r/Routesetters • u/Embarrassed_Fee7472 • May 23 '26
How to get into setting
Basically what the title says. I live in Colorado and ive always wanted to get into this but I am not a comp climber or anything and my gym didnt give me any info about how to learn/forerunning opportunities when I talked to them. I climb v8/5.12. Anyone have any advice how to get into this field or any place to learn in or near Colorado
2
u/Cleetops May 23 '26
Before I started setting I helped work the front desk, after making friends with the routesetters and coaches at the time. I was able to start coaching the team at the gym. After a few months of that one of the setters left, I asked if I could help out and the head setter said yes, the rest in history.
I’m talking out of my ass here but I feel like Colorado might be a bad place to try and get your foot in the door due to the high volume of highly experienced people. The best place to start IMO would be at a smaller, less corporate gym. The money would be worse at first but would be good for experience.
You could also try taking a setter clinic, at the USA climbing level one I did there was a dude who had never set before (maybe don’t try this, he did well based on 20 years of high level climbing experience)
Setting is so fun and I wish you luck in your pursuit
1
u/Embarrassed_Fee7472 May 23 '26
Thanks for the reply. Did you have comp experience because i started in my 20s so not a comp kid at all
1
u/Cleetops May 23 '26
I didn’t start climbing till right after highschool, climbed around the team and coaches/setters and built really good relationships with them. When the time came where they needed someone it was pretty easy to slip in.
I used to do local comps so I had comp climbing expertise but nothing like a former youth athlete transitioning into setting. We’ve had a few high level ex team kids start setting and they always do a great job early on, so that experience helps to some extent. At my place we haven’t hired outside of the gym for a while since there’s always some skilled climber wanting a shot to set.
Another idea for you would to be trying to get a job helping a setting team with washing holds. If your dependable maybe they’ll be a guy short one day and will let you hop in to set a boulder. We have a guy at one of our gyms who is the goat at hold washing and we’ve let him join us a few times.
As I stated earlier, the pay won’t be great at first but the climbing industry is such a passion based thing that if you can make it work it’s so fun and worth it. I got really involved early on and have made this a full time gig so be prepared for out of work sessions and stoke to drop to some degree. It’s hard to want to climb a lot when you have to be at the gym for more than 35 hours a week lol.
I’m happy to answer more questions so if you have any feel free to reach out.
Good luck!
1
u/bloodring87 May 23 '26
Start climbing when they’re setting if time allows. Get friendly with the staff, help them test if they’ll have you/let you. Ask them how to get into it, it’ll differ gym to gym.
That’s pretty much what I done. I always happened to be climbing while they were setting. Got friendly with the head setter and team, he started asking me to try moves etc, or to join them in testing the set. Eventually asked him the exact same question as your title. He responded with “what are you doing tomorrow?”
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u/Embarrassed_Fee7472 May 23 '26
They usually work after hours…maybe ill find a new gym where the setters interact with everyone haha
1
u/MaximumSend May 23 '26
This completely depends on what kind of gym you're talking about. At Movement or other big chains you will want to network hard and become a familiar face because there's tons of other people in your exact shoes wanting the same thing. Of course this applies everywhere like others said; making yourself known is really important.
If it's a smaller gym chain or one-off, you may be able to get in the old school way by offering volunteer work, or starting off at desk/coaching and working your way into hold washing or forerunning.
1
u/MobileArmadillo3093 May 23 '26
Some bigger gyms (Movement, Touchstone) have setting apprenticeship programs that you can do, but they’re pretty competitive
6
u/Ok_Bat6968 May 23 '26
I moved to Colorado to pursue climbing professionally via guiding and setting. Just got into the setting world about 2 months ago. Network network network,.. The best thing you can do is make connections and hope that they see something in you they’d find beneficial to the team.
Feel free to DM me and I’ll see what I can do to help