route setting

Welcome to our route setting* page! This page offers a comprehensive outlook on our gym’s setting system, including our grades and acsent rules, our bouldering wall map, our setting schedule, notes about select climbs, and setting team roster.

*route setting is the process of creating indoor climbs. A team of skilled and enthusiastic route setters / climbers craft new climbs on a regular basis.

  • We typically fully reset our gym every 6 weeks. Competitions, which see most of the gym reset for the event, will change our schedule for the weeks surrounding the event. Schedule is subject to changes.

    • July 8 Wave Wall & Cape Smear

    • August 7-8th SUMMER SCRAMBLE

      • Full reset of Boulder Bay (main room)

    • August 19th Cape Smear

    • August 26th Wave Wall

    • Sept 2nd Shallow Slabs

  • Joel Harvie (Head Setter)
    Daniel Alacoque (Assistant Head-Setter)
    Julia Bruce-Robertson (Assistant Head-Setter)
    Levi Kitsul
    Hannah Adams
    Keely Whitelaw
    Mitchell Clowe
    Xenia Healey
    Emmett Booth

Grades & Ascent Rules

Our Grading System

Grades are a tool to help navigate our collection of climbs by identifying a climb’s approximate difficulty level.
The Cove has its own grading system which consists of 6 levels, as seen in the following graphic.
Difficulty in climbing is highly subjective, so it is common for grading to feel inaccurate. If something feels easier or harder to you, your experience is more valid than the assigned grade!

how are grades assigned?

Difficulty ratings are assigned by our experienced setting staff. Our setters consider the R.I.C. scale (Risk, Intensity, Complexity) when determining difficulty.

ascent rules

  • The grade tag for any given climb will be positioned next to the start hold(s).

  • Two white arrow tags will identify where a climber must start. Both tags will be either on the same hold or on two different holds.

    To secure the start position, climbers must use hands on the tagged hold(s) - one hand on each hold if two are tagged.

    Climbers are permitted to jump from the ground, kick off the wall, or simply pull into the start position, but the first place the climber’s hands are allowed to be is on the start holds.

    Before moving on, the climber must hold the start position in control*.

    *Control is being stable without any movement/momentum, or by holding the start hold(s) for 3 full seconds.

  • To finish the climb, the climber must maintain control* of the tagged hold at the end of the climb with both hands.

    On our tall wall (Deep Cove in Boulder Bay), lower alternative finishes are tagged with grey tags on climbs graded blue square and below. These are required finishes for climbers aged 8 and under, but are also for anyone not wishing to climb to the full height.

    *Control is being stable without any movement/momentum, or by holding the finish hold for 3 full seconds.

  • What is in? (can be used)

    • Volumes

    • Bolt holes in holds

    What is out? (can’t be used)

    • Bolt holes in the wall and in volumes

    • Edges of volumes are the meet the wall

    • All 3 plexiglass walls

    • Top edge of all walls

    • The left-most edge of the climbing terrain in Boulder Bay (main room)

    • The side-walls in The Narrows (back room)

  • At the Cove, Grey holds are used to:

    • create variations for climbs where morphology (climber proportions) significantly affects the movement

    • create more opportunities for make-ups*

    • create drills for coached programming

    • As down-climb jugs used to more easily climb to a lower position on the wall before falling (down-climb jugs have a visible arrow pointing down)

    *make-ups are when you make up climbs different from our normally set ones! Did you know you can do that?