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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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