ClimberMayJune2020

It can be pretty rough for the competitors

though – very high impact on the body

and often super frustrating. Personally,

it’s not for me – my poor old body would

break in two if I spent long trying

problems in the parkour style.

Do the setters like creating parkour

problems?

I see so many ‘World Cup style’ boulder

problems in the big climbing gyms now,

created by setters who have seen

amazing moves on cool holds on the

internet and they can easily replicate this

stuff at a lower level of difficulty for their

customers to try as they have all the best

holds and volumes. It’s a fashion thing –

it’s in the comps so they think that the

climbers down the wall on a Thursday

night want to try a triple dyno into a

palm down toe hook combination on

slick polyurethane blobs. Maybe I’m

completely out of touch, but I’m not

convinced this is actually what climbers

want to be doing – I’ve certainly never

had to employ any parkour moves on

rock (that I didn’t want to try just for

a laugh). Maybe the new young setters

like setting this style, but I’m an old fart

and I think its bollocks.

How important is it for you to

set interesting problems for the

competitors or is it all about

separating them out?

The problems have to be interesting and

exciting for the competitors to try. When

the athletes try their hardest – that is

when the event looks the most amazing

for spectators too. The problems need

to be easy to judge and also the right

level of difficulty to split the competitors.

It is a really complex job to get the

problems right, but the team of setters is

chosen to put together a unique set of

problems that will challenge the athletes

to their limits and get a result. Hopefully,

we can create some boulder problems

that will give us some magic moments,

when athletes perform incredible feats

of strength and gymnastic weirdness.

How much inspiration from the

outdoors do you take setting

comp problems?

I don’t like climbing indoors that much

(I spend all my working life in a climbing

wall), so when I get a moment free

I climb on the gritstone that surrounds

my home in the Peak District. I think

it’s fair to say that the grit gives me

plenty of creative inspiration for route

setting.

the climber interview

Percy Bishton bouldering
out Pebbledash (Font 6b)
at Stanage Plantation in
the Peak District. ‘I think
it’s fair to say that the grit
gives me plenty of creative
inspiration for route setting.’
Photo: David Simmonite

28 may–jun 2020 http://www.climber.co.uk