Route Selection
I’ve spent a good amount of time deliberating over routes and the ‘what’s next’ climb. It’s a very personal thing to choose a route/boulder problem that you may spend several sessions to possibly months working on. My personal experience generally has provided two options and each option has a myriad of sub-options within those two primary ones (A lot of options ,right?). The only caveat as far as my two options go is dependent on two things : if it’s sport or traditional climbing. In a trad climbing case , for example, gear placement and stances become its own mini subset of options.
The first option I lean towards is choosing a route that isn’t quite maximal effort yet it’s also difficult enough to take 3-5 sessions or visits. It may only require 15 actual red-point attempts to put the route to rest. The advantage of this approach is you’ll probably get several short term project routes done in a season and you’ll have moved over a greater variety of terrain. It can also be tied into building a route pyramid: which entails doing several grades at a specific number that decreases as you get to the top of your pyramid of difficulty. I.E. 5 -10a’s, 4 -10B’s , 3 -10c’s , 2 -10d’s , and 1 -11a. Also, there’s many different ways to build a route pyramid and I’ve even seen reverse pyramids. It’s an appealing option as it exposes the climber to more climbing on different routes through a season and in theory increase the climber’s movement skill set. You can also add another layer of subtlety where out of those required blocks of the pyramid you can choose style of routes. For example, out of my five 10a’s I could choose two that require sloper or compression cruxes as they are some of my weakest forms of climbing. The great thing about this approach is not only are you building your base of climbing but you’re also diversifying the skill set in said grade. In recent years I’ve been leaning towards this approach as I get more climbing in and it can be somewhat less stressful from a performance aspect. My first exposure to this methodology of route selection came from Eric Horst’s Training for Climbing book . Another good read covering this is the Anderson brothers’ Rock Climber’s Training Manual.
second approach requires long term projecting on a route/boulder that is quite close to the threshold of my ability. I may be able to barely do all of the moves and linking sections takes many sessions. In the past I use to do this more often and occasionally I’ll try this but in a much more sporadic fashion. Long term projecting on a single route can be mentally exhausting and over time the climber will lose fitness even if efficiency has been gained on the project route. The upside of this approach is getting to really put 100% of blood, sweat, and tears into a climb. I’ll admit that some of the most rewarding sends have been through this approach. I questioned my sanity many times on a route called Desert Devil that required over 25 visits to the crag and minimum of 4 attempts every session. I also did this in one summer and it improved my anaerobic energy system, but I lost a ton of power and I was demotivated a lot.
Your mileage may vary on these approaches and maybe yours is somewhere in between the extremes. A somewhat hybrid approach of the two has been trying to build a pyramid and occasionally jumping on a long term project to see if it’s reasonable to be a short term one. It’s happened in the past where something I had tried a year or two prior was just too nails hard to be completed in a reasonable time. I’ll step away from a route and attempt to build more of a base before revisiting. Then, after some time has passed I’ll put another bid on the long term project and it feels attainable enough to put it in the short term category.
I’m always trying to learn more about tactics and training and if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know. It’s quite easy to become myopic after doing an activity for any set amount of time. Every time we practice our sport I think it’s an opportunity to bring the beginner’s mind into the moment and see new solutions. To boil rock climbing down into such finite qualities of on sighting, flashing, repointing, etc. can sometimes take away from its adventurous allure. It should be fun on some level and for myself I find repointing fun and it’s great that everyone finds different ways of enjoying the sport. To summarize- it’s rock climbing and we shouldn’t take ourselves to seriously… I think?
-Hugo
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