Sibren van Manen. Photo Resource While many WUR students enjoy their vacations, master’s student Biosystems Engineering Sibren van Manen (28) is working hard. As chief route designer, he is responsible for the climbing routes designed in the new boulder hall in Ede, Mono, which is to open in September. ‘We have currently designed 107 routes on the walls, which we call boulders.’
Mono is the region’s first big indoor bouldering facility, Van Manen clarifies. ‘There were no boulder halls in Wageningen, Ede and Veenendaal. Ariën van de Kolk, an alpinist living in Wageningen, thought something should be done about that. I worked at a boulder hall in Den Bosch for five years before enrolling in my master’s in Wageningen. The owner of the hall introduced me to Ariën. We have worked tirelessly with a small team for two years to get this started and have now made it happen.’
How does one become a rout designer in a boulder hall? ‘It is a craft’, Van Manen says. ‘There is no standard script, so you have to learn the craft from other rout designers. Then, you start building your own routes and gain experience. In the beginning, an experienced route designer alters three-quarters of your design to optimise the route, but as time passes, you develop your own style.’
Bag of tricks
How do you design a route? ‘You have a set of grips and a slab of wall. In your mind is a bag of tricks containing all the possible movements a person can make. You use that to develop an idea and set that out on the wall. A good boulder should be completed within five to seven movements: short but technical.’
As the chief route designer, Van Manen is responsible for all of Mono’s boulders, although he does not design them all. ‘There are several route designers, each with their own style. We design routes in the mornings and test each other’s designs in the afternoon to dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s.
Opening
Van Manen’s work is almost done, for now. We aim to have some 110 boulders for the opening. We have currently designed 107. Five weeks after the opening, a steady team will design several new routes.’ Before that, however, there will be an opening ceremony in September. ‘But we will open quietly before that’, Van Manen reveals.
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Edit: Wageningen does, in fact, have bouldering facilities. A wall embedded in the Avalon gym, at the Nude. Although smaller (and cheaper) than the Mono gym, the opening of which we are all excited for, Avalon’s boulder wall has been around for the last 7 ish years.
Good point Catarina! I have edited the text a bit!