Mason Pitchel is a professional route setter with over 10 years of commercial experience. He thrives in a team environment, and aims to learn something new each time he picks up a drill.
Passions include strange jibs, holds that snuggle, and evoking the feeling of “wtf I can’t believe I did that” in climbers.
Mason’s Philosophy: Setting as a Design Practice
Mason imagines the field of routesetting at a remarkable intersection of industrial design, architecture, and psychology. A commercial setter’s primary role is to create spacial puzzles (a product) for a climber to engage with. In a day to day capacity, we move through a classic iterative design process:
- Define: Frame a question of define a problem. Eg.: what does the gym need?
- Selection: Delegation (who sets what), hold selection, volume use.
- Collaboration and communication: Setting is a group project, and space is often shared by a team of setters.
- Empathise: Understand the potential clientele. Who is this climb for? What might they need or enjoy?
- Prototype: Build the concept.
- Iterate: Test the climb, improve the climb.
- Finalize: Deliver a safe, fun, and engaging experience for the intended user.
A routesetter assumes the responsibility of shaping a climbers experience. We can elicit feelings, emotions, frustration, joy… all through calculated spacial design.
Life in a One Page Document
MASON PITCHEL 