UKC

I've recently been thinking about getting into route setting.
I asked at my local climbing wall if it would be possible for me to set a few routes on their bouldering wall (worth mentioning I've been climbing there for about 5 years) and they said no because if someone was climbing on a route I'd set and they fell and hurt themselves then the climbing centre could be sued. Is there any qualification I could get that would protect the climbing wall from that? I've had a look at the RSA courses, would that be suitible?
Thanks

In reply to TheBigFactHunt:
To be honest, that sounds like an excuse to me.

There is no industry standard route setting course and the vast majority of the best setters in the country have no formal qualifications in setting. The only (to the best of my knowledge) time that you really need to be 'approved' is if you make it onto the IFSC international list.

The best way to get into it is to keep on asking, helping out with the centres own setters (though that will probably involve quite a lot of stripping and washing) and more asking.

If one wall won't let you help, try another one. There's plenty out there.

Whereabouts are you based?

In reply to Oceanrower:

I'm in Derby, it was at alter rock I asked. They did say I could help out when the setters come in to get some experience though.

In reply to TheBigFactHunt:

There's your answer then. Go along and help. You'll end up with the crap jobs at first but that's life.

Of more use would be experience of working at height (Def not IRATA though!) but even then, not many will have formal qualifications.

In reply to TheBigFactHunt:

Agree with Oceanrower that that sounds like an excuse.

Most professional routesetters are very good climbers to begin with. I've heard it said you need to climb at least 7c (routes) but to be honest every routesetter I know can climb quite a bit harder than that. They also tend to be very experienced climbers with a lot of experience on real rock, not just inside. I think that experience is very valuable for setting good quality routes with a wide variety of different moves.

You also want to consider that routesetting is pretty hard physical work. You are hauling heavy buckets of holds to the top of a wall, sitting in a harness all day, long drives to different parts of the country, it tends to be pretty exhausting, so maybe not quite the dream job that some climbers imagine.

In reply to stp:
For several years after St Werburgs opened in Bristol it gained a reputation for high quality route setting but to the best of my knowledge none of the setters climbed 7c. The routes were usually set by regular customers of mixed abilities but in the main operating at about E1 to E4. The best routes, IMO, are set by people who have a a broad experience of outdoor routes who try to emulate that indoors.

Al

In reply to GridNorth:

I used to work at a wall like that. One morning a week those approved by the wall would come and set routes in return for free entries. Not sure how the Bristol wall operated but it doesn't sound like professional routesetting. If they only climb E4 I wonder how they'd manage if asked to set an 8a route for instance.

Professional routesetters may be expected to set 9 routes in a day (3 lines of 3 routes) and they all have to be decent quality too. If they're not the wall will probably just hire someone else next time. Setting one or two or even three routes in a day is not so hard. But setting 9 would be pretty hard work for most climbers.

I agree with you regarding those with experience outdoors. I think plenty of outdoor experience is a necessity for interesting setting.

In reply to TheBigFactHunt:

It's not so much the qualification you need as the insurance. Even if the wall is a bit confused, the wall could genuinely believe that their insurance policy wouldn't cover it. Indeed, the insurance may not.

At a wall I used to work at, the insurance eventually agreed to let certain volunteers set after training etc, but it took a year or so for the management to be happy that they were suitably insured for the system to get started.

I don't know if this helps, but hopefully it will.

Mehmet