CWA Blog Archive-Gender, Variety, And Growth In Routesetting

Gender, Variety, And Growth In Routesetting

Pdf Summary

This interview explores diversity, variety, and professionalism in routesetting through the perspective of Jackie Hueftle, one of the most experienced setters in the business, with more than two decades as a competition setter, head setter, and everything in between, who now works predominantly in her own climbing hold company, Kilter Grips. The article frames a recurring theme from the author's setter interviews: a major piece of the puzzle is a setting crew that can set for diverse climbers, which requires a diverse crew. Many gyms lack setters outside the typical archetype of the tall male climber, especially female routesetters, a gap with real consequences for the climbing experience. Asked what role diversity and variety play in routesetting, Hueftle explains they're very important because climbing is about learning different moves, and the more moves you learn, the better you get at climbing and the more fun it is. Crucially, she connects setter diversity to movement diversity: diversity in size, strengths, and style of setters leads to the greatest diversity in movement, which serves the entire gym population better by giving them stuff they're good at and stuff to work on in a variety of styles (the interview continues into further questions). The throughline is that a diverse routesetting crew, across gender, size, strength, and style, directly produces the movement diversity that serves all climbers better, making setter diversity not just an equity goal but a quality-of-product imperative. Because climbing is fundamentally about learning varied movement, and because setters naturally create routes suited to their own bodies and styles, a crew dominated by the tall-male-climber archetype produces a narrower range of movement than a diverse crew would. Hueftle's expert insight, that diversity in setters' sizes, strengths, and styles yields the greatest movement diversity, reframes the case for diverse setting crews: it's about serving the entire gym population with routes that offer everyone both strengths to enjoy and weaknesses to work on, in varied styles. The persistent underrepresentation of female setters and others outside the typical archetype thus limits not only opportunity but the richness of the climbing product itself. For the industry, the article argues that building diverse, varied setting crews is essential both to professionalizing routesetting and to delivering the movement diversity that makes climbing better and more fun for all members, positioning diversity as integral to setting quality.

Asset Caption

An interview with veteran setter Jackie Hueftle of Kilter Grips on diversity in routesetting. She argues a diverse crew, across gender, size, strength, and style, directly produces the movement diversity that serves all climbers better, making setter diversity a quality-of-product imperative, not just an equity goal. Many gyms still lack setters beyond the tall-male archetype.