Adventures in Routesetting

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Getting ready for the upcoming Norman Bouldering Competition on Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 5:30 pm and Climb Up in Norman, OK. This will be the 7th in the series and the first competition at Climb Up. The Norman Bouldering Competition was created in 1998 as a means to get the local climbing community together for a day of climbing enjoyment. At that time we didn't have much in the way of wall space but we made the best of what we had. The first event took place in a small back room of a house where we'd built a climbing wall. It rained all day which would have put a damper on things because there wasn't enough room for everyone to stand indoors but we were all just so excited to be climbing that it didn't matter. The second location that day was across town in a garage climbing gym. The event continued for six events total with the last one held in 2004. Since then, the NBC took a hiatus as life changes occurred. But we're excited to have this opportunity to

A new era has begun...

Setting the roof climb is always the crux of the competition routesetting extravaganza for me. It's 90 feet of holds then another 20 feet of horizontal terrain. So by the time you reach the end of aiding out the roof and placing that final jug at the end, your legs hurt, your back hurts, your arms hurt...and you're still a little bit scared that something, not sure what, but something, might give way you you'll come crashing down. It's a nice feeling to come down with that route finished. We've moved from the the purple room, through the overhang area, through the pink room, now through the blue room and into the green and outside routes. We're not quite to the home stretch but we are definitely rounding the bend. I've taken on a number of the 5.12 to 5.13 range routes this year and while it's fun to play around with setting at that difficulty level, setting those routes is not nearly as much fun as setting in the 5.10 to 5.11 range. Obviously it'

It's not an uncommon occurrence while working on some project that James will morph into another character, one from some posh hoity-toity country club on a hill where everyone dines on caviar, sails yachts, and is waited upon by lowly servants. "I say, Winfired, the waves are really up today, perhaps we should retire to the lounge and enjoy some libations." It's a cue for me to respond... "Quite agreed, Branson. I will radio Rupert to have wine and caviar prepared for our arrival." So credit goes to James who gave us the idea for our upcoming Rocktown competition theme: an event where everyone dresses, behaves and pokes-fun-at the pretension of high society. In essence, a fictional country club style with people in white collars and raised eyebrows. I ran with the idea and created a logo for the event: Climbing Competition 2013 The act of preparing for a climbing competition is one I'm quite familiar with. I started organizing climbing c

Thought I would link to my other site talking about setting up an ice climbing route at Rocktown. From FusionFortySeven - Oklahoma Ice Climbing (really?) For those of you that have followed this site or one of the other iterations of this site (going back to the late 90s), you might recall some stories (dare I say legends) about ice climbing in Oklahoma. Stories about ice climbing in the Wichita Mountains, Avery Drive, even Turner Falls. Those stories are true, or at least base on truth. Then in 2010 and 2011 I went a bit further and pursued farming ice on the silos of Rocktown in Oklahoma City. It worked the first time I tried it – just using a series of old static lines and running water, the temperature was cold enough to create an ice climb that lasted for a few days. Based on that experience I took the next step and installed a chain-link fence along with a better designed irrigation system and produced a fantastic wall of ice measuring 50 feet tall and about 10