Neal's Blog

Ticking harder routes - "letting go"

2012-01-18T08:30:00.000Z

Following on from the previous post on just attempting harder routes than you've previously tried and the size of holds on real-rock routes, I thought I'd continue this theme of motivation and how to improve at climbing for people of all levels. I'm using the excuse of the 8a last week I was on purely as it's a good reference point for comparison, but this should all transfer to any grades that you're improving towards.

Following on from last week, I'm referencing the concept of relaxing on routes. And in a timely manner, Dave MacLeod talked about this on his Online Coaching blog last week so it's perfectly apt that it proves I'm not making this up :)

"It’s a worthy concern - constantly bouldering teaches you how to to deliver maximum force and tension from start to finish. It’s often very easy to tell that a climber mainly boulders, just by looking at them climb for a few moves. For someone very experienced who is still climbing a lot of routes for a large part of the year, it’s not such a problem. But if a large proportion of your yearly climbing is on a boulder wall and you are ultimately training for routes, it’s still worth putting a harness on and clipping a rope on a real route whenever you can so you don’t lose the ability to climb with minimal force on the steady parts of routes. In the boulder wall, circuits are still ‘the business’ but make sure and mix them up often and include some you don’t have dialled, so you remember how to use your brain while pumped and make it up as you go along if you mess your feet up or forget where the next hold is."

Having a lot of experience on routes (A lot more than bouldering), meant that I didn't struggle as much with this while in Spain, but it still took a couple of days climbing to adapt to the economy of movement required for route climbing.

"Letting Go"
One of the most important aspects of route climbing, sport or trad, hard or easy is that you just can't pull at 100% all the time over 10's of meters of rock. Your arms/body will power out and you'll be off before you know it. The nature of staying within capacity is that you need to stay below a threshold somewhere around 70-80%% of your maximum. Below that your body is able to naturally recover and, for simplistic terms, get blood moving through the arms. (I'm being very very simplistic here, for more information, I recommend doing some research on Aerobic and Anaerobic training - or just buying one of the climbing training books I've mentioned before).
Strange as it sounds but you need to learn to 'let go' on holds, use the "minimal force" that Dave talks about above. A natural tendency for all (especially those coming from bouldering*) is to grab a hold and grip it with as much intensity as possible. In bouldering it makes sense, you don't want to slip off, but for routes, all that leads to is the magic 'pumped' senstation we all know and love/hate.
But ideally what you need to learn is to relax on the hold enough that you're solid on the hold and comfortable, that you can get your effort level below that threshold where you can start to recover. This is obviously something to practice, the easiest being to just go and climb routes, concentrate on learning to shake out on holds that you imagine yourself recovering on. At the bouldering wall, a good way of simulating it is to go and climb multiple problems back to back - it'll force you to think about energy conservation as you can't just sit around on the mats immediately after completing a problem!

Essentially, you need to 'train' the body to be efficient. Especially before the route season, consider spending some time learning to 'let go'........ Ideally, you'll do this by tying in with a rope and actually climbing routes (by far the easiest method

This isn't to say that you won't be giving 100% at times on routes either, but it's learning to only use that 100% effort when it's really required. Hope that makes sense!

*I actually suffer from the opposite syndrome to this 'letting go' issue - I've spent so much time doing routes that learning to pull at maximum intensity is quite hard (anyone who has watched me bouldering in the past couple of months will have noticed I'm taking time to adapt to bouldering :)
Again, it's the same concept - go and spend time bouldering more to get the body to adapt to the idea of pulling with everything it's got. As route climbers, it's especially important that you do this to improve your overall strength and power.....

Ticking harder routes - get on them! and hold sizes

2012-01-16T16:23:00.000Z

The 'rest' on Mar de Ortigas, 8a

While in El Chorro, I managed to get in and tick another 8a at the end of the trip. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a surprise it came so easily as I thought I hadn't been doing that much climbing the past couple of months with the new job. In the end it took 3 redpoint attempts (so did it on my 4th go after going on it once to try out the moves). Since it's the start of the year, and I can see loads of people getting active with fresh motivation after the Christmas splurge, I thought it was worthwhile to put some thoughts down on screen to give some perspectives/motivation for others aspiring to climb a harder grade (be it at any level).

Get on them!

The biggest thing you could do is just get on the harder routes! So many times, it's easy to think they're too hard, you're not good enough, etc and avoid trying the harder routes. All I can say is that you'd be surprised, so long as you go on them with an open mind, a willingness to try, and some keeness to share the information between others who are going to try it also, you will be fine. I'm not trying to say get on something wayyy harder than you've climbed but you could definitely go a grade or two above what you've done before.

As part of this, you also have to accept the idea of practicing, or redpointing, a route. While many people in Ireland avoid it while away on a sports trip, usually under the excuse that they don't have much time and want to spend doing new routes, everyone can benefit from trying harder routes because it brings up your onsighting ability which means you'll have even more routes to onsight!

I'd be willing to bet that most people in Ireland could easily climb a couple of grades harder if they tried redpointing a couple of routes......

Hold Sizes

While at climbing walls, it's easy to get into the habit of using massive footholds and pulling either monster holds/jugs. On harder routes, you will not get this type of holds unless it's really steep! I'm going to use the above photo as an example. This is the rest point on the 8a at the 4th bolt.

You can tell the angle of the rock by the quickdraw above my head (10 degrees or so overhanging).

As you can see in the images below, these are my hands and my feet:

left foot in a slot that was a mono for a handhold, right foot on a small edge

As you can see from the feet, they are much small than resin holds on an indoor wall! That's not to say it's impossible but remember to spend time on vertical to overhanging terrain with small footholds. In time and with practice, you will (not might, will!) learn to recover and rest on holds of these types. It also means you need to spend time getting very accurate with your feet, accurate and specific foot placements are critical.

handhold is a medium sized hold, very incut and positive. Right hand is in chalked sidepull in top right of image.

From the image of the handholds, you can see they are good, very good. Having said that, they are not massive juggy holds that you will find on any climbing wall in the world. Again, spend time on medium sized holds if you can to build fitness. At it's most extreme, the best climbers in the world can recover something smaller than a one-joint edge, so for 'normals' like the rest of us, it's possible to build up to the point of recovering on most holds.

In short, hopefully this gives some pointers into what is expected of harder routes.

And in short, as described in watching the Adam Ondra movie recently, you can adapt this quote to how to climb a harder route for yourself:

"You must work very hard to become a natural golfer." (as said by Gary Player, golfer)

If you practice at your local climbing wall on smaller holds, prepare with a bit more intensity, your grade on routes (be it trad or sport) will most likely increase this year.

Later on in the week.....'letting go'

Hope that helps!

El Chorro

2012-01-09T15:56:00.003Z

Sean on 7b+

Loads of photos can be found here - thanks Claire!
Since it's that time of year I'm sure I'm meant to talk about New Years resolutions and the like, but since I know that statistically most new years resolutions fail before the end of January, I'll leave it at that (suffice to say, if you're making a resolution, wait until February or March when the doom and gloom of January has worn off*!). My only resolution was to start the year off climbing so myself and a great gang bailed for the balmy weather of El Chorro for New Years. People keep telling me there can be epic rains and snow at this time of year there, I've been there twice and barely seen a cloud so I find it hard to believe :) Still though, in typical tradition I did make sure to climb at the shady crags for the week and a half, I'm not one for climbing in the sun - one of the fundamentals of climbing for saving skin!
In the end, about 8 days of climbing involved about 40-ish new routes climbed of all grades. Strangely, my favourite line of the trip was my hardest - this is pretty unusual. Example: my favorite line of 2011 was a seven (or was it six?) pitch 5+/6a at Orpierre - a third pitch of delicate smears, and a final pitch out a steep overhanging corner to a wild finish and a stunning belay above the valley floor. Just shows it's not all about the hardest grade to do the best moves.

This trip also reminded me absolutely about why I love going to different locations for climbing. I got to spend some time with some close friends from Sheffield, Holland and Moab (USA). I'd no idea any of them were going to be there but it's always cool to arrive at a crag in a random country and realize you know some of the people. Different perspectives, ideas, motivations, cultures all blend me into a better person. Of course, we gained some additional friends, this time Montreal (Canada) was the new location, Felix spent his whole time raving about the crag of Rumney (Dave Graham's old stomping ground) - it's now on my list of places to go.

As ever, routes were tried, everyone was going well. Most importantly, I think we all came back having learnt something and renewed motivation for the year. Am I motivated after the trip? definitely! bring on more activities - psyche!

* or else read this great article about writing training goals from Jack Geldard....

When one decides to start training, it is sometimes done with a rush of enthusiasm or psyche. This psyche is not self-discipline, and a distinction must be made between the two things. Your psyches tells you that you can train 6 days per week. Your psyche tells you that getting up at 6am and going for a run in the cold and dark mornings of January is totally within your capability. Basically, your psyche is full of shit. Even if that psyche can last for a couple of weeks, it most probably can’t last for long enough for you to finish a real training programme for climbing.

New Years Resolutions

2011-12-13T12:20:00.000Z

It's getting to that time of year so personally I know I'm thinking about what I'm going to be thinking about and aiming for next year.

It's easy to go with the attitude of going to the wall, or going out doing routes/mountains/whatever with no focus whatsoever. Just turning up and doing whatever you feel like, seeing small bits of progress every once in a while. The closest anyone gets to a plan is when it's a couple of weeks before the summer or before a trip, they run off to do some mileage at the local wall to gain some stamina....

But like all in all other sports, it's easy to integrate some rough plans and see even better gains - it all revolves around the fact that your body gets bored of the same stimulus. Go to the wall day-in-day-out and just go bouldering, you're body will stop adapting to the same repetitiveness after a few weeks and you'll start to slow down in your improvements. Not completely stop improving, but your body just doesn't adapt as quickly. So variation is key.

Because I have a preference for route climbing (and bolted at that), I follow a rough variation of the systems as advocated by Eric Horst's book and numerous other plans - adapting to a block of fitness at the start to develop the basic adaptions to the body, then a few weeks of strength work, then a couple of weeks of power work (think dynos/campusing or explosive type of movement) and then a couple of weeks of trying hard routes (or intervals) if you see it mentioned online before going on a trip. I don't completely drop all other activities when I'm focusing on an area but will just reduce the amount I'm doing of it so my body can develop overall at the priority - e.g. I'll reduce the amount of climbing I'm doing massively when doing strength work as I don't want to be too tired from the aerobic work - so perhaps 75% of my week is strength work and the other 25% is a variation of general climbing, etc.

Another method of stimulating improvements is just modifying the amount of climbing you do. You normally go and do 10 routes at the wall? What if I was to tell you that in some other countries, they do 10 routes as a warm-up, and then do another 10 routes of difficulty, and another 5 to warm down? Why not try and increase the amount you do in a session by 10% every time (e.g. do 11 routes the first night, 12 the next, etc.) until you've increased by 50% and then start trying 10 harder routes and increase again. Variation is key!

This isn't for all, but perhaps you've been looking for an excuse to progress (at whatever your favorite discipline is) and this might be the time to think about it?......

Saturday psyche: 8b/V13 flash

2011-12-10T09:22:00.001Z

Nalle Hukkataival flashing Crown of Aragorn (V13) from ZeroSkillz on Vimeo.

Nalle Hukkataival flashing a V13 boulder at Hueco Tanks joining the elite club to do so - only 5 or so people.

Hard. Core.

Comparison of movies....

2011-12-09T11:18:00.001Z

I posted these on Facebook, but thought they deserved linking from here.
One retro (taken from the classic training book, Performance Rock Climbing - warning, 20+ minutes in length):

One recent (this week, produced by Adidas, now the proud owners of FiveTen):

On October 15th 2011, Adidas team athlete, Sasha DiGiulian became the first American women to climb the grade 9a (5.14d) with her historic ascent of "Pure Imagination" in Kentucky's Red River Gorge. Keith Ladzinski and Andy Mann (Three Strings Media) were there to capture her efforts and tell her story.

Turn off the sound before watching the videos, and enjoy the 2nd one!

2011-12-08T08:30:00.000Z

In comparison to this (which I find hard to watch with the sound on), I came across this wonderful documentary on Christian Core, the first person to climb this problem (Gioia, the first V16/8c+ problem by all accounts after Adam Ondra, above, repeated it for the first time a couple of days ago).

Possibly one of the best interviews with a professional climber and I love his comments on climbing and traveling - makes me want to go on another trip! With some proper training beforehand first ;)

Thoughts? Do you want to travel to see different areas, or is climbing that you love just in your local area/country?

Personally, I could quote from the documentary - climbing was a fantastic means to go traveling. Something that I could use to see new locations, climb on amazing other rock, etc. Grades and performance were only a part of the experience, something that could develop through the years. Thoughts? Or is this too deep a question for the middle of the week :)

Update: I just posted this on Facebook about the Ondra video: "It's strange - I find Ondra's screaming very hard work to listen to - he's just not an enjoyable climber to watch in comparison to many others (although that 8c/8c+? onsight earlier in the year is stunning), but completely admire the full-on determination he brings to getting up routes/problems. Think I could learn something from him.....
As a quote on Twitter said this week: ""Ambition can outstrip ability with effortless ease." He may not look the strongest climber, but he sure can pull like one!

Review: 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes, by Dave MacLeod

2011-12-05T13:12:00.000Z

Dave MacLeod, of hard trad/sport/ice/mountain fame, came out with this different, fascinating book (Amazon link). The short description is that its' text heavy, feels like you're reading a novel, but full of countless insights and ideas on improving your own performance by not falling into the usual traps. But it is very text heavy, in fact, it may as well not have any cover image, the rest of the book is so sparse for imagery!

This is most definitely not a beginner (as in 'I only started climbing a couple of weeks or months ago' beginner) but for anyone else, and especially if you haven't climbing overly long and want to skip many of the mistakes made by others, read this. Although, did I mention there's a lot of text?

Anyone who reads this blog and climbs a lot will recognise the common pitfalls: turning up at the wall with no plan, or getting distracted by other people's plans. It tries to turn you to focus your efforts into your goals.

This is definitely worth a read, but probably with a highlighter so you can go back through it again, or give to your mate so he can read the important parts.

9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes: Navigation Through the Maze of Advice for the Self-coached Climber (Amazon link).

BBC sports personality of the year contender almost included a climber?!

2011-12-02T15:16:00.001Z

The final World Cup Bouldering event of the year highlights - all can be found here

You know your sport is becoming more mainstream when you find out that a young GB athlete made the top-20 and almost the final top-10 of the BBC Young Sports Personality of The Year Award 2011. See the article here about it here.

What's interesting however, is if you got to the finalist page on the BBC and look at the list. All of the sports that made it (and usually make it) are traditional, well developed sport: athletics, boxing, rugby, etc. Times, they are a' changing.

If you want more info on how climbing is progressing in perception and visibility in the UK, Natalie Berry wrote up a great post recently about a trip to Westminister to promote for possible Olympic candidacy - I didn't know that Dame Kelly Holmes was a rock climber:

"She is a keen climber herself, and told of her trips to Fontainebleau, Stanage and of her fascination with the sport."

It's interesting, my climbing background (i.e. it being a non-mainstream sport, under the radar for most people, etc.) means that I see some of this in surprise/bemusement to see it getting publicity. How long before it's being discussed at Olympics....................

Review: Sport climbing From Top Rope to Redpoint, Techniques for Climbing Success, by Andrew Bisharat

2011-11-29T21:00:00.000Z

I came across this book at some point about a year ago and thought I'd grab it on a whim - never did get around to writing up a post about it until now.....

In essence, this book is about the techniques for climbing sport routes, going from top roping to on-sighting or red-pointing. It's not a training book for improving your physical performance, but more designed to get you thinking about the other parts of climbing routes. Mental preparation and visualization, strategies for resting and clipping, breaking down the route into sections, etc.

To be honest, this wasn't what I expected when I bought the this book - especially as it came with a foreword from Chris Sharmaaaaaa but as a tool for how to improve your standard of climbing, especially as a beginner or intermediate climber, I can definitely see it's uses.

In short, worth a read if you're looking for some ideas on how to improve on a sports trip at preparing for routes.

What skin cream have you tried?

2011-11-28T08:29:00.000Z

Many will have come across various methods for recovery of skin. The most public and well known is, of course, the Climb On Intensive Skin Care Bar. Personally, I find it great if you know you've a couple of days off, but in frequent usage (i.e. daily/hourly!), it's oily and it only creates a fake layer on top which disintegrates pretty quick if you start climbing on it too soon.

Other more obscure options are Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream - go figure, people rave about this stuff!

Two summers ago, I spent a bunch of time climbing with Nathan Hoette and Heather. Nathan would be described as a 'wad' in the UK - i.e stupidly strong and good, like 8c/8c+ good. So when they both mentioned the name 'blastoestimulina' I took note. I only managed to get my hands on a tube of this stuff in Spain a few weeks ago (you have to ask for it, it's not on display). And I got the perfect opportunity to try it on Friday. I tore a complete pad off on Thursday evening while fighting through the 4x4's - this is normally an oh-well-no-climbing-for-neal-for-three-or-four-days job. Except I threw it on before bed last night twice, and woke up to find the pad almost healed about 50/60%. It still needs another day of growth, but I can say that this cream seems to work on my skin perfectly. Thanks Nathan and Heather!

Does anyone know anything else better for skin repair? Don't climb? ;)

Update 2nd December: Nige highly recommends Antihydral and I've just had an email from a very well known American climber to say that it works as well as the people say. Most importantly though:

"You still have to take good care of your skin. Filing/sanding/lotion/taping."

Update 2: You'll also see the post below mentioning 'cycatril' that is sold in France....

reading

2011-11-25T07:41:00.001Z

I'm trying to work out if I should start including info/events from my job right now. For example, last weekend's Irish Lead Climbing Championship 2011 (ILCC '11).... They're climbing related, I was there, so why not, I guess - thoughts welcome....

Suffice to say, it was a great time in Dingle as always. The level of motivation and ability continues to progress year-by-year as an average (i.e I don't think there's any one person who's wayyy stronger or better than anyone else), and I know I personally leave pretty motivated for my own climbing afterwards. What was cool to see was the determination and focus everyone gave in trying to do their absolute best, but while sitting around they were cheering on all the other competitors. Exactly how competition should be!

In the past couple of weeks, I've just been busy with work. I mean really busy. So my own climbing had to take a back seat for a while. That's o.k - I kind of needed a break as it turned out, and in doing so, mentally I'm more refreshed to get stuck into it again.

I'm a big believer in learning from what's gone before - i.e learn from what's been written about and talked about in climbing, and in climbing training. Then adapt that information for my own needs.
So out came Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance, and Training for Climbing, and Performance Rockclimbing (retro!!!!!!), and 9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes: Navigation Through the Maze of Advice for the Self-coached Climber and a couple of others. And out came the pile of blogs from climbers worldwide - great write-ups from Joe Kinder of big trips for motivation, Sean McColl winning his first lead World Cup (a must read for anyone looking at competitions), Ryan Palo's Sport Climbing is Neither blog, and a couple of others.
El Chorro for New Years is only 4+ weeks away so for now, it's not going to be a proper developed plan up to it. So this week was a crusher week - just do everything I could to shock the body into what's required. My back, shoulders, forearms are in agony today - it's so good to have that feeling again :) [Note: when starting a 'proper' plan, they normally start off with 2-4 weeks of easy mileage just to get the muscles prepared for the high-stress training work that lies ahead - I'm climbing long enough that I can get away with that most of the time now, but will do a block of this in January before I start properly.]
I had my first interval session last night, 4x4's. Got to love them, they keep you honest about how fit you actually are. Next two weeks are a double dose of those, with extra hard problems to keep the strength and power topped up. That's also about as much climbing as I can get done so I'll be making the most of the time - easy to think you need dozens of hours for training but if you for the the quality-not-quantity approach, you can get a lot more out of it at times...... Interesting to see how this block goes, I'll find out in 5-ish weeks :)

Lucky Chance

2011-11-11T10:16:00.001Z

BASE Jump Chute Failure, Miracle Save! from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.
Over the years I've come across a lot of 'interesting' people to say the least in my travels and climbing:
- lots of ordinary, quiet, unassuming people doing extraordinary things: we may hear what all the celebrity climbers are doing, but there's just as many people underground that are doing as much. Here's a task that would be worth completing: name all the other sports where people spend 20, 30+ hours per week doing, and training, for their sport.
- The Aussie guy who introduced the Australian grading system to South Africa (and amusingly, got it one grade out :). He's an ex-prolific trad climbing new-router, now a prolific sport climbing new-router in Canada, in his 60's and still climbing mid to high grade 7 (that's E7-ish in trad money) sport routes.
- the couple of guys developing Hampi's bouldering area. Living out in the boulders for weeks on end, on their own, just doing new problems. Hi Squib*
- Various people who have had big high-paying careers in various disciplines (engineering, IT, accountancy, etc) and given it all up to either go pursue adventures of all sorts around the the world, and working as guides. Not to escape the 'real world' but because they just had an absolute passion for the outdoors and the world around then they hadn't realized they had.
- Various people who were on the wrong side of the law who found a love for traveling/biking/climbing and put them on a track to a more happy life for them and friends around them.
- Various people who were just gifted at something, showing 'normal' people like myself just what was possible......

One those people was Lucky Chance. I knew him as Toby of course back then (he changed his name). Myself and Dave spent a summer hanging out with him in 2003-ish, he shared a seat in my car as we wandered across Europe. To say he put himself out there would be an understatement - skipping bolts wildly at Ceuse (where the run-outs are already respectable enough!), performing outrageous gymnastic maneuvers (including being the first, and only, person I've ever seen to try and land a back-flip on a slackline - he was close, remember this was 2003, well before many others were trying it). My abiding memory is of him walking along the guard pole at the top of the Verdon Gorge in his trainers with a 300 meter drop on one side and no safety line. It's funny to think that by then, I didn't even think that was unusual and barely blinked when he did it.
Of course, after that, he went off, and ahead of the time in many ways, cruised up much of the gritstone in the UK (usually without pads or spotters) using only a natural talent and awareness of balance that I've rarely seen. You'll find him on the DVD HXS, showing off that awesome talent he had.

And then he I heard nothing more - just another one of the 'interesting' people I'd met in my life.

I heard little stories over the years about him. He'd joined the circus, learned how to be a fully trained gymnast from it. Took up base jumping.....
Until a couple of weeks ago when Dave dropped a link on Facebook. And then it showed up on UKclimbing yesterday that a BASE jump finally went wrong (it's ridiculously high risk). You can read the full story there, and also here for more info.
The unbelievable video above is of his previous near miss in the Blue Mountains while BASE jumping. The funny part is, there was definitely luck involved in him getting away with the incident, but I also know that he had the skills and resources to land in a manner that would have reduced the risk of an injury. That was, and is, Lucky's way - he was one of those people who had the ability to land like a cat.

It seems he's recovering now after his incident, and in his own way. He's very smashed up but has already managed to escape from hospital once in a wheelchair :) I'm not going to go in to the rights and wrongs of putting yourself into such extreme situations time and time again but I will comment that I remember that when I knew him, he was always aware of what he was doing (in the couple of months we hung out with him, there was only one incident where he probably overstepped the mark in Ceuse). I'm sure lots of people will disagree with the of doing things so dangerous but his sister nicely sums it up from the Sydney Morning Herald article above:

''It was always his choice,'' she said. ''No matter what happens from here, at least he was living life exactly the way he wanted, doing the one thing that gave him most pleasure.''

I've no idea if anyone else came across the guy who reads this blog, but if you want to donate to support his recuperation, head over to MyCause here. Keep it real Lucky!!!

* Squib, who many in Ireland, will have come across inspiring people at Ceuse during the summer:

is this a possible future to competitions?

2011-11-03T09:00:00.000Z

Advance warning: video above is over an hour long - not for work!

Treat this post as an interlude until Naomi writes another post after last weekend's Dublin marathon in relation to climbing.

I know lots of people don't compete (I rarely do myself) and don't have an interest in the comps, but what would you like to see to make them more of an interest? The comps can also be a great outlet for improving your own ability for 'real' rock - so long as you balance plastic-pulling with real-rock climbing (to keep the techniques required for pulling on rock topped up). There's nothing like some competition as a motivator at times :) Remember that our sport is potentially an olympic candidate for 2020/2024 so it's in our interests for it to get a good showing. Thoughts?

I ended up thinking about this after seeing that La Sportiva held a competition in Norway a couple of weeks ago. Essentially it was a sponsored-by-La-Sportiva-only competitors demonstration event but it brought together some of the big name climbers from across the world - you'll recognise names if you read any of the mags/blogs/etc.

Not only this but they also tried a new format of competition......
In the usual system at all events, you have a set amount of time to try a problem. So, try and onsight it, and if not try again until time runs out. Then move onto the next problem and repeat. I've always felt that one of the issues is that without prior practice, the problems just won't be as difficult, and also limits the possible maximum level. Think of it like gymnastics - they prepare for years for their routine so can completely maximise the difficulty of it. It would be like changing that format (in gymnastics) so that they were given a list of activities as they walked out in front of the crowd and told to do them perfectly. If they don't, they start again and try from beginning. They also only had 5 minutes to do it perfectly. It just wouldn't be possible for them to set the difficulty as high.

So La Sportiva ran this differently. The day before, they were given two hours to try all the problems and work them to death. Then the goal was to send as many of them as possible at the final event on the following day. It meant that the level of the problems was higher, something like Font 8a+-8b+ I believe instead of mid-to-high 7's at a normal World Cup event (correct me if I'm wrong on those grades)? Personally I thought it was great idea, especially as they removed the other rule that competitors couldn't know their position (at a World Cup event, the announcer isn't allowed discuss this at all leading to a slightly awkward presenter - considering all the competitors can be seen to be discussing how they did when in isolation, what's the point?).

Personally, I'd like to see more problems with less of a blob-squeezing focus. It's hard to appreciate how hard (especially when you see that the competitors are getting visibly frustrated also as it's too hot to pull on the slopers) they actually are whereas the video below from an old USA-based comp, it's easy to appreciate that footless maneuvers are hard!

You know what describes the health of the Irish climbing scene is when....

2011-11-02T10:33:00.000Z

...it's only a week (give or take) until the new bouldering wall opens
...you hear stories of a person traveling up from Athlone to the Archway Co-Op to climb twice a week (hint: someone open a wall in Athlone!).
...there's a new coaching company in town (with some very experienced names behind it). So maybe myself and Nige were a bit early with our idea :)
...one of the Co-operatives is making up a slick little promo video like this:

Co op / Rathmines from Trish Fox on Vimeo.

Courtesy of Trish, nice one :)

Anyone noticed also that the book to read is available now: Johnny Dawes "Full of Myself" - let me know if you've read it already....

Winter motivation - a podcast and a book.

2011-10-27T09:43:00.002+01:00

For anyone looking for something to listen to over the winter months, looking for some direction in their own climbing improvements, a nice place to start is with the writer of the intro book to climbing training, Eric Horst. He produces a podcast for Podclimber, you'll find it here (note: it's an iTunes link for all you non-iTunes users :)

Also, if anyone is looking for a book to peruse, Eric Horst's "Training for Climbing 2nd Edition"(Amazon link)* is a good place to start. There's a lot of books out there. Some are ridiculously technical (but perfect if that's what you're looking for), some are just lots of text with good ideas (again, good if you know what you're doing), but for all the comments against this book, it's an excellent resource to start out with. Basic movement skills, basic-to-intermediate fingerboarding information, basic stretching, a great introduction to goal planning, it has a some of everything. If you're interested in a read, it's worth checking out. I've slowly been collecting all books I've in my library also onto a page linking directly from Amazon - see here.

*this blog is obviously free, but I do get a small (tiny!) cut for sending you onto Amazon if you use the link above. You don't get charged anything extra, so there's no reason not to :) Think of it as a small donation towards all the wifi bills that have been racked up while writing posts in random parts of the world in the days when you had to pay for wifi!

New role

2011-10-18T20:30:00.001+01:00

This is going to be a once-off as this is my personal writing, thoughts, opinion blog so not usually related to work. But since I've had a spike in traffic in relation to it, I thought it was worth mentioning.

As of the weekend, I'm officially the Talent Development Officer for Mountaineering Ireland. For anyone who knew her, I'm replacing Ang in many respects. While they aren't physically the biggest boots to fill (I jest here, and can say this as I know Ang so well) they are huge boots as regards the amount of work (both visible and behind the scenes) she did for climbing in Ireland in her role. Of course, she's gone off to other roles now where she's making another enormous input to the development of Irish climbing but that's her story to tell.

All I can say is that it's an exciting time in Ireland so I'm privileged to be involved and very psyched for getting stuck into supporting the scene through Mountaineering Ireland. I may have been traveling extensively in the past few years, but all my climbing was started and honed in Ireland - the photo above from a few weeks ago being the earliest known example I have (although if someone wants to make us all laugh, send me on an even older pic and I promise to post it :). I'm now full circle and looking forward to giving back to a sport that has given me so much over the years (and will continue to give me so much into the future)! So, on that note, if you've thoughts on climbing and the future direction of the scene in Ireland, make sure to contact me through all the various means (this blog you're reading, mobile (again, if you know it), my personal email (for those who know it), my work email, Facebook, Google+, Twitter - either of them, skype - neal.mcquaid, or even better face to face somewhere at a crag!**).

Now on that note, back to the usual waffle........ :)

**and in case the above communication list in ridiculous, in a previous life, I worked in IT and had a fascination with technology and mobile trends that still exists to this day!

just another Spanish crag among many.....

2011-09-27T10:34:00.001+01:00

Just a short post to update after getting back from Spain.....

- northern Spain is amazing, the best concentration of rock currently going. It's hard to describe just how much there is.
- living out of a van is the future of trips (nothing new there but not that common for people heading out from Ireland due to cost of ferries, etc).
- the crag above is just one random crag visited (click on the image....). No-one there all week. North-facing. In-situ draws to help with retrieving your own. And chairs made with old rope for comfortable relaxing. 30-40 meters of tufa grappling and edges. Go exploring to find it, I'm not giving details as the mission for our trip was to explore new zones and I'd almost forgotten how much fun that is over visiting old spots.
- 3 8a's ticked in just over a week for me, 4 for Al.
- Oliana looks amazing, imagine Biographie sector of Ceuse only it's all blue limestone. I'm psyched for a big trip back. Better get training, routes really only start at 8a!

Back in Ireland, psyched to start catching up with lots of old (and new) friends! the scene seems alive right now :)

Update: the image above was taken on an iPhone with Microsoft's free Photosynth app. Amazing!

Self Coached Climber « Bouldering Comp Season: Training Tips

2011-09-23T12:37:00.000+01:00

For those of you planning to enter comps over the winter months:

Self Coached Climber « Bouldering Comp Season: Training Tips

The earliest climbing photo I can find - guess the route

2011-08-31T01:00:00.000+01:00

September 2000-ish I think. Dalkey Quarry. Spot the newbie-stuff: Soloing. Wearing a harness. And carrying a belay device.

Guess the route: Steve McG isn't allowed enter, or anyone on Google+ :)

p.s. miss those shoes!

Comical : enjoy....

2011-08-27T13:22:00.000+01:00

Progression

2011-08-19T10:03:00.000+01:00

Wow, I didn't think it would make that much of a difference! Yesterday, I discussed the fact that on the first crux I'd found that I was capable of staying on, even with feet off. On yesterday's afternoon attempts, knowing this fact meant that when I got to the exact point, there was no nervousness, just a complete confidence in ability to pull through. The first crux went easily, although I did slip off soon after. Still though, I'm really learning so much from this experience of trying a route of this kind. It's comforting that many other find this much harder than the supposed grade - I guess they all are of a similar style of climbing to me, less steep being a preference. In the end, I came off three times, but the upper crux again being a silly mistake. I almost linked to the chains from the 5th quickdraw to the chains. So close.

And yet, today is my last day, and I've to get my draws off Les Colonettes which means I can't try it again anymore. Still though, the experience on this route was brilliant, truly amazing. I know I'm capable of climbing 8b/+ (from the few I've tried now) with the right time and planning, but I now know I'm capable of doing a steep, burly 8b which changes the game a little.
As usual of course, having a local project would help - I'm developing a bad habit of getting really close on routes and then never getting back to them due to distance. Such is life I suppose for someone based in the UK or Ireland! I'll just have to up my game for future trips and make sure I've got the excess strength and mindset to send them quicker :)

Much of this trip's idea and focus has been based off articles like this one: "For Those Who Refuse To Work The Moves... Do You Know Where Your Limits Lie?". On most trips, my focus is just traveling, experiencing the location, and trying lots of routes that I'll either on-sight or do on first or second go. As a side benefit of course, it means that I on-sight 95% of routes up to the mid-to-high 7's - and I can do it on any style of rock usually with a day of arriving. But the benefits of trying something really hard has been refreshing! It's definitely not my limit this route, but my physical condition and mindset after a difficult year meant that it was perfect to get on. Now, if only the start hold hadn't fallen off Biographie...... ;)
Have a great weekend all!

Today's motivation, courtesy of UKclimbing:

Different Days

2011-08-18T10:03:00.001+01:00

What a mix of fortunes and experiences trying something much above your limit brings. Three days ago was not a good day on L'Ami. The start felt desperate, I was struggling even more on the middle jump/press, and the I was finding the top crux desperate! Then I watched an Italian bloke destroy it, almost flashing it on his first go. Inspiring to say the least and a very evident reminder of the potential gains I can get from trying something like this route. The less psychological part was another Italian, who had just split his finger and was giving up on this route, turning around to describe that he lives 3-4 hours drive away and he will come back in a few weeks when he feels like it - he has loads of other sport climbing in his vicinity of a different style to keep him occupied....jealous!

Two days ago was a different story completely. Yes, I still fell off it a few times, but in the middle of the first crux which involves some ridiculously tiny holds, my feet came off. And I was still on, managing to re-place feet before then falling off. It's interesting, just realizing that I can hang the holds with my feet off is a massive psychological boost. The middle crux jump/press (I haven't decided whether it's really a jump or not) was also feeling much easier and linkable from the ground, and the upper crux is now o.k again after I found out I'd been using one of the holds completely wrong - I'm actually impressed I could even do it before, after finding out the easier method! As another Italian described, now it's just a case of "being lucky", I just might make some big links on it if the sun shines the right way, tie my shoelaces in the correct order, and sell my soul to the climbing gods at the right time. For your amusement, here's the old footage I have that I referenced on the this post.

Other than that, I finally got around to doing Cent Patates 7b+ on the left side of the Biographie wall. Possibly one of the best routes at Ceuse, a really fun onsight to finish off the day as a warm-down. I also had a play on Les Colonettes. It's a cool looking tufa right up the middle of the Biographie wall. As it turns out, the reports I'd heard were relatively accurate. The first 4 meters of it is chipped so that you can access the tufa, and unfortunately chipped in a not very fun manner. A weird frustrating move that is completely different to the rest of the the route which is really unfortunate as the rest of the line is so much fun. The tufa is really fun to climb, if over a little quickly, and I'm now just wishing I had a longer rope so that I could try the mega-extension. Even before I had to cut the end off the rope, at 70 meters it isn't long enough..........

Two days left so off to enjoy the sun. happy climbing all!

Keeping you Honest - a post from Naomi

2011-08-15T08:54:00.000+01:00

A busy day at Sector Berlin, Ceuse.

As a diversion from Neal's musings I've decided to join in the blogging for some reflections of my own. This may be a good one to read if you have the time or it's raining!

Yesterday underneath Biography wall in Ceuse we got chatting to some friends of ours from Bristol. Pretty strong climbers by any standards - they had tried some routes at their grade in Ceuse and received generous amounts of smackdown! One guy joked that you really have nowhere to hide on some of the routes, that they 'keep you honest'.

I think for me this is why I really love Ceuse and route climbing in general. As much honesty as you have to have with yourself and your abilities there is an equal humility. No getting too big for your boots here, with 12 year olds on your left romping up to 7b/7c warm up s and the next superhero on your right breaking some new project. Having been here for 3 summers now, I've also seen many people put in their place as such - or at least feel like they have.

I think this year in Ceuse has really showed me that generally for route climbing here, you need strong fingers and lots and lots of fitness! No fancy core/shoulder/back/leg strengthening sessions needed - just strong fingers, fitness and mentality (you'll get enough of this from constant steep climbing anyway).

I think to succeed here, the question to be constantly asking yourself, is how do I figure this out for me? How can I work this move? Where can I rest? What is the best solution for my abilities? Forget about what everyone else is doing and tune into your own climbing. I think this is where there can be a lot of intimidation and dejection.

I've trained for climbing for 2 years now. Last year was my first year training and everything was a gain obviously from my level of 0! After last summer I really wanted to concentrate on bouldering and using it as a tool to make me stronger for moves on routes. This has definitely helped and having that extra power does show through. Its an area I really shy away from, being attracted to longer, technical more endurancy climbing.

I had a trip in June to Gorge du Tarn, prior to the trip I worked 4 weeks of complete endurance. It paid off on my trip and I sent my hardest redpoint and some good flashes/onsights. When I got home I had a month of no work and time to train. I was doing a lot but on reflection now - nothing specific. I got lost in a disbelief that I had enough endurance so I didn't need to work that, I focused on trying to get my strength up but with no real direction. I took my eye off the ball.
Major lesson learnt! I lost any endurance that I had and didn't necessarily need some of the bouldering strength I'd been trying to gain. At the end of the day, it's brilliant to be away and just on real rock, but for me the ultimate aim is to always feel like I'm learning, like I'm making progress and that the efforts I'm putting in will reap rewards.

For future trips I feel it's really important to ask, what kind of problems/routes am I training for, what do I want to achieve and be specific. In this way, you'll stay focused and hopefully any surprises will be positive!

In ticklist related news, for 2010 my aim was to get 10 new 7's in the season - achieved. Following this, for 2011, it was 11 - I got 3 7's in the Tarn (including a new hardest grade), 1 in Orpierre and 4 so far in Ceuse - so with 3 more routes to reach my goal, hopes are high!

In interesting statistics, I worked out, so far this year I've had approximately 40 days on real rock - this will probably be the sum total, bar a bit of bouldering and a trip at Christmas. Interesting to think if you consider mental conditioning as part of the training regime. Every trip requires real psyche and focus to believe in your capabilities or days are lost trying to build confidence, fear of falling, climbing around people in busy crags, etc.

We don't have an affluence of outdoor sport climbing in Ireland - but with the right attitude - achievement is as close as you want it.

bouldering in Ireland

2011-08-14T19:13:00.000+01:00

So, with the amazing new guidebook from Dave, and the imminent arrival of the new brilliant venture in Dublin, gravity climbing, is it worth starting to think about how to handle the extra influx of boulderers starting to appear at the venues? Considering they're all quite small in size, do we need to maximize their protection? This is all mentioned in the guidebook but is there more that should be done?

- careful brushing of holds (nothing too aggressive on existing problems)
- ensure footwear is cleaned extensively before pulling on. this one is heavily promoted and sign-posted in NZ - grit and muck on rockshoes works like sandpaper wearing out the friction quicker. Having seen the way many people (including myself at times) just run around in dirty rockshoes in Wicklow perhaps needs more consideration?
- cleaning off chalk regularly.
- the other obvious ones like litter, not leaving pads/gear/tarps visible at the areas (definitely not an issue now, but could become worse?)