This two-day event features an adults-only Friday evening competition and a Saturday kids comp.
Over the course of the preceding work week, staff and volunteers strip the gym's entire main room of holds. These are then washed and assembled into routes over the course of 3.5 days (Tues, Wed, Thurs and early Fri). This is done in phases (i.e. one side of the gym at a time) in order to leave as much of the gym open to the public for as long as possible during the setting process.
Because of multiple finger injuries, I did not compete--but instead I worked as a route setter. Over the course of three days, I made 8 routes--each of which took me 3-4 hours to build. (I'm guessing that's a pretty average pace.)
This year, Spire's whole crew created 69 routes. If other setters were working at a rate of ~3.5 routes/ hr, this comp represented more than 240 man hours of route setting alone. That's not to mention all of the time spent stripping the walls, washing holds, fore running and scoring routes, cleanup, etc...
Though it was exhausting, the entire project was extremely fun to be a part of. I took many pictures of the process (below), and wrote an article on the competition for The Bozeman Magpie.
Check out the article here:
http://www.bozeman-magpie.com/thebigmt-full-article.php?article_id=677
And results here:
http://spireclimbingcenter.com/main/news.htm
Mammut athlete, Whit Magro, took second place for the men's adult open category. Good job, Whit!
Evan Mathews, hundreds (or thousands?) of holds, and a blank wall. Tuesday morning.
Aaron, Evan, Jeff and lots of equipment. Tuesday morning.
Aaron and Evan pick through a bunch of brand-new holds. A real setters' treat.
Aaron shopping for holds.
Sweet Jon Scott butt shot. Tuesday morning. (Behind: an entire wall that needs to be torn down and reset.)
Evan and Joe test their harnesses.
Evan on a ladder.
Thursday: the west wall has been torn down and mostly reset.
Friday: DJAJ (Aaron Hjelt) sets up for an evening of music and elk video projections.
Jeff Ho scores the routes.
Friday, just hours before the adult competition.
