thinking about the difficulty of the problems, we ditched the V-Grades and thought in terms of “Intensity”, “Complexity” and “Risk”. We first heard about this concept from Montreal based route setter Tonde Katiyo, and then had it further explained by Adam Pustelnik at the IFSC World Climbing Camp.

To roughly understand the 3 terms…

Intensity: How physically hard something is, how small are the holds? or how big are the moves? are the feet really terrible? Essentially anything that requires raw strength to be successful.

Maria Celkova on an “Intensity Problem” – Photo: Kyle Rurak

Complexity: How difficult something is to do the first time. This could be a very technical boulder, or something very sequence dependent, maybe a series of moves that are almost impossible to conceive from the ground.

Simon Parton on a “Complexity” problem – Photo: Kyle Rurak

Risk: How committing a move is – The classic example would be a jumping move, but even something with a hard to read sequence can be “Risky” if your not sure which way to climb it. We are really testing peoples abilities to make a plan (the right plan…) and then stick to it!

Elina Avrimova on a “Risk” problem – Photo: Kyle Rurak

What’s cool about using this format is that it really makes you think about what your trying to achieve with the problem, instead of  setting something that is just “hard”, your trying to build a very specific test, ideally level-ing the playing field so that the most well rounded climber  wins the event!

All that said, this was a selection camp… not a sanctioned competition… so we had a lot more freedom to really spice up the problems and give these guys some really weird and abstract movements – the problems had 360 spin moves, a multitude of different jumps and running moves, a wide variety of weird mantels and push moves, volume standing, horrifyingly bad foot holds and even a dynamic inside flag… whatever the hell that is.

Ayesha Khan trying a very technical problem – Photo: Kyle Rurak

Over the course of the weekend the athletes did an entire “Qualification” and  “Final” round as well as hours of session-ing on the comp problems to dial in the movements they struggled on during the mock comp. Andrew and Matt also did a bunch of obstacle course work, fitness tests and “General Weirdness” – which was in short… a bunch of crazy german stuff….

It was really cool to be able to host something like this at Climb Base5, a lot of our coaching and setting staff are pretty rooted in the competition scene and are really thankful to be in a place where we can have fun with these programs and work on developing the skills that really get us psyched!

The Crew – Photo: Kyle Rurak

Oh Wait…

Did we also mention that we also filled in the cave and left steep, set 4 routes and are back in to add more routes and problems on tonight??

Busy week at Climb Base5!! Make sure you come in and check out all our latest handy work!

THE LAST TAPE ROUTE IS DOWN!

Thanks For Reading!!

Youth Camp Setting, New Blue Routes, and New Beginner Routes.

Hey Everyone,

This week and next week are both going to be a little weird for the setting program at Base5. This week the gym is hosting a Youth Competition Camp; This camp is a 4 day development camp for the up and coming athletes in the Youth C and D divisions (the little guys). The camp is being run by Matt Johnson and Andrew Wilson and is one of the only programs of its kind, for that age group, in the country.

What this meant for us, this week, was that we had to build 4 routes, and 2 boulder circuits (7 problems) for the the Youth C categories to train on for the week!

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday Matt and I divided the work, and each set 2 routes for the Youth C camp. We wanted a varied selection of terrain and styles, and had to do this without it hindering our regular turnover… aannddd all the routes had to be climbable by kids as young as 9 and as short as… uhhh.. Really short.

Matt’s two routes were the 5.11d on the Turret, and the 5.12b on the Left Side of the Main Event. Both the routes are really sequence-y and technical, and will be really tricky if you are over 5’7″. The 11d features consistent and strategically challenging movement on good handholds with sloping feet, the steep section at the top features a hard cross between good holds and the last 2/3 moves are not so bad. The 12b is a really nice line up the left dihedral of the Main Event. The start of the route is technical and insecure, balance-y climbing leads to the first steep section of the route where good holds lead you to a crux at the lip. Pull the lip and climb the “less steep” section too a good rest, tension-y moves make for an exciting ending! The Blue/Black holds are in up top!! They are mostly blue…?

The two routes I set for the camp where the 5.11b on the ABC and the 5.12c on the right side of the Main Event. The 11b is a slabby, technical, sequence-y piece of climbing that I built to confuse the kids and force them to use their feet. the top is very delicate and requires strong legs and good balance. It won’t feel the grade until you send it… Kind of like the last blue 11b on that wall. The 12c is a very consistent, resistance climb. Open handed, sloping holds take you up the vert where position based moves on In-cut pinches and crimps leads you through the steep. The sequence is obvious, but the body positions need to be right or you will waste energy. I gave a marginal rest right at the lip before the head wall – its not a great shake but it is worth taking. The final head wall section is the crux of the route, okay pinches, and bad crimps with movement that really makes you pull with your feet lead to a heart break finish at the chains. Bring yer kleenex kids…

So that all happened… And we set two 4 problem boulder circuits for the Youth C camp as well…

Andrew (The Swedish Chef) Wilson, Matt, and I built 7 problems (group A and B are sharing the slab, for anyone doing math at home). The idea was to replicate a varied set of problems like they would encounter in a competition. The problems can be found on the Left Steep, The Cave, The Alcove, The ABC Slab, and The Pillar. I worked with Andrew and Matt and we came up with a plan that would feature problems from V2-V6 and would feature four main “styles” or “feels”… Such as,
– Complex/Lower body movement
– Intense/Footwork
– Jumping/Mantelling
– Risk/Balance

It was really cool to work with Matt and Andrew on this project and I think we built a cool set of problems and routes – Youth C and D is by far the hardest division to set for, there is a lot of variance in size, skill, power, technique and strategy, and its hard to know what they feel… Im curious to see how they do, and I am also wondering what the member will think of the routes set for little frames!

Whats even more amazing… is that somehow while all that was happening Kyle and Hayden set 6 other routes… Kyle added a 5.7,5.9,5.10b and a 5.10d in various locations throughout the gym (check the fancy new route map on the side of the gym!) Hayden also added a 5.8 and 5.10a on the short walls in the front! The 10a is a really interesting, balance-y route!

The Bouldering areas that are thinned out for the camp (left steep and cave) will remain thinned out until Monday Next week… We have the Adult Performance Team Selection camp next weekend and we will be building a whole new set of problems for them as well…

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Sometimes when we all really busy we only have time for mis-lit IPhone photos and don’t have the “Resources” to film our “Big Budget Beta Busters” – So there you go… some photos of some walls and holds… at least you got new routes 🙂

Pre- Setting Training, New Holds, and New Problems!

Hey Everyone!

After a successful night of Route-Setting on Saturday, I got some sleep and planned to meet Matt the following evening to start the bouldering turnover! It was a beautiful day out, and without enough time to hit up Squamish we decided to do a training session on the outdoor wall at B5. We thought it might be cool to make a little time lapse of our session, so Matt brought a camera and did things on a computer I am incapable of doing!

After training we stripped all the problems in the centre of the wall and got to work setting 8 brand new ones!

Highlights from the first night are the Purple/Yellow V2, and the Green V9! The majority of the problems on this set are definitely set with a very “commercial” feel, lots of fun moves, the feet are a little forgiving and its more about pulling on holds then un-locking tricky sequences or getting your hips just right. The kind of problems you want to come climb after work on a hot day when your big life decision is whether you should drink beer or go bouldering.

Kyle Joined Matt and I on night two and got to work setting a really classy V1 (blue/white) as well as a brand new 5.10a with brand new holds in the back of the gym over the garage! Nice, Open moves, on good holds take you up that slightly overhanging section of wall that often only has one route 🙂

Thats right… I did say NEW HOLDS! I recently put in several good sized hold orders with several top companies, and we will see over 1200 top of the line holds entering our stock between now and November!!! The first order that showed up was from Atomik or as I refer to them as “My Jug Company” They make lots of great holds, but they make lots of amazing jugs, they are also a little easier on the budget then a few of my other favourite companies which allows us to order lots and lots of holds from them. Climbing gyms EAT jugs, especially steep gyms like B5, you always need more, and even if I ordered 5000 tomorrow we would still need more. This order of Red/Pink jugs will allow us to add more terrain in the “Building Block” grades and help us get more people exposed to climbing!

With new holds in toe, Matt and I got to work finishing up the bouldering on the centre wall. Adding another 7 problems to the mix, Plus Kyle’s V1, making that section of wall as packed with holds as it usually is 🙂

I climbed yesterday with my girlfriend and a few friends and was feeling pretty good about this new set, I had a lot of fun on what we put up and I feel like a lot of the problems are very “repeatable”. Highlights from day 2 are the Yellow/Green V6 and the Blue/Orange V4.

Check out the Beta Spoiler!

Before signing off I also want to let everyone know that due to the Youth Performance Camp and Performance Team Selection Camp happening at B5 next week the Left side of the bouldering wall, and the Cave area are going to be very “thin” for the next week! The problems however will be changing frequently and we will have a whole new set at the end of the weekend on both walls!

Thanks for Reading!

Word Of Advice: Always Eat your Greens!

Hey Everyone!

Continuing our trend of stripping/setting all in one colour, this week was all Green Routes!

Hayden’s New Helmet is not WCB approved and features a self-beard trimming chinstrap made of duct tape – **No Hayden’s were injured in the making of this blog… No WCB rules were broken either.

Kyle and I started the week off on Friday night, as we do, with the stripping of old routes – Nothing special happened Friday, 8 routes and 3/4 problems came down in an attempt to round up as many green holds as we could! We worked fast and got out of the gym just before 1am which is a little more reasonable then some other nights… like Saturday.

One thing worth noting before we move on – The night schedule isn’t that bad for us, but the one thing that really sucks is really unfortunate is the number of “dead routes” throughout Saturday. During the regular year, we strip/wash after closing on Sunday, and then begin setting and washing again on Monday morning, which always means no “dead ropes”. Unfortunately that’s not a luxury we have right now, so if you are someone who climbs on Saturday mornings we apologize!

Hayden snuck this photo of me setting on the ABC.

Saturday night was a really great night of setting, one of the most enjoyable nights of setting i’ve had in a while! Hayden, Kyle and I were all in, everyone had a few “Im psyched on that” routes to set which always makes the night a little more enjoyable!

Kyle’s selfie while setting the Green on the Main Event.

Kyle started his night on the Main Event, replacing the green 12b. The new one is with out a doubt MY favourite route in the gym! This climb is a real gem if you ask me, comprised mostly of slightly in-cut edges and mini jugs this new 12b takes a wondering line up the steepest section of the Main Event. This climb features solid, consistent movement the entire way up the wall, no real cruxes, and no points where it “ramps up”. There is a “big” move about half way up between two in-cut holds, but when we moved dynamically we could all easily touch the next hold with our elbows! We have been trying to keep the moves less big and powerful recently – but we still want people to be comfortable doing a wide variety of movements, and sometimes, outside you just have to GO!

Kyle ended his night by setting a sweet 5.7 on the Pillar – “building-block” moves on super solid holds take the climber out a slightly steeper section on this wall, the key is to keep your hips in and your weight on your feet to conserve arm strength!

Hayden tackled two routes last night, a 5.10d on the “Turret” and a new 5.11b in the “Chimney”! The first route he set was the 10d on the Turret using a bunch of “olive” coloured holds from So Ill and Teknik. This climb is technical and crimpy, with sloping footholds and balance-y, lateral movements. As is usual at Base5, efficiency through the bottom sections is key, the wall gets steep at the top, and several tough moves on mediocre holds lead you too a massive jug, and a powerful move guarding the finish chains! This is a great route for warming up if your strong, or if its at your level a really good project to work on your technique!

Hayden’s second route, the 11b in the Chimney is another good one! engaging movement on flat-sloping edges takes you through the steepest section of the wall with a little help from the walls “natural” holds, the crux is navigating the balance-y top-section!

I set 4 new routes on Saturday night, 5.10c in the back, 5.9 on the Turret, 5.9 on the ABC, and 5.11a on the ABC.

I started off by replacing the 10b next to the “crack in the back” with a slightly harder route for all the climbers who are looking to move into the 11a grade. This 10c starts out fairly simple, with some nice cross moves on good holds. The middle section of the route will test how creative your grip positions are, as you work your way through weird “knobby” holds, remembering to use the “natural” feet, until your at the roof. Big holds take you over the lip and interesting movement, requiring more use of the “naturals” for your feet, take you too the top! Up next was the 5.9 on the back side of the Turret, close to the Auto-Belay. This route is a little more technical then the “Blue 5.9” in the back , but it has way better hand holds and generous foot options. the crux sequence is moving through the two “mint green” horns about midway up the route. The key is to find the left foot holds out on the vertical wall, this gets you in the most secure position to move through the next few grips.

Becaaauuuuse…. I am at risk of writing a 1000 word post – the 5.9 is a great little warm-up for the seasoned climbers, or a perfect footwork trainer for the newer climbers, smaller holds teach you to get your weight on your feet! The 11a on the ABC is very sequence dependent, this tick-tacky climb brings a “new feel” to this steep little section of wall. Lots of feet and intermediate holds will make a wide variety of people happy about this route!

Tonight and Monday Matt, Kyle and I will be working on the centre of the Main bouldering wall!

Stay tuned!

Thanks for Reading!

Fresh Problems and the Knee Bar Selfie

Hey Everyone,

I finished writing the last post at about 3:30am on Saturday, so as you know it only really covered 2 nights of this weeks efforts.

Sunday night was fairly jam packed, I came in early to walk around and talk to some people and get their opinions on a few of the colours we were setting with that night – the shades of the Orange and Grey we used weren’t the best so I checked with a few of the members before moving forward with those routes.

Matt and Kyle arrived at the gym around 9 and after prepping our holds for the night we stripped the “less steep” Aka the “Right side” of the bouldering wall. We took down the two long blue volumes and replaced them a big triangle close to the ground, and another big one up at the top – we took the time to add a bunch of extra T-nuts to the volumes so we could have some better holds options.

The three of us teamed up and set 10 new problems V0-V7 with a continued emphasis on keeping the moves accessible to climbers of all heights. We also came to the conclusion that we were being a little harsh with the grading on some of the last sets so we tried to make this set a little more reasonable.

The first stand out problem is Matt’s new Orange/Black V7 – with a dynamic opening and subtle, technical ending this one is a crowd pleaser! Here is a beta spoiler if your curious..

…. That obviously didn’t go so well, but it was soo funny we decided just to roll with it and film a beta spoiler for another problem – Here is the Black and White V2 Matt set, this video is free from dry fires and is funny in absolutely no way.

Other problems I thought were special:

The Red/White V5 by Kyle:

Start with the foot on the volume, a tension-y foot swing leads you to a large red block, after that just stay on the flat edges to the top! Super fun, lots of flow and the right amount of “interesting”

The Green/Black V3 by Me:

I was pretty happy with this one, just a simple fun problem, all the feet are in the right places, all the holds are comfortable and the movement is varied – Do the second move using an “Inside Flag” if you want the extra style points and to save your energy matching your feet!

Sunday night also saw 2 fresh routes go up!

Kyle set A beauty 5.9 on the centre Auto-belay using an arsenal of light orange holds. This was the colour I was surveying the members about… I was worried it was too close to the neighbouring yellow routes bet everyone I talked to didn’t think it would be an issue. I personally don’t think it is a problem, but If you can’t tell the difference let us know and we will make sure not to use them near yellow routes again!

Selfie from a perfect no hands Knee Bar!

I also set another 5.11a on the Main Event (Thats right, there is three 11a/b routes on the steeps now!!) this grey route starts off with some technical face climbing on solid incut holds with lots of foot options – an un-usual press move into the “Ear” feature takes you on the steep section of the wall. Fun, “Open” moves on good holds will lead you to the anchors. If your courageous you should stop and enjoy a no hands rest by Knee-Barring the “Ear” – But, please… No Selfies like the one above, this would not be safe if the gym was open!

Matt and I both rolled in on Monday night as well to add a few more problems to the “Less Steep”.  I was definitely psyched to see a big session on the new problems, and seeing the beta people were coming up with was super cool! Once the crowds cleared and the gym closed we got to work adding 5 new problems, A V0 and V1, two V3’s and a Tic-Tacky V7 with a “Granite” theme! It’s always harder setting the last few problems of a wall, Usually the hold selection is getting bare, and the wall is getting full – but I am actually pretty happy with how these turned out, plus the wall has enough holds on it for all the people who love making up problems!

Hope you guys enjoy all the new stuff! Let us know what you think on the “Feedback” Page!

Thanks for reading!

The First Real Post – All about those Orange routes!

Welcome to the first “Real” post on the Base5 Setting Blog!!

First of all – check the new “Whats the spread?” and “Feedback” pages! These pages will allow you to constantly check the current grade spread in the gym, as well as contact us (anonymously if you want) at anytime to give your 2 cents!

Now, as some of you know we have recently switched the setting schedule to accommodate the summer camp being in the gym during the week. What this means for us is setting during the late nights – and what it means for you is lots of new routes and problems come Monday 🙂

This week started out as usual on Friday night, where Hayden and I came in to begin the stripping, this week we were tackling a bunch of the orange routes in the gym.

The reason we strip routes of the same colour is to help us mix the holds around, so the routes aren’t constantly being set with the exact same grips. This week we stripped 8 orange routes and only plan to put 7 back up (don’t worry we are setting a few more in other colours) which will give us a really good chance to mix all the different shapes up.

I capped off friday night by setting this new Green 11b over the Garage door. Its a technical face climb, on crispy edges with pretty generous foot options – the crux comes about mid way, crossing off the “Oh, thats pretty sloppy edge” around mid height – you will be rewarded if you climb this one smoothly and with good technique, the last few moves aren’t “Hard” but they would be tough if you were tired!

Saturday night it was Hayden, Matt and I in for setting, as Kyle is off photographing a wedding! on the Menu was 5 new orange routes, Mostly in the 5.10 range – as well as a new problem on the left side of the boulder wall to help fill it in.

Hayden Jones working on the ABC wall

Hayden was tasked with setting two new routes in the front of the gym, a 5.11a/b on the left side of the chimney (his last route there was amazing) and a 5.10a/b on the ABC. The Orange on the ABC is the classic “feel” for 5.10’s on this wall – a nice, techy, slabby opening that makes you think, with a slightly pumpy ending to test how well you did on the bottom of the route. Good, open hips and some good route-reading are the keys to this new 10b! Hayden’s other route of the evening came out a little bit soft, we called it 10d, but what its lacking in difficulty it definitely makes up for in quality. This is a really nice, technical, flowy route with a wide variety of movement – the key to making this one feel the grade is to make sure you milk those corner positions and rest your forearms for the final few moves!

Kaleb Setting the new 10a on the Turret

I (Kaleb) got to work on two of the most climbed lines in the gym – The 5.10 on the front of the Turret, and the 11a/b on the right side of the Main Event. The feedback on the last two versions of these routes were that they were both too powerful so my goal this week was to replace those routes with something that everyone would have fun on! The new Orange on the turret comes in at 5.10a, Tick-tacky moves on okay holds with good secure feet lead you to the head wall where nice sinker jugs and plenty of feet take you to the top. The crux is getting your feet up on the larger “font ledge” hold around mid way up the route! The new route on the Main Event will be popular with the shorter climbers, while I utilized the big jugs, and the steep angle to force some nice open cross overs, and some undercling moves this route comes chalked full of extra foot holds, and little intermediate options. Matt and I could have been feeling strong but we thought this was a pretty “accessible” way up the Main Event, we settled on 11a, only because the wall is still that steep – but it is easier then the purple 11a… Which we decided to up-rate to 11b!! You want to fight the pump on this one so move fast and look for drop-knees, heel-hooks and back-flags to get your weight on your feet so you have some juice for the end!

Matt having his photo taken un-knowingly

The newest member of our setting team (but one of the most experienced…) got to work on Saturday by setting a beautiful 5.10d on the vertical section between the Main Event and the Alcove. The route starts with a tricky section through the “teeth” holds – the key here is to stand on the big grey volume. The rest of the route features nice flowy movement that allows you to naturally sail to the top of the wall, no real cruxes and lots of options for people to dial in the best beta for them – Again the goal here is to fight the pump, so good footwork and smart climbing will make this one feel easy! Matt ended his night by setting a fun V6 problem on the left side of the Steep using a bunch of nice new yellow holds!!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned to hear what we are going to do Sunday and Monday!

Welcome to the Base5 Setting Blog!

November Sessions 2014 at Climb Base5 Photo: Kyle Rurak

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to the Base5 route-setting blog,

The goal of this blog is to offer an inside look at the route-setting program at Climb Base5!

The first order of business is to introduce myself. My name is Kaleb Thomas and I am the “new” head route-setter at Climb Base5. If you are more interested in where I came from, how long I’ve have been setting and other information feel free to check out my “Bio” HERE.

Western Regionals at Climb Base5 in 2014 Photo: Kyle Rurak

With this blog our goal is to bring you weekly content, that takes you into the mind of our route-setting crew. We will post photos of new routes, videos of really tricky sequences, and offer descriptions and beta cheats for the routes and problems that are driving you crazy! We are also going to offer insight on certain changes we are making through out the gym; we are constantly trying to push what we do with the program and we want to open up the dialogue between the setters and climbers to offer the most comprehensive setting product in the lower mainland.

Stay tuned for our first weekly update!