Is it ok to smear on routes in the gym? I find that some of the routes in the gym I go to are reachy and awkward unless I do a quick smear. I was trying to do a 5.10 that I thought was impossible to do without smearing and my partner for the day said that smearing was off. Is this what route setters intend? What are the rules during competitions? I figure smearing is pretty much always an option outdoors, but it seems that gym climbing plays by a different set of rules

Using the features on a wall is pretty much never "off" unless it's specified on the ID tape at the base.

i.e.:

"'Boogie til you Poop': 5.11+ (arete off)"

or

"Double Rainbow: 5.12- (crack off)"

Can't remember ever seeing, "(smears off)"... sounds like you're buddy might just be one of them know-it-all Gumby types.

I'd say that's someone interpreting "you have to follow the colored tape to stay on the route" to mean you can't use any walls. Which would be quite bizarre since smearing is a pretty essential skill for any climber and gyms are for training....

Yeah, I agree with Jon. Unless the tape specifies that a specific feature is off, the wall should be fair game.

That's kinda what I figured. I'd be willing to bet that a piece of tape came off a foothold or something

as a setter, i have to mark on the start tape for a route if any features (light boxes, arete, etc, etc) are off. otherwise, its all on.

most people will instinctively use features, smearing, etc, etc to get up a route. if you want to force a certain move, then you may have to ensure a feature is off. otherwise, you usually build the route around the feature anyway.

^ +1 ^

One of the best things I've read on here in a while.

It depends on the gym. Our college gym was pretty much vertical and so heavily featured that "No naturals, no smearing" is a necessary contrivance to make hard routes... otherwise the holds have to be heinously small and bad.

I've also been to a gym with few natural features, but a bunch of small screw-in jibs, which were implied to always be on. It made sense for that gym.

Many people approach the gym as training for climbing. At CATS, for example, matching and heel-hooking is frowned upon. While this is an extreme form of contrivance-in-the-service-of-training, it's on the same continuum as "nats off."

In general, though, smearing is implied to be on (certainly in competitions). If you think it's too much of a contrivance, try climbing the route with and without smearing, and see if you learn anything new!

I've never thought that smearing would be off, but I almost never remember to use the arete in the gym. Part of the reason is that my previous gym would explicitly say "arete on/off", so I ended up with that mindset and so now I assume it's off unless listed. It's made for a few "wtf is this so hard" moments until I clue in. =)

So pretentious it's where all the pros in Boulder train. It's not that heel-hooking and matching isn't good technique. It's that when you're in the gym trying to get stronger (particularly on short, steep walls like at CATS where there are no "routes" or "problems" anyways) squaring up and avoiding those techniques will maximize the gains of the workout. Pretentious. Maybe, but there are other gyms if you don't like it. Effective. Definitely, as the frequent users of CATs are the strongest climbers around Boulder.

Gym climbing is a game, play by whatever rules you want.

I thought this was called "Mountain Project??" What does that have to do with a gym? Isn't there a place called "gym project?" No, well could someone please start it and move this over there?

First, I want to agree with "...It's the gym. Try not to take it too seriously. ". Gym is for training, trying new things, and socializing.
As for made-up "rules" like no matching, no smearing, no heel hooks, etc, they are there to make up for the limitations of the wall terrain/angle, the available holds, and the creativity of the the setters. There are plenty of holds out there now that will make matching harder than a cross-through and heel hooking a real test of technique and core.