More Wave Wall thoughts.

In my opinion:

The taped problems on that wall and throughout the gym should not be
altered in any way at present (unless of course a setter decides to
slightly tweak a problem on his/her own creation).

Any alteration of the current array (at least til the undergrads return and
the gym is up and running full-bore again), should be highly restrained,
very circumspect and EXTREMELY limited (whether adding or switching holds;
there shouldn't be any fewer holds on the wall than there are at present.)
Best approach, indeed, may be to just leave the array "as is" -- or nearly
so -- at any rate not to undertake any significant re-set (especially if
it's being attempted by one person without significant input and
group-consensus).

Details and points to ponder:

In the wake of the comp, the Wave array has seemed generally quite OK/
reasonably good/ fully adequate/ [pick your phrase] -- for the immediate
present. Especially so since there is an adequate array of unobtrusive yet
very positive holds sprinkled throughout. (These holds are *vital* in order
to allow greater numbers of people to enjoy use of the wall, both in terms
of *levels* of climber [beginner, intermediate, etc] and also in terms of
MODES of preferred climbing [ie not merely extremely short super-power
sequences, but also power-endurance and full-endurance modes]).

The ideal of a well-distributed array of different kind of holds within a
given area of wall is indeed generally admirable, ***BUT*** a seductive,
possibly misleading/mistaken strategy can come into play: A person aiming
at improving the Wave array might notice that, for example, there are some
small quite-positive holds grouped in the middle and upper-third of the
wall. S/he might be tempted therefore to winnow out some of these holds
without realizing that it can be important that many/most of these
positives NEED to be in somewhat-near proximity to each other. Reason
being: imagine a climber reaches far out to the right and grasps a very
positive handhold; since these positive holds are smallish and are not
2-handed buckets for matching, another smallish positive hold is required
to accomodate the left hand as it comes over (or perhaps crosses through --
but not too far through!).

More generally, it is super-important for advanced boulderers to realize
that the gym array (especially on the Wave) tends to get skewed in the
direction of their immediate desires -- to the neglect and detriment of
everyone else. Not a good situation, but it has happened again and again
over the years.

We also need to remember that the gym has now been turned over to our
undergrads to prepare the illustrious ***INTERCOLLEGIATE COMP*** for
visiting colleges (postponed from last month). Obviously it would be
beneficial for the undergrads not to pack a significantly greater density
of holds onto the Wave at this point -- ie, to leave them the space to be
creative when they return.

J

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