The Most Rewarding Part

Sorting gear with my partner-in-training

Very early on I realized that the best part of climbing wasn’t the actual activity.  It was what the activity called for.  You had to find someone you trusted to do it.  But it was more than trust.  You had to enjoy their company in unexpected situations.  Waiting out a storm in a tent near the summit of Mt. Rainier can seem like an eternity with the wrong company.  You have to be forgiving of each other’s habits.  Sometimes you have to share the same sleeping bag, eat with the same spork, and definitely share the same climbing gear.  You need to have the same sense of humor in this grind.  You also have to be okay with long silences.

I’ve passed up the opportunity to climb with some really accomplished mountaineers.  I could just tell it wasn’t a good fit.  If I want to climb a big mountain and I don’t have any of the usual suspects available I start looking for the right person.  It starts with a date, or a series of dates.  We start off on some local crags.  My partner has to move at the same speed as me.  They have to climb the same grade.  They have to want to be efficient with their time.  If they aren’t mindful at the crag, then I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be on a Grade V objective.

When you find the right climbing partner, it is what makes climbing something more than what it is.  You can’t fully embrace this beautiful activity by yourself.  The experience needs to be magnified and enhanced by the person on the other end of the rope. You only have half of the crayons in the box, your partner has the other half.

A good partner is like a security blanket.  A good team can get out of most any situation.  A bad one creates alot of their own bad luck.  If you are lucky this partnerships lasts, and you accomplish great things together.  Sometimes it doesn’t and you only climb one time together.  But you never forget it.

This sounds alot like a marriage.  Trust.  Intimacy.  Chemistry.  Security.

It really is.

Hanging On

In the movie Hellraiser, they design personal torture devices for each sinner.  Like this.

This week completes the 4-week strength phase of my training program.  The downside to this entire month has been dealing with the fact that i’m climbing very little.  The focus is increasing localized strength in my forearms and fingers (aka hanging on the hangboards!).  What little climbing I get in is some warmup ARC’ing before my hangboard routine.  I’ve been doing lock-off laps, dips, shoulder presses, and pullups as well.  Just not alot of climbing.

However…yesterday I came in to the gym a little unprepared to hangboard.  I forgot to bring my pulley, which helps keep my big-boned self on the hangboard for the prerequisite hang time.  I didn’t want the session to be a complete failure, so I decided to just climb.

Even though I hadn’t done any moderate or hard climbing in 3 weeks I found myself giving all the 5.10 level routes an easy go.  After 5 routes at 5.10, I nearly onsighted a 5.11a.  This route was just one small crimp after another.  Maybe there is something to this hangboard thing after all.  Though, for the first time in my climbing career I had to tap out on a route because of hip pain.  Old age is creeping.

Needless to say I found some new stoke finishing up my last couple of board sessions.  Next week is my power phase, filled some quite curious exercises like limit bouldering.  But i’ll get in to that next time.  Cheers.

The Moon Board on the left is for skinny people, but really they all are.

Do You Hangboard?

Read a book on training for climbing and you are bound to run into it.  The hangboard.  You may have also heard about the horror stories.  Finger injuries.  I ask my 41 year old self, is the risk worth it?  I’m not in my 20’s trying to lead 5.12hard.  Given that a key part of my strategy is to remain injury free, does the hangboard make sense for me?

I’ve never completely converted to the hangboard philosophy, and maybe that’s why i’ve never led hard trad.  You think that if you are going to supremely tax every finger of the hand, why not just do it by actually climbing?  Which is the best part of climbing.  Yet, I do miss alot of days climbing because of life.  A hangboard can be hung up at home and I can access it anytime I need to.  Also, the current training regime I am following has entered the strength phase, which centers around the hangboard.

I completed 3-4 weeks of ARC training.  My body has held up pretty well through the process.  The benefit of this phase has been noticeable.  I can get on a wall and climb multiple sets of 5.8-5.9 for 30-35 minutes straight.  My goal is to bring 5.8-5.9 difficulty into my aerobic exercise zone.  This is the zone I can maintain for extended periods of time.  This keeps my anaerobic reserves untouched and fresh to tackle those cruxy sections.

The strength phase incorporates a hangboard routine 2-3 times a week.  This chiefly entails timed hangs (think pull ups without actually doing the pull up) using various handgrips.  The most important muscle group for climbing is the forearms and hands.  This muscle group gets worked the most and fatigues the fastest.  A good hangboard routine is designed to make the seemingly impossible possible.  With diligence, a “5.9 climber” like me will have the tools to comfortably lead trad in the 5.10’s and 5.11’s.

As a family man, the convenience and economy of the hangboard can’t be matched.  No gym, just timed dangles from a wood beam a few times a week.  I will be doing this for 4-5 weeks.  If I don’t do something really stupid I will come out of it with gorilla arms and A4 tendons fully intact.  Who am I kidding?  We’ll see what happens next.

Source: http://rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/

This Body

In my late 20’s I learned my body was changing.  This conversation began.  I abused my body when I was young, and I could just get away with it.  Sprained ankle?  No problem.  I was on the basketball court the next day, and the day after.

Those thousands of hours of court time combined with two physically traumatic years as a paratrooper.  But then I picked up a new hobby after the Army.  Mountaineering!  Sure my body was protesting louder and louder each year, but I had a good 10 year run.  Getting out to the mountains as much as I could afford.  Then just climbing.  Shutting out the city in my mind.  Finding my nature-mind and all those feelings you find when scaling spectacular scenery and beautiful nature.  I breathed alot of it in.

I am 41 now.  I think my body is much older.  In my heart I always feel like i’m in my 20’s.  It’s costed me over the years, still feeling that drive to push myself to the limit.  My body is always trying to hold my young-mind back.  Yet, we never learn, us people who seem unable to stop ourselves from wanting and grasping for adventure.

I warm myself in Winter by visualizing in my mind all those mountains and routes I still want to climb, but haven’t…yet.  There are routes I have been trying to climb for over a decade.  I’ve poured over beta, the same beta, year after year.  Just biding my time for that perfect moment.  When it comes I don’t want to regret not being ready for it.

I’ve learned to appreciate those moments where I am actually there, just climbing something.  Sure, i’m older and my body can’t do the same things, but achieving a new route is more than just having the physical capability.

Part of climbing feels like luck.  If the weather is right.  If I have the right partner for the journey.  If I can get off of work.  If I trained properly for it.  If I have the same desire to put out the effort now, when the time is ripe.  If my body answers the question yes.

Then we go.  This body and me.

 

ARC’ing is not just for kids

You’ve seen them in the local climbing gym.  Boys and girls traversing left and right on the climbing walls, making us wait that extra 2 seconds in annoyance as we ready ourselves to climb a roped route.  What are they doing?

It’s called ARC’ing and it requires continuous climbing for 20-45 minutes, at a moderate but sustainable level.  It’s one of the foundational exercises to increase (A)erobic (R)espiration and (C)apillarity.  To put it simply these kids are working on their climbing endurance.  One of the biggest benefits to ARC’ing is improving grip control and pump management.  30 continuous minutes on the wall is quite a workout for most any climber.  If you are prone to overgripping or needlessly pumping out (which we all are) then ARC’ing is what you want to do.

The key goal to ARC is to improve your forearm muscles ability to rely on aerobic energy, which allows you to sustain climbing for a long time.  Anaerobic energy is what you use when you are about to pump off the wall.

Have you ever been at a local crag and you see one climber struggle up a route?  They pump out, hang for a bit, try again and pump out again.  They are relying on their limited amount of anaerobic energy to get up the route.  Then another climb comes along and experiences no issues going up the wall.  In fact, they look like they are climbing up a ladder.  It’s so easy for this climber because the climbing stays below her aerobic threshold, which is sustainable for her.  The more you are able to stay UNDER your aerobic threshold the easier the climbing will be and the longer you can go.  ARC’ing is the way to move your aerobic threshold higher.

What’s most curious about ARC’ing is, despite it’s proven track record, I never see adults in the gym doing it.  It’s always the boys and girls in the local junior climbers club that engage in this exercise.  Maybe that’s why they are so much better climbers than we are.  Which is another question we always ask ourselves.  How does that kid get up that route so easily and I can’t get off the deck?  Those youth.  More like those youth are smart.

So how can you apply ARC’ing to your existing climbing regime:

1.  Find a time when the gym is not too busy.  It requires alot of traversing in and around roped routes, so you don’t want to spend all your time excusing yourself to get around folks.
2. It takes a couple of sessions to find the ‘strenuous but sustained pump’ that allows you to stay on the wall for 20-45.  Start out with 10-15 minutes and work your way up.
3. If you pump off the wall you are climbing too hard, so the benefits of staying sub-max pump won’t be realized.
4. ARC’ing can be done as a warmup or at the end of a climbing session.  I always do it first thing, as I find myself quite tired if I wait till later.

Great resources on ARC’ing:

Self-Coached Climber

Rock Climber’s Training Manual

 

4-3-2-1 Training Cycle

I started a 4-3-2-1 training cycle this winter to prepare me for the 2014 climbing season.  I’m pretty early into it so I won’t be able to provide a proper review until late January.  My early thoughts is that doing a training cycle is way more productive than just climbing.  Having a training goal each day keeps me on my toes.

I’m in the 4 week initial stamina and technique phase.  My daily goal is to complete 1500 feet of climbing.  This may sound similar to the “El Cap In A Day”-type regime that climbers often use to make sure they reach a good volume.

In my gym 1500 feet measures to about 38 roped routes.  I choose routes that are a grade or two below my maximum climbing ability.  Sometimes I climb harder routes that I have so dialed in that they feel easier.  Rest times between each route are roughly equal to the time it took to climb it.  If you downclimb a route that counts as two.  I usually do this on the easier pitches.  I time myself each session and roughly shake out 38 routes in 2 hours.  After 10 minutes of stretching and cooldown I am done.

It’s a good phase to focus on technique.  The routes are easier so you are able to focus on body positioning, solid foot placements, and minimzing lactic acid buildup in the arms.  The technique work and improving stamina are designed to lead perfectly into the ensuing 3 week power and strength phase.

4-3-2-1 Training Cycle

• 4 weeks stamina/technique
• 3 weeks strength/power
• 2 weeks aerobic endurance
• 1 week rest
• rinse and repeat

———-

4 week Stamina/Technique Phase

• 1500 feet
• 1-2 grades under your maximum
• rest time = climbing time
• 3-4 sessions a week
• rest day between each session

Source:  Training For Climbing.

Nylon vs. Dyneema

I was planning on doing an analysis on the pros and cons of using nylon vs. dyneema slings, but I happened on this useful article in an old issue of Climbing.  Confirms what most of us know already.  Dyneema has more advantages, but it’s always nice to have a nylon sling or two for certain applications.

Going light (dyneema)

Sharp rock with cutting potential (dyneema)

cold and wet terrain (dyneema)

Bail sling (nylon)

Girth hitch/overhand knot strength (nylon)

Simple, Light, Burns Long.

Recently tried this simple fire starter on a climb of Mt. Stuart. You take a handful of cotton balls and smear them really well in petroleum jelly. Toss them in a ziplock. Weighs nothing. Each cotton ball burns for close to 5 minutes. This gives you plenty of time to get your campfire started, which is useful for working in wet environments.  It’s a no-brainer essential that even minimalists can accomodate. 

Right Movement

I imagine over time a climber develops an intimate relationship with her body. Much in the same way a yogi or gymnast would.  There are a multitude of different positions she needs to assume to ascend.  The creative use of hands, from stacking fingers to generate pulling power to jamming your first into a crack and camming your wrist for stability.  We learn that fingertips and toetips are enough to finish.  In that way the holds that seem so small to the untrained eye seem much more enormous to a climber.  

I am not a high level climber by any means.  But I spend alot of time in the gym and outdoors watching how other climbers move.  Movement in climbing takes me back to some of my own spiritual practices.  In Buddhism, there is a teaching calling the Eightfold Path.  It includes some guidance on how we should conduct ourselves in life.  From Right Speech to Right Intention, it goes on.  When it comes to climbing you can add Right Movement. 

Right Movement is providing precisely the movement that is needed in that moment to achieve success.  No more, no less.  Some of climbers we see on television are masters of providing just enough.  Elite climbers have an acute body knowledge of momentum and how much to apply.  Momentum is key when we think of Right Movement because it’s the dynamic properties of climbing that separate beginners from the next level. 

In the gym I often see women and men of slight build find greater success in finding the right movement.  In general, men possess strength and the ability to generate more power than women.  This results in the old adage:  if you got it, use it.  This can result in expending more energy than is necessary to complete your movements.  Sure you may complete the route, but you didn’t do it with Right Movement.  I guess it’s just another way to talk about efficiency.

Within Right Movement lives The Zone.  You know the one.  Where everything flows.  Where things come easy.  Every movement on your climb is there for you.  Your body positioning is impeccable.  Almost as if, in those rare moments, you are completely wired to succeed. 

It’s not to say Right Movement will lead you down that path with consistency.  But it’s something to think about.  Not too much, not too little.  The Middle Way of climbing.  There’s a certain beauty that comes with quality, efficient movement.  An awareness of your terrain.  Understanding that you know what this route needs and you give it.  I see climbers overpower routes all the time and watching them climb it looks exactly like that.  A fight.  A struggle.  Right Movement is a dance not a fight.  It flows like water.  It being you.

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