Rock Climbing – Thoughts and Training
Back in early April, I went out to Red Rocks again for the umpteenth time. I’m starting to feel like it’s my second home; in fact, the style and rock quality has lost a bit of the novelty I initially felt when I went on my first outdoor climbing trip almost exactly a year ago. Obviously, this means I’m becoming a more seasoned, experienced climber who knows what to expect from outdoor bouldering/sport climbing
This most recent trip to Red Rock was probably the least productive in terms of sending that I’ve ever done, but I feel that I’ve learned the most and have the most to reflect/think on out of any climbing trip I’ve been on. Overall, it was an amazing trip with unique and positive experiences.
Day 1, we (Woohan, Daniel, and I) headed out to The Gallery, a crag off the 2nd pullout in Calico II. Woohan had some unfinished business with The Glitz 5.12c, and the crag offered a lot of high quality options in the 11 – 12 range for Daniel and I to work on. We were initially worried about it being too cold, but the crag was in the sun the entire day, and instead we fought to stay shady and hydrated. I started off by warming up on Running Amuck 5.10c, which proved to be heady and tricky as the crux was near the 2nd clip and involved some awkward maneuvering, the classic 1 star route shenanigans. I then moved to hopefully onsight or at least quickly send Yaak Crack 5.11c, a 3 star route and probably the most popular route at the crag. Unfortunately, I severely underestimated the problem as well as overestimated my own ability to do overhanging problems. Yaak Crack starts with a sequency beginning near the first two bolts where it’s difficult to find your feet, and I had to solve this part by just reaching very tall to a good sidepull. From this sidepull jug, you begin climbing on somewhat steep, crimpy jugs, and accumulate a ton of pump. There are a lot of different options in terms of positive hold choices and body positioning, and you can find a good rest on many different holds if you want; I honestly think it’s an amazing climb for any climber, tall or short, as it feels hard and pumpy regardless. To top it off, the final portion of climbing from the last clip to anchors is no gimme, as the key beta is to use a hand jam in the crack to pull yourself over the lip, something I didn’t figure out until my third attempt (and probably only the 3rd handjam I’ve ever done). After 4 solid attempts, I finally sent, but was pretty gassed to try anything harder. Daniel decided to try a different problem but accidnentally hopped on Minstrel in the Gallery 5.12c instead, which I ended up cleaning bolt to bolt at the end of the day – whoops! Lots of end of day shenanigans as the sun started to set and we realized we had put draws up on too many routes.
With the sweat and heat of day 1 in mind, we decided to try a shadier crag, The Pier, on the following day. Nestled in a small alley within a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, this was truly a dream crag when it came to approach and convenience. But we swung too far the other way in terms of temperature, as the temperature difference was probably 20+ degrees cooler in the alley and I was forced to wear all my layers even when climbing. The Pier has a wealth of 5.11 and higher climbs, but the lack of easy routes meant we had to warmup on the 3 star 5.11a Under the Boardwalk. A broken hold at the top marred an otherwise perfect climb around and into large huecos. I then started to project Geometric Progression 5.12 b/c with Woohan, which was a very short, very bouldery ~30 ft climb. The climb has a challenging crux section starting with a slopey right hand pocket, to left hand sloper catch, to a right hand bump to another slopey pocket, and then a multiple left hand bumps off of a left heel where I’m very outstretched. I think the cold temps made me move in stiff and awkward manners, but I also know that I might have been able to send if I poured on a bit more effort. Nevertheless, it was a great climb to project and I’m confident it’s only a few attempts away if I want to come back to it.
Day 3 was the best day condition wise, as we headed to Cannibal Crag to try New Wave Hookers 5.12c. It was sunny to start, but in the early afternoon, cloud cover gave us shady and comfortable conditions. New Wave Hookers was probably the favorite climb of the trip for me, as it honestly has it all: slopers, crimps, pockets, heel hooks, a dyno, and technical feet sequencing. A true 3 star problem, and just thinking back to the movement gets me hyped. I didn’t feel that I had quite the energy (both physical and mental) or the finger strength to finish it, but I definitely want to come back for it. In addition, I tried the iconic Caustic Cock 5.11b that Daniel eventually redpointed that day. Although I feel that climb is par for the grade, something about the overhung, arete style climbing with heel hooks etc. really overpowered me, and I didn’t even make it to the anchors. I think this climb more than anything showed me how lacking I was in my overhung technique, and I resolved to hit the 45 degree wall/lead climbing cave when I got back to the gym. I finished off the day by top roping Save the Heart to Eat Later 5.12a, an incredibly long, technical slab climb on thin, smeary feet; think of the classic scary cheesegrater climbs where you’re constantly afraid of slipping and leaving behind more skin than rubber on the slab. As a bonus, we ran into Sonnie Trotter and his family/friends (!), who gave me some beta on New Wave Hookers. The guy was incredibly nice, as was his wife, and his kids were so, so cute. We also got to see him cruise through an onsight of Wonderstuff 5.12d (literally his kid was telling him to climb faster and he was laughing) which was a pretty shake-your-head, my goodness type of experience. What a cool first run in with a professional climber.
Some reflections:
Long time since updating/posting on the blog, but I’ve made it a 2019 resolution to keep myself honest and the blog updated, so here goes!
For the last two months, I’ve been trying hard and pushing myself on redpoint lead projecting in the gym. I came to a realization in early December after hearing the phrase “being afraid of failure” that I had been avoiding trying hard, and largely had been coasting when it came to gym climbing for awhile. Part of it was the pressure that always comes with projecting, which was exacerbated by the type of “always want to be making steady progress towards goals” type of person I am. Thus, if I never applied myself or pushed myself, I wasn’t achieving success…but at least I also wasn’t failing. This subconscious attitude was so pervasive yet unseeable to me until I heard my girlfriend Chloe use the phrase, and led to a lack of motivation and general “whatever” vibe during my gym sessions.
After identifying the cause of my rut, I decided to push myself and try a 5.12d project, which would have been the first of the grade for me. The project was a very crimpy, yet also very technical and sequence heavy climb up the tall wall arete. Many of the holds were solid 3/4 – full pad crimp squares that can be held as both crimps on the top and sidepulls on the edges. The angle of the wall was not inclined at all, but the climbing was sustained v5-v6 and offered little options for rests, even with heel hooking positions on the arete portion. I got it down to a one hang pretty quickly (1 week) at a crux move that transitions the climbing from delicate slab to arete hugging, but progress immediately slowed down. After another two weeks of attempts, I started getting frustrated with the tempo of progress; I felt that I had found all the correct beta dialed, climbed very well and arrived at the crux fresh, but always fell at that point. I felt that I had applied my lesson of trying hard and embracing failure, so why was it still taking so long? I couldn’t even realistically see myself sending anytime soon. Through the frustration, I decided to try and think more rationally and really analyze the reasons why I kept falling on the same crux sequence. I realized that my right arm was slightly too pumped for me to effortless pull through the sequence, and identified new clipping beta in the first half that allowed me to clip off my left arm instead of my right. After trying this new beta, I immediately blew through the crux and got a new highpoint, despite it being the 3rd attempt of the day. The send came quickly the following session, and I came away with a new lesson learned: When trying something above your limit, the amount of patience required was much more than I had ever previously needed, and I should try to remain level-headed, let go of my emotion/self pressure and attachment to the climb, and constantly reassess my own chosen beta and climbing.
WIth a new redpoint lead PR, I took a week or so to relax and finish up some low-mid 5.12s that I hadn’t finished. I also began to rope with a new partner (Woohan) who was much, much stronger than me, and inspired me to pick up another project: a 5.13a in the exact same section of the wall that the previous project had been located. This was the first time in probably a year or so that I was consistently partnering with someone significantly stronger/better than me, so it was refreshing to be able to pick up beta and options from my partner rather than having to brute force my way through the beta figuring process. I tried a few of the 5.13a’s that he quickly dispatched, and decided on this particular climb to project as it was similar to the most recent climb I had done, and was also incredibly fun with unique sequences and movement that I had never done before. Some examples include a toe hook crucial for an early clipping stance, a triple left hand bump into a wide foot stance clip, and a brutal undercling match that was one of the early redpoint cruxes for me. Although he finished the climb very quickly, we were both able to help each other in finding beta as the two of climb in very different styles. But after he had moved on from the climb, my painful 6 week road to sending had just begun…Some highlighted takeaways:
I had started to recognize these lessons from prior trips (Rumney, Red Rock in October) and started to wonder if perhaps I took climbing/myself too seriously, but those thoughts never really coagulated into solid insights until I went through this process. Now, as I prepare for Red Rock again next weekend, I feel that I can go on this trip weightless and untied to any expectations for progress or numbers. Some say losing weight is the easiest way to climb harder, and if that’s the case, well, I certainly feel loads lighter (where’re those cookies now..? )!
I attached a video of one of my many attempts on the project (please excuse the portrait mode). If you made it this far, thanks for trudging through all my wordy thoughts!
Had a great time last month in Red Rock with the usual gang, where we did a bit of sport and bit of bouldering (with day 3 rained out). Although I didn’t do much projecting, it was great to see a few friends do their first outdoors sport lead, and also to go back and finish some boulders that had given me a lot of trouble 6 months ago.
On day 1, we went to Black Corridor to do some sport climbing. I suggested this location since we had a few people new to outdoor climbing, and I had heard that it was a convenient area with lots of options up to 5.11+. Mountain Project describes it as a zoo, and well…it was basically as crowded as your indoor climbing gym at peak hours, with every route occupied when we first got there. We started in the upper area, where a few of my friends climbed Dancin’ with a God (5.10a) and one of the 5.9s to the left of Dancin’. My objective for the day was to work on my onsighting skills, which is my favorite style of climbing, and so after warming up I set my sight on Oils Well that Ends Well (5.11a). I had onsighted a few 5.11a’s prior to this so I expected to feel confident on this route, but immediately felt shaky and insecure after the first bolt. I ended up deciding to bail after realizing how low to the ground I was and the groundfall potential, and even after downclimbing a move and telling my belayer I was going to drop, I ended up kicking him accidentally. After thinking a bit, I decided to move on and try a different route, and am really glad I did so. My expectations can sometimes add a lot pressure to myself, and I didn’t want to tilt myself when the day had just started, so I decided to try Sandstone Enema (5.11 a/b) next to Oils. In hindsight, this was a great lesson to learn, as not all climbs are going to be “worth” climbing; Oils involved a seriously small and tricky crux before the second bolt, and there were honestly better ways for me to spend my pysche and energy. Sandstone Enema ended up taking about 3 tries as well as a decent amount of time to figure out the crux sequence (and I would is a pretty solid 5.11c), but I had a lot more fun figuring out a crux that didn’t involve groundfall potential. Later on in the day, I tried again to onsight a 5.11 b/c (Hips Don’t Lie/ AKA Punchdrunk) that I ended up getting on my second go.
We went to Kraft Boulders on day 2, and I was able to send Jones’N (v4+) on my second go. This boulder gave me a lot of trouble the last time I came to Red Rock, and I was unable to top it out after working it exhaustively for 2 hours in the sun. I would say that I felt stronger on the boulder this time around, but there’s no better way to put it than that the holds felt better to me for some reason. I think a combination of more experience, better head game (from more experience topping out boulders), and overall being slightly stronger made the previously enigmatic, slopey topout feel obvious and juggy. It’s nice to see that all of my recent outdoor climbing experience has had a postitive effect regardless of send or fail. After Jones’N, I worked on The Pearl (v5) and managed to put it down after a few tries. The start was much trickier than I expected after seeing the holds, since the starting holds are quite large and featured; the left hand starts in a large crimp hueco, and the left hand has a positive sidepull feature to pull off. It was the feet placement that was the most difficult to figure out, and as the first move involves doing a large right hand reach to a not great intermediate crimp. At first I wasn’t even able to start the problem with both feet on the rock, and eventually just had to pull my body as close as possible to the rock with my left hand hueco-crimp. I think over all I could put in some more hours to bouldering/doing moves on slightly overhanging rock. After The Pearl, we moved to Monky Bars area and I tried my hand at Monkey Bar Right (v6). This was probably the hardest boulder problem I’ve attempted so far, and I’m happy I was able to suss out all the moves, making it to the last hard move before falling, multiple times. It’s an exciting, overhung problem with large committing moves at the end, and definitely feels like something the moonboard was designed to train you for. Definitely looking forward to going back to put it down.
Overall, I was able to enjoy the sport climbing without letting my unnecessary expectations negatively affect my experience, while also enjoying watching my friends push themselves mentally and physically. Even though most climbers say that having fun is the ultimate goal, all the talk about beta and sending and projects clouds that perspective and can make it hard to see why we tied in in the first place. For myself, I am still trying to find the best balance between striving for my personal goals while remaining in the moment and positive around my friends and climbing partners. It helps when I have set expectations before hand internally on what type of trip I am expecting. I especially enjoyed our third day where we did no climbing whatsoever, and played basketball at a local community court for almost 4 hours; I was reminded how much fun it is to just hangout with friends on a sunny day with nice weather, as well as how fun other hobbies can be. A reminder to not get too caught up in the climbing bubble.
I’ve been trying to make more local trips to the Gunks lately as the weather has really improved in the NE. Especially because I knew I would be starting full time employment again, I tried to make the most of my time and just get outdoors (#optoutside) as much as possible before it became a more limited luxury again. The first such trip was for bouldering, where I put some work into a few new projects, and the second was my first trad lead, first rapel, and first multipitch experience (woo!).
After sending Andrew’s Problem (v4) and my bouldering success at Rumney, I felt like it was time to push myself a little harder and try some of the classic v5s at the Gunks. I went with MJ (and my trusty pup Scooter) on a pretty empty weekday, and we decided to try The Fin (v5) first which both of us had previously attempted a few months ago. The problem revolves around using heelhooks and compression to traverse along the side of a large fin-looking structure (hence the name). The holds are pretty slopey but there are sharp incuts on the surface to dig your skin into when slapping along the edge. I made decent progress, but was not able to suss out how to top it out/finish the problem, as the fin juts out over some exposed rock; a bad fall or swing out could send you tumbling over the cliff a little, or at least that’s what I was worried about. Interestingly enough, my biggest takeaway from this climb came from how my body felt afterwards: I had never felt my hips ache so badly from heel hooking before. Generally, I consider myself pretty flexible, especially in the hips, and feel that I have a good understanding of how to engage my hips/heel when using heel hooks. However, some of the best heel locations on the rock for The Fin are located at a height slighty above your hands, which themselves are located at your head height. I was just barely managing to eke out some compression from my heels, and had constant trouble with them slipping out of my shoe/off the rock. After thinking about my hip aches and how I had been using my heel on this problem, I realized I had barely been engaging my heel while projecting and had merely relied on the rubber on my shoe to keep me on. If I had been better about doing the heel hooks properly, my knees would have been bent and I would have been able to drive more force down from my hip flexors into my heel…something to think about for next time.
Next, we walked along the carriage road to Black Boulder (v5), something I had passed many times but had never jumped on. The problem is rather short and low to the ground, and for me it really comes down to a 2/3 move sequence leading into the top out. Here, my hip flexibility really came handy as it let me skip an intermediate slap with my right hand and allowed me to just go for the “good” sloper right from the start. But I got here relatively quickly, and was never able to finish the left hand move to the lip successfully. Dyanamic movements have always been hard for me, and there was no cheating this one. I made a lot of different attempts, but decided to come back when it was a little colder (and maybe a little stronger) to hopefully stick the move.
Towards the end of the day, we moved to Meaning of Life (v5) which turned out to be a boulder that was completely suited to my style. The only downside was that it was located in a pit of large, jagged rocks, so the landing was always something to worry about. But compared to the other two sloper climbs, the slightly overhung crimps are the most natural type of style for me, as I have spent a lot of time on moonboard- type problems. My first go was actually pretty close, but each subsequent go became harder as my energy waned towards the end of the day. Overall, I’m looking forward to coming back to finish off these three quality boulders.
A few weeks after this, I got the chance to try trad climbing for the first time with Matt Ritter. We scheduled a last minute trip to the Gunks after seeing a small break in a week of rain, and were lucky enough to find some dry climbs. Matt took me up a two pitch 5.6 climb called Wrist, and later in the day I led my first trad pitch called Baby (5.6). I had always wanted to try trad, and am confident that it’s something I see myself getting invested in when I’m older, but never had a chance to go with someone experienced. After doing these pitches with Matt, I honestly don’t think I’ve learned so much non-climbing related knowledge in one day, as we covered anchors, switching leads, rapelling, and placing trad gear. I definitely don’t feel confident enough to lead anything remotely close to hard yet on gear, but the experience of placing the gear was really unique. One of the things I love about climbing is how creative and free you are to express your body and movement on the rock; whatever beta you choose to use is your own choice, and probably suited to your own personal preference/style. Whereas some people like dynamic movement, others might prefer a more controlled static style. Adding the gear placement into the mix was like extending that freedom to protection as well. All of a sudden, I was making choices that affected my own saftey, and I was relying on persoinal knowledge and judgement when placing cams and nuts. On the easier 5.fun sections, I could choose to run it out for 20 feet if I really felt confident and bold, and in fact Matt did so on some sections of Wrist. Now I only have to start the long and expensive process of putting together my first rack…
In a few more weeks, I’ll be heading back to Las Vegas to climb in Red Rock again, 6 months after my first sport climbing trip outdoors. I’m hoping to hop on some of the boulders I failed to send, and maybe try some harder sport climbs. Hoping the weather holds up!
I have always naturally felt more comfortable with static climbing as opposed to more dynamic, “big” movement. Part of it comes from my desire to maintain control over my body’s movement, as well as some fear of injury if I were to flail wildly and land poorly. In the beginning, I actually held a (naive) view that dynamic climbers were somehow “less skilled” because they appeared to just rely on brute power to accomplish climbs, as opposed to utilizing techniques like flagging, heel hooking, etc. It’s definitely taken me some time to come around to the idea because I’ve avoided it for so long, dynamic movement is a serious weakness for me, and something I must work on if I want to climb harder/more varied styles of climbs.
So when I recently made a trip home to North Carolina, I tried to actively find climbs that would help me work this weakness. It definitely helps that the local gym there (Triangle Rock Club) happens to set much larger moves than my home gym in NYC, which is probably why I always thought their grading was a little sandbagged. The video above shows my efforts working through a boulder problem around my typical project level, and figuring out how to land the dynamic crux move.
The problem starts off by forcing a toe or heel hook to set up both hands, and after a few more setup moves, you’re forced to launch for a pinch off of one foothold that’s placed quite close to your hands. With your body forced into a small box, it was difficult to generate power from such a compressed position. I knew that the key to sticking the move was to concentrate on my right foot, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I needed to do other than press harder. Trying the move in isolation, I was able to stick it but always cut feet and wasn’t 100% that I would be able to replicate it successfully from the start. I finally managed to keep feet one time when I pushed with my right foot in the direction of my movement instead of directly up (timestamp 0:54). After a few more tries, I sent the problem a little messily as I still cut feet.
I feel the movement I learned while figuring out this problem can be applied to many different boulder problems from v5 and up. I originally thought that I just lacked commitment to the big movement, but after failing multiple times it turned out that I needed some small adjustments in beta/mental shift. Although I still cut feet on the send go, the adjustments I made leading up to that definitely helped me reach the pinch in a better/higher position to grab it solidly and hold to swing my feet back onto the wall.
Fall temperatures are finally coming, so I wanted to organize my goals and gym training plans/ideas as well as recap a recent Rumney trip
Richard Zheng 