In this post I want to discuss my recent results, and my overall 2016 results, reflect on them, and outline what I’ve learnt that I’ll need to change and overcome, in order to reach my long term climbing goals. November saw less numeric progress than I was hoping for, due to a few choices that I made that interfered with projecting harder grades. At the same time, I’ve been reading the Rock Warriors Way (and making a vlog about it here), which suggests that there is a paradox in climbing motivation. That is, in order to climb harder grades, we need to detach from the egoistic motivation to constantly tick harder numbers. Instead we should focus on the process, on the learning that we gain from climbing, and then the results will flow.

Since my last post, I have had a single day at Maple Canyon, a weekend in Austin, and 6 climbing days at Red River Gorge.

Since my last post…

Maple Canyon was great fun and I’d easily go back and spend a lot of time there. We had a single day and I onsighted a couple of warmups – a 5.8, and a tall 90 foot 5.10b. Unfortunately on the 5.10b, we couldn’t lower through the chains, so my wife came down, I re-climbed it, and then rapped off. We then accidentally left a stopper knot in the end of the rope, as my wife tied 2 stopped knots and I only untied one before trying to pull the rope. The knot got stuck in the chains and so I had to re-climb the route to get it undone. That burnt a lot of energy in the day, and is a good take-away about how logistics issues can burn energy that could be used for climbing. After that I jumped on the 5.11d called Zoaster the Toaster, pictured below, that I talked about in my last post. I had an excellent first run, and was just about to onsight it, but blew it at the chains – you can see the footage and hear about me talk about it here – https://youtu.be/d4KwJ3AiyXw?t=5m46s I tried giving it another shot, but fell even lower on account of the pump. Only climbing short routes in Texas means I find it harder to train on long routes like this, but I’ll go over this in my reflection later in this post.

The next weekend we went back to Austin for our last outdoor trip there until the longer trip to Red River Gorge. Unfortunately we got rained out on the Saturday and the Sunday looked like it might hold out for us. We hit Reimers Ranch early and got a few warm up routes in, with plans to project Fangoria, a 5.12a that I was hoping to send that day. We got rained out unfortunately, and we were forced to climb Awesome roof – the only place we could get cover. I had more attempts at the roof, and found some good rest positions, but it’s a climb I’d have to put a lot of work into before I’ll be able to clip the chains.

Red River Gorge came up fast. We were with a larger group with a mix of beginner and intermediate climbers. I made a few choices on which crags we would go to in order to accommodate the group’s needs. This approach ultimately led to me not positioning myself in the best way to project a hard route. This is a common problem that sport climbers talk about, where they are on a trip and they need to decide whether their project is achievable within the time they have. It’s a tough decision in a place like Red River Gorge, when you don’t know if you’ll ever be back, and it’s very tempting to climb as many classic routes that are in your onsight range. I tried to go somewhere in the middle, and that didn’t work. My original target route had been a 5.12b called Mercy, the Huff. That’s the route pictured in the feature image for this blog post. I gave it a full redpoint attempt, but decided for the abovementioned reasons, that it wouldn’t be feasible for me on the trip – video footage and discussion here – https://youtu.be/tClPS16l7fY . I decided to try and put a route away called Chainsaw Massacre, an overhanging 5.12a. In the end, I didn’t have the power endurance for that route either – at least not on my 5th day of climbing after a big Thanksgiving dinner. I did however onsight a very technical beta intensive 5.11b, which I was proud of, and sent a fair few other classic routes in the 5.10 to 5.11- range. The big take away from the Red trip for me, was in logistics, and how I need to plan and take control of logistics better if my intention is to project on a trip. It’s also clearer to me now, that the style of trip I was on wasn’t suited to projecting. In the vein of the Rock Warriors Way, they may not be number grade sends I can add to my send list, but they’re lessons learnt that will make me a better, more efficient climber in future.

That was the last 5 or so weeks. I’ve taken about a week off climbing since the Red, and I’ve been hangboarding to maintain my finger strength. I’ve got a tiny niggle in one pulley on my right hand, that will probably last for another couple of months, and two other fading pulley injuries that are almost completely gone – I really only feel them now if I’m crimping hard. I’m headed back to Australia in 3 weeks, where I’ll get the chance to climb a lot. In between now and then, I’ll just be doing rehab hangboard work, and getting in a trip to Austin this weekend, where I’m hoping to start learning the very basics of trad climbing, and potentially get in some attempts on some harder climbs at Austin.

Reflecting on 2016, progress and lessons learnt…

With the end of the year at hand, it’s time to reflect on my goals for 2016 versus how I’ve actually progressed.

I started the year with the following goals.

2016 Goals

Send 5 classic 5.12a Texas routes, all with different styles.

Send Rain Dance (5.12b)

Send The Grinch (5.12c) – a short bouldery route (STRETCH GOAL)

Send a Classic 80 foot+ 5.11d or 5.12a

Send Mexican Chicken (V6), or similar V6 at Hueco tanks.

I’ve literally achieved none of these. There is an outside chance I might send a single classic 5.12a at Reimers this weekend though. So first let’s cover where I actually was at the beginning of the year. I started with 2 5.11b’s as my hardest ascents. Both of those were climbs where the beginning was a hard boulder problem V2-V3, followed by 30-50 feet of easier 5.8ish climbing. I had a single onsight at 5.10d, but that was also a boulder problem followed by easy climbing – a short 30 footer. If I’m being completely honest, my onsight level was about 5.9+, 5.10a. Knowing what I know now, the above goals are simply unrealistic. In order for me to achieve those goals, with the time constraints I have, and the logistical issues of climbing hard, outdoors regularly, I would have needed to be onsighting around 5.11b/c at the beginning of the year, for those goals to have been feasible.

In 2015 I only sent 29 sport routes, and no boulder problems. In 2016 I sent 62 sport routes, and 20 boulder problems. So straight off the bat, I got a lot more climbing done in 2016.

The start of the year I was training for bouldering for a trip to Hueco Tanks in late February. During limit boulder training I sustained a bad pulley injury that swelled and was obviously going to take a while to recover. The lesson learnt – don’t let your overzealous climbing partner convince you to limit boulder the day after campus training, no matter how strong you feel. This was a bigger blow than I realized at the time. I was feeling very strong during that training cycle – hitting new PBs, albeit off a low base, on my hangboard workouts, and excelling on the campus board – with 1-3-5-7-9 double dynos and 1-4-6 max ladders on the small rungs. I was targeting a V6 at Hueco and I still think I could have got it if it were it not for that injury – although that’s relatively pointless to say now. With the trip planned, I went anyway, searching beforehand for routes without right handed crimp moves. In the end, I sent a V5 on my 3rd attempt, albeit one I think is relatively soft – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPWZcHCZbb4 footage of the entire trip there. The send at least boosted my confidence in my potential to climb 5.11+/5.12-.

After the Hueco trip I took 2 weeks off climbing cold, to give the finger time to calm down. I returned to light climbing towards the end of March and went and saw a finger therapist. She recommended a much more conservative approach that what I would have liked in terms of recovery, so I mostly ignored her advice, and did some hang boarding rehab etc.

At the end of April I took a trip out to Austin with my wife and a few of her friends. We found a short 25 foot wall and I was pretty relaxed about climbing. I jumped on a bunch of 5.10s and onsighted a 5.10d and 2nd attempt on another 5.10d. Feeling confident, I eyed off a 5.11c called Ten Foot Pole, a Hueco like boulder problem to a slight overhang, followed by some delicate foot/crimp/pocket moves to the chains. I got it second attempt – my best send to date. Still, underlying this was the V5 send, and my belief that I wasn’t climbing sport at the potential of my physical strength. My head game had significantly improved – I’d only learnt to lead about 13 months prior. However, I still wasn’t satisfied.

We planned a trip over the May long weekend, to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, AR for more sport climbing. It got rained out though, so we diverted to Horse Pens 40. I had grand ideas of climbing V5, but we were choosing the wrong time of year to go for sending problems at our limit. I onsighted a bunch of V2 and V3 problems instead, and sent a single V4. Wasn’t satisfied at the time, but I learnt a lot about climbing slopers. See a V3 flash here – https://youtu.be/fH0vsSNpOCU

The summer in Texas was as can be expected, 90 something most days with 60+% humidity. We would venture out to Austin occasionally and get about 2-3 hours of morning climbing in before it became unbearable. I put down a few more 5.10s and a couple of 5.11-, but no significant progress. I should have taken the summer to just recover from injuries and get strong. Instead I got on a 5.12b in the gym and tweaked another pulley. Not as major as the injury at the start of the year, but I knew it would at least linger for 3-4 months. I decided to start online training with Justen Sjong – and to give the Anderson Bros method a rest. I figured a change-up could help, and I understood Justen focused a lot more on the mental aspect of climbing. I figured it could be also helpful to have someone disciplining me to prevent further injury.

The psychological drills that Justen had me do through training seemed to help. I also got a lot stronger in my core – an area that I had neglected a bit through my own training. I stayed on Justens programs up until November.

Over the end of summer and into fall I got a couple of short trips in at locations outside of Texas where it wouldn’t be so hot. Travelling for work a lot allows me to fit in small climbing day trips. I got to Squamish, and to Smith Rock. The smaller day trips have helped me hone the logistics of 1 and 2 day trips to get the most out of them, but I didn’t see any crazy climbing gains. The experience on different type of rock was great, as was just the stoke of climbing somewhere new and amazing like Squamish and Smith.

Justen and I programmed my training so that I would start to peak in performance at the beginning of October, as temps got better in Texas. I got serious, and planned 4 weekend trips to Austin, as well as the longer trip to the Red. Over the trips in October I sent 23 routes. Each weekend saw an improvement, with me onsighting my first 5.11, then a 5.11c flash, then a 5.11b onsight and 5.11d redpoint the weekend after. It’s hard to know if the training really paid off, or if it was just that my injuries had become null naggings and I was able to climb in decent weather again, for the first time since the start of the year.

Reflecting…

On reflecting, there is obvious numeric progress. My average onsight over 12 months has gone from 5.10a to 5.11a/b and my max RP has gone from 5.11b to 5.11d. Something I should be pleased with. Certainly if 2017 sees my average OS progress in the same amount – that would be phenomenal. However, linear progress seems naïve and unrealistic. My strength and performance in bouldering at the beginning of the year probably made me over-optimistic about what grade I could climb at by the end of the year. Anecdotally I’ve become a more confident climber, and learned much from climbing different types of rock, and learning lessons about trip logistics and how to maximize performance within trip constraints. I think I underestimated how my psychological gains would hold and progress over time – they were less sticky than I thought, where it would take me a few warm ups and practice falls each weekend to get in the groove again.

I am more challenged on longer routes, due to the lack of tall climbing available in Texas. In the longer term, I will most likely need to relocate to a location where outdoor climbing is a 30-60 minute drive away – particularly when my wife and I have children and climbing time becomes more restricted, and climbing trips more difficult logistically. I don’t know if it’s a very effective use of my time to travel to new crags and get on 70-100 foot routes that are above my 30-50 foot onsight grade, and expect them to go in 2-3 attempts. The moves feel well within my capacity, but I get shut down by a lack of endurance and not enough time to dial in the beta to the degree that I could overcome that lack of endurance.

I learnt a different style of training, and shifted a lot of my focus onto improving the psychological aspect of my climbing. Training with Justen gave me a raft of new workout styles and approaches, and showed me that I could train harder than I thought I could, in a way that wouldn’t get me injured.

Most of all, I think that my goal setting is ineffective. In essence, I gave up on the goals from the beginning of the year about 4 months ago. They have been too optimistic, and because I set the bar so high, when I do actually achieve something positive, it doesn’t seem as grand an achievement. When your goal is to send 5+ 5.12a’s and a 5.12b, and you send your first 5.11c in April, the thought is, okay that’s nice but you have another 3 grades to go to get your goal this year. I’ll take this into account when setting my goals for next year.

When I look back at my last post at the end of 2015, where I felt I was at the cusp of climbing 5.12a, this year does seem somewhat disappointing from a Max RP progress perspective. I’m starting to view my climbing in other ways though, and not just my max RP. I’ve been lucky to climb in some amazing places, and I’m very thankful for that.

Looking ahead…

For the rest of the year I’ll just be relaxed and climbing for fun. I’ll set new goals in January for 2017, but it’s likely that my life situation with regards to living in Texas will change. I want to get a full Anderson Bros cycle in at the beginning of the year, with a few hybrid adjustments from Justens training. I’ll spend the next few weeks reflecting more and deciding on my goals for 2017.

In the long term, 8a feels completely realistic and achievable to me. Whether it’s 3 years or 5 years from now, that’s unclear. There will be a few challenges along the way, injuries, children, work commitments, that I will need to overcome.