I’ve been meaning to note a few things related to climbing. First, I’ve been making some real progress on my goals earlier this year. Goal 5 was to complete a 5.11, which I knew I’d do but maybe not so quick. I’m pretty sure I sent my first 5.11 early last month, which was actually a 5.11b. It was super bouldery with a roof-like start but very short, so it played off my strengths. I’m still really weak on endurance related climbs. I’ve been working on a few 5.11’s since then but have not done a clean ascent of anything in the 5.11 range. The crazy thing is that I can flash most 5.10’s, so I don’t get why I can’t get a 5.11 with a little work. Most have been crimpy and small with some very technical footwork. There’s this one called slap and untickle over at Earth Treks timonium that seems so possible but I just lose my strength halfway through. I was feeling really strong last week and tried a 5.12a, made it about 3/4’s of the way through and couldn’t figure out how to get past this nasty sloper that wouldn’t hold any weight. That’s two of more of my goals knocked out right there.

On the other side of climbing, my bouldering has been going well, but I feel like I’m really hitting a wall there. Roped climbs seem to have an easy solution: I just need more endurance. But the boulders, well, they sort of evade an easy solution. I just don’t know where I need to go to get better. I’m pretty strong so it has to be some type of technique. Or something. But it’s completely unknown to me what I need to do. I’ve climbed a variety of v5’s, but still need a few tries on each to complete. I’ve done one v6. v7’s are totally lost on me.

Earth Treks is doing a little seminar next month on some weight training techniques to improve your climbing. I think I’ll probably head over to that to see if strength is a factor, but if I really want to improve on bouldering I think I’m going to need to start doing it more often. 1 day a week doesn’t seem to get me past this wall.