RSA

George Rich

I am a 21 year old student based in Bristol, I am a keen outdoors person. I have been climbing for around 4 years. I climb upto around 7a/7b sport and E1/2 trad. I climb regularily at all of the 5 climbing gyms in Bristol so experience a wide range of setting styles. I have climbed around the UK and Europe, including France and Spain but am particularly passionate about the rock in the UK and feel that this is where much of my inspiration comes from. I enjoy hillwalking and mountaineering and have spent time in the French alps and scotland during winter. I am both RCI and ML trained and am hoping to complete my training for both in the summer of 2020.

I have been RSA level 2 qualified since Oct 2018 and have been setting at a local wall monthly since Jan 2019, I am comfortable setting upto around 7b. I have set ground level traverses at the wall which I believe is transferable to boulder setting. I am confident in the high standard of the routes that I set and have received really positive feedback from both the centre and the regular climbers. I have set for some local comps. I am fully insured as a free lance setter.

United Kingdom / South West

Route (roped), Local Competition

Valid RSA Course

2021-10-25

Joel Self Outdoor Instructor

Springfield Community Campus

“George is a confident and well mannered colleague of mine who I’ve been Route setting with for a little over a year. George’s attitude towards the role of a route setter is great to see, he’s very happy to try new ways of working that can improve efficiency and has proven to be very versatile and safety conscious with regards to his rope work. George’s setting has been very popular with climbers of all ages, he can confidently set grades from 3+ to 7a, these routes have always had an obvious level of inspiration from routes he has climbed outdoors. (Drawing on our experiences of real rock is a big aim of ours at this particular wall.)
I have seen George competently set routes on slabs, overhangs, in corners and on standard vertical walls. All of his routes are unique with no same move being constantly churned out and repeated. Due to the nature of the wall we have been setting at we have had to be very conscious of who the clientele are, 60% junior climbers, so a lot of routes have had to be set with shorter children in mind and I believe George has nailed this.
One of George’s best traits when it comes to his route setting is his ability to take constructive criticism well. After setting we both forerun all the climbs to grade them, ensure the moves worked as planned etc, as part of this process we are constantly re-evaluating each climb and the way we have chosen to set it – this sometimes means making some changes, changing out the odd hold or tweaking the angle of something. George always does this happily and doesn’t take offence.
I think George would be a great asset to any wall’s setting team as both a competent and friendly guy but also a genuinely enthusiastic and talented route setter. I hope to have many more years of setting with him in the future.”

Reference written by professional route setter and climbing instructor, Joel Self. (joelself.outdoorinstructor@gmail.com / 07423050637)

Joel Self Outdoor Instructor

Springfield Community Campus

Reference as before.