Hey BRG community! This is Joey from the BRG Routesetting crew. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy out there (and in here). We are really excited to be open and serving the climbing community once again, even though some of these new policies are a little limiting and kind of strange. I thank you for your patience and your cooperation while we navigate this new situation.
I wanted to take a moment to give you all an update on the routesetting at BRG, and for those of you that haven’t been into the gym yet, give you a better understanding of what to expect in the next few weeks from the setting department.
During this first week of being open again, I have had a lot of questions about our setting and the lack of new routes on the wall. Like most small businesses, a large part of our operations have changed and many of our employees have been laid off. Unfortunately, our routesetting crew was no exception. With no routesetters at the gym, we haven’t had the opportunity or the luxury to be able to put up any new, rad routes or boulders. Trust me, the last thing I want to do is stay inside, write e-mails, take zoom calls, and update spreadsheets… but that’s been the reality lately. Obviously, I’d much rather be setting some dope run-and-jumps and campus 360s!
On the bright side, moving forward, if the situation allows it, we will begin to do some limited setting in some of our sections. However, please keep in mind, because we will still be operating as a skeleton crew, we will not be able to do nearly as much (or as quickly) as we were previously able to do. I estimate that we will only be able to set routes at roughly 25% of the rate climbers at BRG have become accustomed to. That means around 25 new boulders OR 12 sport routes each week (with a potential for 3-6 auto belay routes a week).
Again, I wish we had the resources to set more and I am sorry we are not able to do more at this time. We will do everything we can to get us back up and running at full speed. Hopefully, before we know it, this space station will be fully operational!
Thank you for understanding. We look forward to seeing you all at the gym!
Cheers,
Joey Jannsen
Head Routesetter
