Routesetting Symposium 2022

The Routesetting Symposium is Germany's first and the world's only profession-specific festival for routesetting*, aiming to serve the growth and professionalization of the field. It also provides a platform for further education, training, idea development and networking for routesetters and those interested in the profession.

The festival in march 2022 invites all FINTA* aligned people who set routes professionally or semi-professionally, as well as those (simply) interested in routesetting.

Our goal is to one day be able to host a Routesetting Symposium that invites all interested parties - without exception - to acquire and share knowledge of the profession. However, structural changes are still required before this can be done, and it will take time to lay the groundworks to make this happen.

* Explanation:

• The routes are the basis of every bouldering or climbing gym. They therefore have an undeniable economic value to the gym owners, as the bouldering or climbing routes are continuously redesigned and set on the wall.
• FINTA* stands for Women, Inter People, Nonbinary People, Trans People, and Agender People.

Among other things, the symposium actively promotes…

• Equality;
• Workplace conditions that take bio- and psychosocial health aspects into account. This should be achieved primarily throughwidely available training, workshops and further education for routesetters and gym owners;
• Recognition of the work done by routesetters through payment of a living wage*, which is based on performance, not on discriminating factors, e.g. gender identity. (*living wage = covers the costs of living and allows to put savings aside for emergency situations);
• The abolition of established stereotypes;
• Increase of the visibility and participation of all FINTA* aligned individuals,
• encouraging people who were previously excluded because of their identity to pursue routesetting as a profession;
• advancement of routesetting as a profession.

Our goal is to collectively transform this fledgling profession to meet the demands of an inclusive, rather than discriminatory society.

By means of the symposium, our social media presence and the associated high-profile debates, we are fundamentally contributing to strengthening the routesetting community and are able to shape the development of the profession.

This is what makes the Routesetting Symposium a trailblazer in the field!

With your help, we want to counter grievances and discriminations in this young profession - before they ingrain themselves into the foundational structures.

Our appeal is directed equally at....

• business leaders in the climbing industry
• private supporters
• associations dedicated to climbing and bouldering
• local and federal politics

The indoor climbing business is built upon routesetters: it needs their expertise, creativity and physical strength to carry out this physically demanding work.

Together we can give them the (monetary as well as social) recognition they deserve.

Currently we are moving heaven and earth to acquire the funding needed to make this symposium happen. Unfortunately, we have not hit the jackpot yet - it seems that on the one hand we are too much of a niche project, and in other ways, not enough niche to warrant state funding.

We are therefore incredibly grateful to any and all support you can give to help us get this symposium off the ground!

With approximately ...

• 4.800 € → we can pay all workshop leaders and speakers
• 15.000€ → we can pay for the entire 3-day symposium (people involved, material resources, and gym rental).
• with additional 23.000€ → we can pay all co-organizers and teams (social media + press, design, funding, project coordination, editing, translation, program) So far, our entire organizing team has worked as unpaid volunteers.

As you can see in our calculation, we need circa 50.000€ for planning phase of the event (duration: one year) and the event itself (3-days), in order to pay all parties involved: co-organizers, small intermediate events, people involved in the 3-day festival for their work, as well as material resources, gym rent and fees.