Our regulars will know that we love a good party. Nothing like a kuier to get your psych high again and your energy restored. They’ll also know that we like to shake things up a bit – never the same format for a jol on the bloc. Enter Bolts and Holds.
A key goal at FA is to always do our best to help the climbing community grow. One of the ways we do that is by focusing on route setters. These weird chalk monkeys are the reason we are able to have so much fun pulling on plastic. Why not shine some light on them? Their creativity and graft make for some memorable moments at comps and climbing with our maats.
The concept of Bolts and Holts was simple – let’s ship a variety pack of setters up to the gym and have them battle it out. Best boulder wins – and what a prize it was! R1,500.00 cash for first place, R1,000.00 for second and R500.00 for third. Crazy, we know.
The night before the setters were bustling around, systematically stripping and laying out their masterpieces. Setters are the unsung heroes of the climbing gym. They work hard, long hours, wrestling with plastic. All that effort for you to tell them “that’s not a 7A in my gym”. Sies. Here’s how a typical day of setting goes. The setters arrive far too early to be functioning, but they do it anyway. They strip the holds – a long process of repetitive screw and bolt removal. All the holds are packaged into crates and shipped to the bottom floor where they’re washed with a power hose. This step is by far the most satisfying.
With the remaining clean holds the setters begin their creation. They put up a route and then it’s forerun by the setting team. Each setter gives it a go and offers well thought out – often sassy – remarks on what to change and how to improve it. The great lament of the setter is that by the time forerunning comes they’re so tired they can barely establish. They then have to sit and watch gym goers flash their problem and ask themselves “am I really this weak?”.
Long story short, show your setters some love. Which is exactly why we hosted this party. We had setters representing Joburg, Pretoria and The Cape – way past the boerewors curtain. From Pretoria we had: Caitlin, Willem and Tiaan from Rock Valley Climbing, followed by Elmer and Damien from CR Pretoria. The Big Smoke offered up Stefan, Anj and Wes from FA as well as KP from CR Joburg. Finally all the way from Bloc 11 we had Mish representing.
The party itself followed with the usual practised ease (we’ve been doing this for a while). Tjoms were climbing their hearts out on a feast of tasty problems. Each of the routes had a unique feel, attuned to the style of the setter responsible. The tunes were pumping, the boeries were sizzling. Lekker.
Eventually it was time to stop the send train and cast votes. Climbers were given no clues as to who was responsible for the routes. They had to vote based purely on experience. The results weren’t surprising. Each setter brought their A-game and it showed. First place went to Caitlin, a tied second went to Anj and KP. Tied third went to Damien and Elmer. No surprise we had so many podiums with the quality of routes that went up.
After the results the party carried on until the wee hours. Classic. This party was an attempt to shine a light on the tjoms that make our fun possible. To that end, I think you can say we succeeded.
All photos are (c) Surefooted Photography
