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bbowers
Aug 30, 2009, 2:02 PM
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Registered: Nov 6, 2007
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I work at a gym in NY, the place lacks organization. I've organized holds and bolts and tools and such... but as far as keeping track of routes and where they're at and a general rating there's no system for that.
My only requirements for putting up a route is a name or initials of who set it, and a date of when it's put up so we know about when to take it down. We usually don't rate the problems, because between two people the rating can differ greatly.
So how do you organize where the routes are and keep them in line?
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dta95b7r
Aug 30, 2009, 2:18 PM
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usually routes of the same color tend to be in the same range of difficulty at least thats what i have found in gyms that i have been to
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bbowers
Aug 30, 2009, 2:21 PM
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The only problem with that is that we set with whatever tape is not in the general area, or we'll mix two types. I usually grab the black tape when I set, so most of the black routes are in the same range, give or take.
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Carnage
Aug 30, 2009, 9:09 PM
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dta95b7r wrote: usually routes of the same color tend to be in the same range of difficulty at least thats what i have found in gyms that i have been to
dont do this it limits the amount of routes you can set.
if you dont want to put a YDS number on it, come up with some thing for your gym.
like make easy, medium, moderate, hard, extra hard, extreme.... something like that. just come up with a few different names to give them an idea of how hard it is. I hate going to a gym and trying to figure out which routes are how hard and such. Even if each of your gyms grades covers 2 or 3 outside grades, it atleast gives ppl an idea of what to expect.
that being said... most gyms i've been to put a YDS grade on it. Yes, it varies per person, but thats also the case outside. just because 1 person can do it super easy and 1 person cant, doesnt mean the grade is wrong. every grade outside is a consensus of a bunch of people. many other gyms are able to cope with putting a number on their routes, you should be able to too.
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dta95b7r
Aug 30, 2009, 11:05 PM
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Registered: May 20, 2007
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they make an amazing array of tape colors how many gosh darn routes do you gotta squeeze in? makes it easy for people they just did that sick pink route with the figure four campus dyno and want to do another of same difficulty they just look for another pink route they can take a piss on
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Mehbbed
Aug 30, 2009, 11:21 PM
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Registered: Dec 13, 2008
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Where I work at (small gym) we have the route colors, setter, rating, and brief description posted up on the wall on a few sheets of printer paper. Ratings tend to get crossed out and updated as people slowly come a consensus.
If you have a bunch of routes, some places have a binder up on the front desk organized by location (like "Lead Wall, Tsunami Wall, etc" like a guidebook). The book is updated every so often. Also putting up ratings such as easy, medium, hard, very hard, is pretty common, and just let people know the range of YDS these fall between or else they will never stop asking you.
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shockabuku
Aug 30, 2009, 11:53 PM
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Registered: May 20, 2006
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The Boulder Rock Club puts up a paper with a route difficulty suggestion and solicits input for some amount of time from the gym members about what they think of the route in terms of difficulty and style. It seems to be a pretty effective idea.
My local gym puts up initials, date, and a YDS grade that might include +/- but no letter grades, numbers only. Sometimes we bitch about the grade, but it's a good starting point when you're trying to figure out what you want to climb and sometimes they change the grade by a +/-.
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campustrampus
Aug 31, 2009, 1:03 AM
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Registered: Apr 24, 2006
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Our gym had a dry-erase board that we would just write on to show the routes and their difficulties. We used different color markers that corresponded to the tape colors that were on the routes. It was fast, easy, and could be re-done everyday if you wanted to change it.
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lena_chita
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Sep 1, 2009, 4:10 PM
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Our gym has a little plexiglas pcket on each section of the wall. (Every time the wall changes direction or there is a roof or arete, anything that visually isolates one piece of the wall from the other, that becomes a section)
Inside that plexiglas pocket there is a printout that lists the color of holds/tape used for a route, the name of the routesetter, the date it went up and the approximate difficulty. The routes are not graded by YDS, instead there is "Easy" (up to 5.8), "Moderate" (~5.9 to ~5.10d), Hard (5.11a-5.12a), Very Hard (5.12+-5.13) with +/- symbols. (So a "mod-" would be ~5.9-5.10a, "Mod" would be ~5.10a-c. "mod+" would be ~5.10c-d, etc. there is some overlap, and of course people disagree about consensus grade, but there is less disaggeement about it than if you were trying to pin a route as 5.10a vs. 5.10c. Call it moderate and be done with it)
Each route is marked with upside-down V on a start hold that also lists the above information, as well as info about whether features are on or off, whether the side wall is part of the route or not, etc.)
There is a database in the computer, so theoretically, every time a new route goes up or an old one comes down a new printout is made. In practical terms people might cross out a route on the print-out, or scribble a new info on it, or just scribble on the tape next to the new route, and once in a while when someone is bored and there is a slow day at the gym this info gets transfered into the computer and new printouts are being made)
I think using the same color tape ofr each grade of difficulty is silly b/c then you can't put more than one route of thesame difficulty grade in the same section of the wall, or it would be too confusing.
I suppose you could use two tape copors-- the main one to denote the route difficulty, and the second color in skinnier tape to identify a particular route, but that may be too complicated. You could also scribble on the tape-- so one route becomes red tape with squiggles, and the otyher one becomes red tape with crosses, but IMO just picking random colors of the tape that don't match anything else currently up on this section of the wall works better.
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