How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made • Hacker News Board

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#51

Post by forrestthewoods » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 3:37 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

Haha I know exactly what you mean. Current internet longform is super masturbatory. I hate it. So many articles draw me in with a interesting subject matter only for the first three pages to have literally nothing to do with said subject.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#52

Post by throwawaymaroon » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 5:16 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

Someone requires that all information be codified for his digestion in particular and gets crabby.

You probably cannot express your hatred because that'd require the writing skills you deride.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#53

Post by madisonmay » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 6:28 AM UTC

djb_hackernews wrote: post #17

When did the setter worship start? The gym I go to, Brooklyn boulders in somerville ma, has pictures of the setters and little bios hanging on the walls... for sure it is a creative process but give someone a bucket of holds and an hour and you'll have something that is fun. A gym I used to go to used to let pretty much anyone set, just had to ask. I think this explains the rating "deflation" where there aren't reall…

Fellow BKB Somerville member here! Whaddup!

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#54

Post by dennisnedry » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 6:57 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

Typical fluff piece. Let's face it, bouldering (setting) is pretty boring, the writer has to make it seem "more exciting" than it actually is.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#55

Post by cabinpark » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 7:53 AM UTC

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #46

cabinpark wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was at Waterloo almost everyone I knew at the climbing gym was some combination of engineering, physics, mathematics, and computer science. This doesn't surprise me since bouldering problems, as discussed here, are puzzles, akin to programming puzzles, where the solution is often some clever trick that, once known, makes a problem easy.

Yup. After a lifetime of failed attempts at “getting in shape” or finding some sort of exercise regiment that I could stick to, bouldering finally worked — because it’s not boring.

What I love about bouldering is it is very easy to mark progress. You can get higher on the wall or do a move. Very motivating. You can see it. I find that in the gym, progress is measured by moving the rod one weight down or adding another plate on the bar. Not a very visual thing.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#56

Post by shoo » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

anecdotally, one of my older relatives who is into climbing said he knew a mathematician/climber who was pretty good at analysing various possible routes and planning a good route while climbing.

so, maybe we can proceed by not reading the article and theorising in a vaccuum.

maybe one way to formalise this is some kind of (adversarial?) game, where one player designs the course, and the other player tries to find a good route through the course, where we quantify "good" somehow.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#57

Post by clarkm » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

Yeah, at least with The New Yorker I know what I'm getting myself into. And the authors there are mostly well-established and familiar enough that I can trust there to be some insight buried within the human interest asides. But with pieces like this I can't take that risk.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#58

Post by etrautmann » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 3:23 PM UTC

beering wrote: post #37

etrautmann wrote: post #22

At one point a few years ago when Max was setting routes in Boston, he was free-soloing a 14d at Rumney (one of the harder climbs in the world, without a rope, probably 40-50' tall), and fell on the last move of the climb. He broke both his legs but survived, and later went on to make it through to the finals of a bouldering competition with boots on both legs. Unbelievable natural talent - I've seen him out at Dogpa…

Max's accident was described in the article. Or did the article get it wrong?

Oops- missed that part of the article somehow, thanks.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#59

Post by legohead » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

djb_hackernews wrote: post #17

When did the setter worship start? The gym I go to, Brooklyn boulders in somerville ma, has pictures of the setters and little bios hanging on the walls... for sure it is a creative process but give someone a bucket of holds and an hour and you'll have something that is fun. A gym I used to go to used to let pretty much anyone set, just had to ask. I think this explains the rating "deflation" where there aren't reall…

my climbing partner and I pay attention to the route setters. we have a couple favorites in the gym and a couple we don't particularly enjoy.

our favorites are chosen mostly because their grades feel right, and their climbs are fun. I see two problems that setters fall into: 1) make it super hard technically/hard to figure out, or 2) really easy technically, but you have to be the Hulk to get past it. someone that can balance those issues makes a good setter.

Re: How the World's Most Difficult Bouldering Problems Get Made

#60

Post by highstep » Wed, Oct 07, 2015, 5:00 PM UTC

dennisnedry wrote: post #54

krick wrote: post #44

I cannot express how much I hate these posts. I read the headline and I'm getting all curious and want to know the answer. But hell no: "The route setter studied the blank gray surface." and I already know the ⅘ of the text will be pouring water, like telling me it was "a Tuesday in early June" and what climbing holds were being made of in 1985 or something. So I'm left with the choice: read it all or give it up afte…

Typical fluff piece. Let's face it, bouldering (setting) is pretty boring, the writer has to make it seem "more exciting" than it actually is.

As a non-professional route setter I disagree - it's actually a very interesting activity that is part science and part art. It involves a lot of contemplation in the area of physics, body mechanics, and psychology. Additionally it's a lot like game design in that the problem you create will be interacted with extensive, obsessively and can result in significant challenge, reward and frustration by the user.

But I'll admit I didn't read the article, because big media almost always does a terrible job at covering climbing... let alone a niche of climbing that has taken years of practice to understand and appreciate.