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!