Favorite Kind of Route in the Gym?

Curious what kind of routes other climbers like / dislike in the gym.

I love crimpy slabs and stemming. I dislike overhangs. I used to fear slopers and pinches, but I'm coming to enjoy them.

Gym crack, the bloodier the better

The best routes - inside or out - are those that feel impossible at first and then through either technique, newfound strength, crazy movement or devious chicanery, you surmount the impossible.

The only routes I don’t like are pumpfests. If I wanted sweaty breathy hell I’ll go for a run thanks. 

The pink one in the corner

I like the ones with plastic holds

I like the 10d labeled as 12b

Well, I can tell you I’m not a fan of shoulder tearing crossovers, big ridiculous dynamic moves to bad holds, running jump starts, and sketchy off balance crux moves just before the topout. These are all signs of poor route setting.

The best routes have a flow to them, just like the best real routes. 

Dylan McIntoshwrote:

The pink one in the corner

I usually like the purple ones - cause they are the easiest.

Steep endurance

Dihedrals, with stemming and thoughtful/interesting, but not necessarily strenuous moves. (I’m not very strong in the upper body.)

Would love see a few short sections of crack (finger/hand/fist) thrown in the middle of a typical gym route… maybe a couple of moves you can’t get by without jamming. I’d enjoy the spectacle almost as much as climbing it (or attempting to). 

Nice thing about stemming dihedrals, they can be visually intimidating, because the holds are usually way further apart than the typical face climb. You have to figure things out, and you do a lot of whole-body moves that are similar to outside climbing. Also, no hands rests!

I like fitness routes in the gym. Give me something that is sustained, comfortable, and relatively straight forward. For me, climbing in the gym is about fitness and I want something that I can enjoy climbing over and over again. A lot of these "comp" style boulders and routes are fun to climb once, but then I never want to do them again. 

I like the ones with holds shaped like letters and dinosaurs. Makes me feel really good about my climbing abilities.

aikibujinwrote:

I like the ones with holds shaped like letters and dinosaurs. Makes me feel really good about my climbing abilities.

Plus it makes it so much easier to yell beta when you can say things like “grab the blue triceratops!!”

M Jarmland wrote:

I like the routes that reminds me of real climbing so big features like corners, cracks, aretes and big boxes or bulges. Stemming, jamming, laybacking, mantling..

Yeah, I love when setters get clever with volumes, especially when combined with wall angles and things. Likewise, I'm not a fan of the current "comp style", with low-percent dynos and bad holds on mostly fixed planes.

Daniel Joderwrote:

Would love see a few short sections of crack (finger/hand/fist) thrown in the middle of a typical gym route… maybe a couple of moves you can’t get by without jamming. I’d enjoy the spectacle almost as much as climbing it (or attempting to). 

I think they have volumes specifically for making cracks, or the setter can just put two normal ones next to one another with no screw-ons (my gym has done that).

Nathan Sullivanwrote:

I think they have volumes specifically for making cracks, or the setter can just put two normal ones next to one another with no screw-ons (my gym has done that).

My bouldering gym has set some required jams with volumes (or even two holds) and they are always super fun to watch everyone struggling in dismay, including myself because yeah I boulder and yes I suck at jamming. 

Another vote for cracks and the pink one in the corner (does every single gym have these?).

Our gym has the pink one ON the corner. Always hard.