Did you know that every semester the MU Climbing Club hosts a bouldering competition at the Rec Center climbing wall? Bouldering is a type of climbing that is done unroped and without a harness in a shorter environment (10-12 feet). The Outdoor Pursuit Center contributes to the competition by providing route setting for the competition via student staff.
The OPC has student staff that are dedicated to removing and applying climbing holds to the wall. Their job is to create patterns of holds and movements as creatively as possible. For the climbing competition, the route-setting staff were able to contribute 46 different routes (these routes can also be called “problems” in a bouldering context) this Fall semester.
Outside of the competition, the route-setting staff will reset our 3 separate bouldering walls once per month during the school year. Each time this happens the staff will provide 12-15 new problems per reset. That’s an opportunity to climb 36-45 new problems per month. If you’re interested in top-rope climbing, then the route-setting staff will usually contribute 1 new top-rope route per week. Sometimes there can be 2 new top-rope routes set in a week.
At the OPC, we encourage you to try climbing on routes and problems where you challenge yourself to use one color of hold with your hands or feet. This opportunity allows you to try new movements and techniques and climb creatively. Our route-setting staff puts creativity and attention to detail into each route and problem. Let us know at the climbing wall what you think of each of our routes. We will be happy to pass off encouraging compliments to the route-setting staff.