Dustin Curtis (right) and Andreas Lerch (left). Photo courtesy of David Tam ©

For those of you who do not know, Tour De Bloc 12 is coming to The Hive this weekend. These comps take a fair amount of organization and preparation the month before and I thought it would be great to check in with the setting team to see what they are up to this time around. Here is our interview with head routesetter for The Hive, Dustin Curtis.

Tour de Bloc is taking place at the hive for the second year in a row. A lot of planning and organization goes into getting an event like this off the ground. Where does the process start for you and the team?

The process usually starts about 2 months before the competition, the key individuals involved in organizing the event will meet and hash out details like; schedule of day of (the times of each rounds and the like,) preliminary T-Shirt design, sponsors, things like that. Usually this will consist of The Hive’s Marketing and Community Director, DeeDee Ryan, The General Manager Shayne Russell, The Assistant Manager, Kate Bell, as well as Andreas Lerch and myself, representing the Route Setting Crew. We also discuss how many volunteers we’ll need for the course of that week, anything else that goes beyond regular gym function for the week before the comp.

How many competitors and spectators are predicted to show up?

I’d love to see over 200 but it really depends on the weather of the day and people’s schedules. We offer up a $1000 cash prize for 1st place in both Men and Women’s Open Category so that does a good job of attracting a lot of the higher end competitors. We also offer a ton of raffle prizes for those who aren’t in open and just want to session out on 60 brand new blocs. Are sponsors are always super generous to us so it goes a long way to helping us get that registration. Beer is also for sale between qualifiers and finals so that helps out to, you know? Who doesn’t want to drink a cold one after a session while watching the top Women and top Men duke it out for $1000?

Photo courtesy of David Tam ©

A lot of the work for this event falls on the routesetting team. Who is all a part of the team?

Andreas Lerch, the assistant Head Route Setter of the gym will be taking point on this one. He’s going to be the Chief Route Setter, which basically translates into the guy who does all the organizing, keeps everyone motivated and on task and is basically the guy who we all look too for morale support, or to be angry at 😉 Beside him will be Myself, Teryy Ziowlkowski, Natasha Barreto-Bahskar and a slew of forerunners to keep us all honest.

How does the team go about planning the placement and setting of these problems?

Usually what transpires is we’ll set the finals during the week at night, Andreas will have decided where they go and the loose grade of them, we’ll strip the full gym on Wed night. Thursday, Andreas will present the “Battle Plan” of where all the qualifier blocs go, what our timeline is, that sort of thing. By the end of Friday night, we’re comp ready. I make it sound really easy but it’s a gruelling battle. By Sunday we’re all cooked and ready for a couple of days off.

Photo courtesy of David Tam ©

Are their planning meetings prior to the event and what do they look like?

There are some. We’ll discuss ideas or things we’d like to see in this comp, whether it’s sequences, or styles of blocs or even just something as simple as “I think we should do something like this over there, maybe?” I wouldn’t say these are formal meetings but we definitely do start to get more and more hyped as we get closer to the date, and that in turn, sparks the creative juices.

What strengths does each person on the team bring to a competition like this?

With an event like this, it’s hard for just one person to shine. Everyone that’s involved brings something great to the table and when all those things are combined, it’s what makes this event go off smoothly, even if there are a couple of bumps on the way. There are things that each person does that contributes to the success of this event, from DeeDee getting us a liquor license, to Kate making sure our volunteers are there to support us, to Terry and Andreas being able to put a million qualifying blocs, we all have something we bring to the table and it’s all equally important to the success of this event.

Are the routesetters this year the same as last year?

No. We’ve definitely seen a lot of changes in our Route Setting crew over the last year but there are still the consistent heavy hitters; Andreas, Terry, Myself. We’ve all had a lot of experience setting Tour De Blocs before, both here and in the Eastern Canada so it’s not so bad.

Any additions to the team?

Natasha. She’s one of the newest setting additions to the team. She may be Tiny, but she’s mighty and a force to be reckoned with when she’s slinging holds on a wall.

Who do you get to run the problems and how many changes do the problem go through until they are finalized?

We have a really great group of people that help support us through the whole process, as it is a gnarly undertaking for 2 days. We usually have 3-4 people help fore run and “test” the blocs. The blocs will always go through changes, sometimes; we’ll throw up an idea and it’ll be perfect (when this happens there are usually fire works, a parade is held in the setter(s) name and possibly a statue is erected, maybe of them in a benevolent pose,) but most of the time there’s a process to forerunning that helps tease out the magic in a bloc. It may start as an idea that doesn’t work out but eventually that may lead to a completely different idea that is both amazing and something that wasn’t quite there before. It’s a really cool process and one of things we all agree is something we love about setting in general.

Photo courtesy of David Tam ©

Last year, one of the challenges during the finals was getting the women’s problems down and the men’s problems up? What d o you have in mind for this year?

I wouldn’t say that’s a challenge compared to the rest of it, but that will happen again this year. We like the idea of this format and the spectacle it provides, not so much the Route Setter’s changing over blocs, which although it looks like we’re disorganized, these blocs have already been up and are marked and there are pictures, there is a method to our madness, but the actual look of one bloc on the wall. It looks really clean and really provides the essence of bouldering in competition. “Here you go, use whatever is here to get to the top, you got 5 minutes, go.” That mixing in the spotlights, the DJ, the crowd, the MC. Just makes the whole thing sort of a show.

How do you keep track of problems on the wall that disappear and reappear during the event?

Ha ha, I can tell you there is a system, I can’t be given away all my secrets though can I?

Thanks Dustin! We will leave it there. Squamish Climbing Magazine is looking forward to the event and hope it goes off without a hitch!

Tour De Block 12 / Swarm the Hive will take place Saturday, December 6th, 2014. Schedule for the comp can be found here. Finals start at 7pm and are open to the public. It is a great event to go out and cheer for your climbing community! Special thanks to David Tam for providing us with some photos from last year.