No One Sets Alone: Collective Authorship – Ruth Jang

Today’s episode brings Ruth Jang to the show. Ruth is a routesetter at Central Rock Gym in Atlanta, Georgia. She first picked up setting as a bucket list challenge and because she saw a gap in the gym: not enough entry-level, competition-style boulders for people to learn from. Her thought? “Why not infiltrate from the inside and learn from the best?” Before she knew it, she was pulled into the gravity of the setting world. Today, Ruth is a USAC Level 3 routesetter with her first national event on the horizon this June. She’s also set for citizen comps like Method Underground. Before setting, Ruth came from a background in academia and biomedical research, where she studied stem cells and the opioid epidemic.

General Topics Covered

• How a negative became a positive: Ruth’s unusual introduction to climbing
• An Eastern versus Western approach to team dynamics: collective and individual identity
• What is true collaboration in routesetting?
• The similarities between team sports and routesetting
• Communication and how it can change team dynamics
• Poetry and routesetting
• Handling arrogance in the setting industry

Show Notes

• Find Ruth Jang on Instagram
• Find Ruth’s poems, Logic of the Woods, all proceeds go towards the Southeastern Climbing Coalition (SCC) and Training Indonesians for Transition to Institutional Programs (TITIP).
• Central Rock Gym
• What is Futsal?
• The difference between Eastern and Western (collective versus individualistic). Further readings: 
  • How East and West think in profoundly different ways, David Robson, BBC
  • Cultural differences are far more nuanced than East vs West, Matt Hudson, Psyche
• “I think, therefore I am.”
• Resources and further reading on Eating Disorders: 
  • National Eating Disorder Association
  • National Institute of Mental Health - Eating Disorders

Closing Notes

If you’d like to nominate someone as a guest next guest, have a topic you want to see us tackle, or have questions, we’d love for you to reach out. 

The Impact Driver podcast is a production of the Climbing Business Journal. Today’s episode is sponsored by Essential Climbing and Trango. It was edited and produced by Holly Yu Tung Chen, Scott Rennak, and the team at CBJ. Our theme music is by Devin Dabney.