Interview 003– Peter Zeidelhack

Peter Zeidelhack - Director of Routesetting, DAV Verbund, Germany

Please could you tell us about yourself, where are you based, and what do you do in your role?

My name is Peter Zeidelhack, I am 47 years old, married for almost 20 years and father of three girls. Living south of Munich and working for the DAV climbing gyms (verbundklettern.de) in the greater Munich area for over 20 years now. I am now in charge of operating the biggest of the gyms (kbthalkirchen.de) together with a great team and I oversee routesetting operations. On top I am the director of routesetting for all the 4 gyms, closely working with the head setters of all locations. Aside of that I started developing the national routesetting training courses for commercial setting for the German federation (DAV) over 15 years ago and am in charge of the program since.

How would you describe the state of the climbing industry in your country, and how do you see it evolving in the next few years?

I’d consider Germany very well developed in terms of artificial climbing overall with some major cities (like Munich) starting to see a saturation. Evolution over the next few years has to be individually assessed as there will be areas with more potential than others. 

With routesetting as a career becoming more common throughout Europe and the world, when it comes to finding these jobs how do you think the industry can move away from ‘who you know’ towards ‘what you know’?

Globally accepted qualifications when it comes to the safety and technical part of routesetting. I often refer to it as a drivers license. You know the rules & the tools but it doesn’t make you a good driver per se. 

In routesetting there are plenty of courses in how to do the job safely, but very little in how to do it creatively. As a well known teacher in this profession, what would you recommend to Chief/Head setters for developing the creative skills of their teams, alongside fulfilling the commercial requirements of the gym?

I sometimes struggle with the creativity aspect in routesetting as it almost always comes down to the functionality of the product. Does the boulder/route work (function) for a certain audience in a certain context or not? That spans across the two worlds, commercial and competition setting. Aside from that, hiring/booking people from outside of one’s bubble for a clinic/team setting event always adds new ideas and flavours to a team.

What are some obvious areas of weakness in the industry in your area of expertise; are there a lack of qualified people, are staff taking PPE seriously enough?

For our part I don’t see areas of weakness. We are operating the first gym for almost 25 years and trained lots of people in the process. And yes, PPE is taken seriously!

What advice would you give to a new climbing wall business that has just signed for their first property?

Seek/book expertise from people who are willing to share their knowledge and skills!

How can people find you if they’d like to learn more and get in touch?

Easiest would be on Instagram @peterzeidelhack