Versa Climber

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If you want to be a more rounded rock climber, you’re going to have to exaggerate your repertoire of climbing techniques. This means getting an accomplished rock climber on a assortment of climbing features and climbing areas. Limestone crimping (small holds) skill will not get you very far on soaring granite cracks in the rock climber’s paradise of Yosemite – or vice versa. If you’re applied to bolts each two metres then you may be in for a shock on routes in France’s world-class Verdon Gorge where they may be six metres apart. If you’re used to 30 metre routes, then you may find 300 metre routes hard going.

Conversely you may want to plainly improve your rock climbing grade. If that’s the case, then stick to what you’re good at. If it’s 30 metre limestone crimping, then stick to 30 metre limestone crimping. For the time being, forget regarding 300 feet climbs in the Verdon, soaring granite cracks in Yosemite. Indeed forget with regards to everything but your next goal – a somewhat harder climb of 30 metre limestone crimping.

Either rock climbing journeying leads to the same impasse. If you want to be a ‘better’, i.e. more rounded climber, you’re going to have to acquire a new skill-set, which compensates for your present weaknesses. For instance, if you’re rubbish at climbing cracks, then you’re going to have to learn crack climbing. If we take crack climbing as a niche, then within that, there are sub-niches. The cracks may be tips (usually the hardest), or fingerlocks (up to second joint) or hand cracks (jamming) or big hand cracks (fist jamming) or offwidths (elbows, knee-bars) or chimneys (whole body). Each sub-niche requires a dissimilar assortment of techniques. When you change the rock type, e.g. from rough gabbro to well-nigh frictionless glacier polished granite, you find that there are proficiencies within techniques. All the time, you’re probing your weakness, addressing them rectifying them.

If you just want to climb at a higher grade, then it’s simpler. Let’s say you’re fine at 30 metre limestone crimping on routes of F6c (5.11b) but you want to improve to F7a (5.11d). Clearly you’re going to have to do something dissimilar – but what? If you’re used to on sighting F6c, I’d throw a rope down a few F7as and play around on them. What seems harder – the person moves or the amount of them? Could you genuinely climb F7a right now, either as a worked grade or an on sight grade? Is it just your head that’s keeping you back?

But let’s say it’s not your head that’s keeping you back. Let’s say you find F6c OK but F7as desperate. Why is this? What are your weaknesses? Do you need better technique? Do you need more power? Do you need more power-endurance? Or do you need more endurance? Which is it?

Once you tell apart your weaknesses, you’ve identified training needs. If you need more power, then train power. The best way will be bouldering steep stuff of up to six moves (about two metres). Sustained traverses will give you more power-endurance and more sustained traverses (with more or less posing no difficulty moves) will give you more power endurance.

So whether you want to be a more rounded climber or whether you want to increase your grade, tell apart your applicable weaknesses. These become your training needs. Devise and utilize training programmes to meet those training needs. Then incorporate new/more finely honed accomplishments into your climbing. Voila!