CWA Blog Archive-CWA Summit Session Spotlight Routesetting Industry Data

CWA Summit Session Spotlight Routesetting Industry Data

Pdf Summary

This session spotlight previews a two-part 2022 CWA Summit presentation on routesetting industry data by Foxman McCarthy-James of Alta Climbing &amp; Fitness and Justin Wright of Edgeworks Climbing + Fitness. It opens with the questions that motivate the research: what are routesetters paid on average, what are workload expectations, what benefits do they receive? These data points are hard to quantify but only grow more necessary as the industry marches into the future. The session promises a deep dive into data analysis in the routesetting field, along with safety best practices across the US, aimed at routesetters, upper gym management, and future owners. In the interview excerpt, McCarthy-James explains that she and Wright have worked together for years and share similar, data-driven approaches to many aspects of life, with McCarthy-James noting she likes numbers. That shared analytical orientation is what led them to collaborate on bringing rigorous data to a field that has historically lacked it. The two-part structure signals the depth of their treatment, covering both the data itself, compensation, workload, benefits, and safety best practices. The throughline is that routesetting is professionalizing, and that professionalization requires data, on pay, workload, benefits, and safety, that the field has historically lacked. By researching and presenting these hard-to-quantify metrics, McCarthy-James and Wright give routesetters, managers, and future owners an empirical foundation for understanding compensation norms, workload expectations, and safety practices across the industry. For routesetters, such data provides leverage and clarity about their profession's standards; for management and owners, it offers benchmarks for fair pay and good practice. The spotlight positions this data work as important infrastructure for a maturing profession, replacing anecdote and guesswork with analysis. This collaboration would later grow into the Vortex Routesetting data project, making this Summit session an early public step in the ongoing effort to bring rigorous, industry-wide data to routesetting.

Asset Caption

A 2022 Summit session preview featuring Foxman McCarthy-James and Justin Wright presenting two-part research on routesetting industry data, pay, workload, benefits, and safety best practices, metrics the field historically lacked. Their data-driven collaboration gives setters, managers, and owners empirical benchmarks, marking an early step in bringing rigorous analysis to a professionalizing routesetting field.