Route setting: Zoë Wood on competition setting for the stars

Growing up in North Wales with Eryri as her playground, Zoë Wood was immersed in the world of climbing from an early age. From after-school adventures with her Mountain Guide mother to an early job at the local climbing wall, climbing has shaped Zoë's life and career. Now a full-time route setter, she sets for both competitions and commercial climbing walls in the UK and abroad, and in 2025 became the first British female route setter to set for both the senior and junior boulder and lead National Championships, and the US National Lead Championships.

What makes route setting "the best job in the world", and how do you set for the stars? We asked the woman herself...

How and when did you first get into route setting?

So I got into it through working at a local wall. I wasn't working there to start route setting. I was just working there to get some money after leaving school, it's kind-of funny because I was pretty adamant that I was going to find a ‘proper job’ and that working at the wall was a bit of an interim thing to be able to go travelling and climbing for a bit. I did a little bit and basically just figured out that it was really, really hard, but I was so motivated to get better! That motivation to improve just totally had me thinking it was really something that I could pursue and personally get a lot out of as a job. That was probably about 2021.

I remember there was quite a turning point within a few months of starting doing it, when I realised how much I enjoyed it and I set about trying to learn as much as possible – at that point I was working in-house at The Beacon, I started freelancing and I just really tried to work at as many walls as I could and absorb as much learning as I could.

Did you do have any formal training with that or was it mostly learning on the job?

Most of my learning has been on the job. You can be taught the skills of it, but a lot of the feedback comes from watching people and you climbing it too. You can say ‘self-taught’ but it's ‘team taught’ too. You're working alongside other people, so you're always absorbing knowledge.

I did a GB Climbing progression programme for route setters, which was incredible. I learned loads but it wasn't necessarily in a formal setting, it was such a great opportunity to set for the GB team and to set alongside really other really competent setters and that was just a case of being in the right place at the right time. It was definitely one of those things where, at the time, it felt like quite a big step that I was even considering it. I wondered: maybe I’ll do it next year and maybe that’ll be better. But really I had no reason to turn it down apart from feeling out of my depth, but then it turned out being great and I got to learn a lot.

Is there anyone that particularly stands out as a mentor or someone that really helped you along the way?

There's definitely been quite a few, and I think it changes with who you’re setting alongside a lot of the time. When I first did that progression programme, I worked alongside Rob Napier quite a bit and I really liked his style of teaching. He wouldn't just tell you how to fix a problem, he’d try and ask questions. I think just learning and hearing someone's stories when they’ve been in an industry for ages is a great way to learn.

You learn so much just from being in the environment and listening to the conversations and the tweaks too. Maybe you try climbing something you’ve set and you're like: well, I don't know. And then you hear how someone else would set it and they might say: maybe it needs to be harder here or easier here or that's too much…

Because I'm freelance, I've been really lucky in the sense that I move around a lot, and most of the setters in the GB setting team have been doing it far longer than I have and collectively they are my tutor.

What was your first ‘big’ comp setting job?

So the first one which really sticks in my mind was probably a team selection to pick the World Cup team out of the existing GB team and that was pretty full-on. You're going to set a World Cup qualifier AND semi-final which was a bit like: Hmm, how hard is that? …Quite hard! But it was cool to be able to have that perspective.

Since then, my biggest achievement after that I guess would be setting for the British Boulder Champs in 2023. It was one of those things where I was not really expecting to be on the team, you know, it's the one that everyone wants to do and there's always a surplus of boulder setters. So yeah, it was quite a big motivator as well to work on my own climbing to be on a good level for it. We were working outside and Rob Napier was on the team, which was great. You know, you've kind-of gone from mentor to, co-worker and we worked really well in that environment and bounced off each other all week. It was a week where I was like: Oh my god, this is my job! It was in Sheffield, so I could walk to work… I was just on Cloud Nine the whole time.

You mentioned before about working on your own climbing. How much of that do you have to do as a route setter?

I guess it depends on the individual. A lot of setters for the team have come from being former GB athletes so that always helps. They've already done the background training. I try to not work too much so that I can train alongside it, over a certain amount of work you just can't make any gains and it’s really easy to pick up injuries really easy. So it's about injury prevention trying to make some gains in there somewhere, which is inevitably a slow process when you’re doing a lot of labour basically all day.

I've got a coach and a training plan, so I try and be quite disciplined like if I have a heavy week of work, I try and then have a light week so I can rest and train and maybe climb outside. It's a constant juggle, I’m always either climbing outside too much or not enough, or not training enough or too tired, or it's always one or the other. But yeah, I try and make it work!

What are the main differences between general wall turnover setting and competition setting?

I think they’re more different than people think. In terms of the comp setting perspective, you just have so much more time and you really analyse each move as their own little thing, far more than you would in a commercial setting. The style of climbing is actually super different as well from when you're setting commercially. In a wall you want people to feel comfortable and you want it to flow naturally and you don't really want the sequence to be necessarily super hidden or it to be super scary. All of these extra little elements that when you're setting a competition you actually want to test the climber on, so it's like needs to be really complex and quite intimidating and maybe uncomfortable at certain points. So when people set their first comp, you're like: alright, you know all those things that you've been spent years learning and crafting? Forget them. The style of it is incredibly different.

You’ll set maybe one or two boulders a day in a competition. You get it on the wall pretty quick, but then you just spend hours and hours climbing it and really fine tuning until you're happy with the end product.

What is it that you're aiming for with a comp problem? What are the key ingredients?

So it needs to sit within a whole array of the climbs or problems. You need to have a good contrast so that stylistically they're different - you want to be really testing each kind of technique. Then you’re thinking about who you're setting for; is it kids, is it men, women… Who's the strongest person competing and who's the smallest? It's quite handy to have an idea of who’s coming so we’ll usually get the start lists. It's as much about the weakest climber as it is the strongest climber - you don't want the weakest to have an awful time. It's easy to make a competition really hard, you’re guaranteed to get a split if you make it really hard. But then the winner only does a few moves and the people lower down don't get to do any, and that's rubbish for everyone. So it's that fine balance between the winners basically doing most of the climbs and the people at the other end of the spectrum still getting to do some.

How much of a role do the problems or routes play in a climber’s success and progression?

I think you could definitely play into people's favours. Generally, when you're discussing like who's coming, it's more just for height and reach and pushing people. When you're setting for the team - especially if it's for training – say you’ve got Erin [McNeice] or Toby [Roberts] coming, you’ll be thinking: how can we really make them try hard? It's cool to think that you have a small part to play in their development as athletes.

That must be a rewarding feeling, when you get to watch them climb something you’ve set?

Yeah, exactly. But then also if you get it wrong, like if someone if someone comes out and can't reach something or they can cheat it, it's like: oh god, I didn't see that, but that's all part of the learning and that's why it's really cool to sit back and watch the comps at the end, like that's where you finish off your little learning circle.

How much pressure do you feel in the run-up to a big comp, or are you are you pretty relaxed about it nowadays?

Weirdly, I find the pressure quite helpful. I think I get a bit more stressed on the medium sets where someone's got you in because they think you're good at what you do and the expectation is quite relaxed. I actually find myself getting a bit more in my head in those situations because you have to perform and there's no space really to have wobbles. I find it a really nice headspace to be in, I'm just really locked in and often I feel like some of my best setting has come out in situations where the pressure is on. So I guess that I'm lucky in that way, that that scenario helps me focus.

What keeps your job interesting for you?

For me, it’s the constant learning. You can sit back and just set things that you know will work, or you can try and push yourself to set something where you're not quite sure how it’ll go. You are totally in charge of how much you want to try and expand. Who you work with is a huge one as well, because everyone has a slightly different perspective and style. It’s the people and places, I love moving around, I think it keeps everything pretty fresh.

What do you think most people DON’T know about setting for a competition?

Maybe the fact that quite often, if you're setting a final, whether that's routes or boulders, you obviously have to stay after qualifiers to change everything over. Basically, the Saturday night of a 2-day comp, you're guaranteed to be up till 1AM climbing the problems you’re setting! And they're not the final products because you change the finals based on how you see the athletes performing in qualifiers. So it's midnight and you're pulling onto the hardest route you've ever tried and you had a curry three hours earlier and you’re like: what the **** am I doing?! It's half one in the morning and I'm pulling onto an 8C. It's horrendous, but you get into this weird space where your brain’s not really sure what’s going on with your body. You get a weird buzz out of it. So yeah, people probably haven't quite twigged that that's what route setters are doing at midnight between comp days.

There seems like there’s a real groundswell in women getting into route setting in recent years. How does that make you feel and what do you think is driving it?

I think it's incredible how much the industry has developed in the four or five years since I entered it. I think we're in a real period of escalation and change. If you're psyched and you’re a woman, it's a great time to get involved because people are wanting to be encouraging of that. You potentially have a better footing than male route setters that are trying to get into it because it's really competitive, and the onus is on encouraging more women to be in it.

The work environment is basically becoming a lot nicer for everyone, and that’s encouraging more women to stick with it. I think we've still got a fair amount of work to do, but the direction it's heading in is really positive.

As well as creating change in the working environment, have you like observed any difference in route setting itself as more women get involved?

I personally think that the actual route setting style depending on gender is a misconception, I don't see men and women setting and the actual outcome being different. I think guys can be equally as sympathetic to power and height. For me anyway, the benefit of having more women in route setting isn't the outcome of how the routes or boulders actually are, it's for equality, the environment, and to make it inclusive for everyone.

What are your thoughts on the future of route setting? Is there anything you’d like to see change?

It's an exciting time for the development of younger route setters, I think. There's no sugarcoating either, the fact that it's really hard, it’s a competitive environment to be in and actually I think it's become harder in the last few years to access it, which is a bit of a shame. My guess is that it’s to do with the lack of pathway which just simply makes it really hard. There's no set way, no you need to do this, this and this. And that’s the recipe to being able to get to where you want to get to. There will be, unfortunately, people that are really good at it that get left behind because they don't shout the loudest. I think it would be great if we could steer away from ‘who knows who’ and ‘who can shout the loudest’. If there could be some energy put into the route setting world, it would be for there to be a fair educational pathway.