As a gym climber who now goes outdoors once a month, how can I excel at outdoor climbs? Pumping out is less of an issue for me than finger strength. Devils lake is kicking my ass right now, but in a good way. I liked breaking the beta at certain times, but some routes just seem to demand pulling your entire bw on nickel crimps

Have just had two absolute banger sessoins over the last couple of days, and ticked off 21 benchmark 7a+'s on the 2024 mb. 5 remaining now, all of which will probably take me a little bit of projecting, but super phyched to move on to the 7b's!!
Favourite one I sent was shark bite.
>>243699
Board training

>>243714
>Board training
Bro literally what? The crimps on that suck. In fact I just tried a moonboard at 40degrees (newest set), jfc I can't even do a V4. The crimps are too fucking hard. I can do them like once or twice, but then after a few attempts, literally all the cruxes become impossible.

>>243741
Go to the spraywall and create your own boulders. Make them from decent holds but add one or two crimps that are hard for you. Make it so you are able to do them in a few tries. Not some insanely hard project. Eventually you can add more crimps and harder crimps to the boulders.
I used to make 2 boulders for this when I started, each one had a bad crimp for each hand so I train them more or less equally. Plus, creating the problems yourself is fun.

>>243699
Over gripping is common moving from indoors to outdoors. It's good to practice indoors and out on relaxing on the holds, seeing how little strength you can exert while still holding on. Might help you

>>243741
>The crimps on that suck
Thats the point

>>243741
>newest set
>can't even do a V4
>The crimps are too fucking hard
Lmao try the 2016 or 2019 version then, they're even more brutal.
But it's a fantastic training tool for finger strength, body tension and pure fucking power.
Probably nothing better to train for hard outdoor boulders than the moonboard.

I live in Russia and have been rock climbing for four years now (for the last year, I've been going to the gym once a week. I know it's not enough, but I devote as much time as I have). I weigh only 65 kg and am 180 cm tall, but I can easily climb 6B+ and, with difficulty, 7A. So, I agree with the author: the entry barrier to this sport is very low (unless you're wheelchair-bound, of course).

I'm using a translator, so errors are possible :)

>>243804
This is such beginner advice, appreciated, but hardly useful. I'm no stranger to climbing outdoors, I just hardly get to do it because I'm a midwest fag with Governor's dodge and Devil's Lake being my closest to me (and both 3+ hours away). But I'm trying to atone for my faggot living situation by choosing to drive to explore more.

Devils lake has some nice climbs (sandbagged as fuck). I could project their 5.10a's and 5.10bs, but jesus christ, the 5.10c felt like my gym 5.11d. The crimps on this glassy ass rock are kicking my ass. I straight up could not get up even with 20 takes. 5mm crimps go crazy, when you have next to no feet to use. Maybe an /out/ gentleman can help me.

Picture this. There's this climb you really want to do. And you and your friends start it at the same time. You can barely do the first move, it takes everything you have, but then your friends get the entire climb first. So you relax, assume you'll get it next session. But then you don't. Then you can only get another sequence. Then repeat this for months.

Wouldn't you be frustrated? When you can never guarantee a send? When it gets taken off the wall and replaced by another boulder before you had time to do half of it? Don't you think that's so frustrating? Then you tell me not to compare, but then literally everyone I climb with is able to do it effortlessly. And when I say that, No, I don't think they aren't trying. But they aren't trying as hard as ME. I WANT it. I give it my all. I climb until I'm physically unable to. ANd no matter how much I want it, or put effort into it, it gets me little progress. But literally nobody else seems to have this issue, or even care about it at all. Then, whenever I ask someone for advice, they give me some random vapid explanation and expect it to work the first time.

Regardless of whether or not you experienced this, don't you think that this would make someone frustrated?

tfw crushed my pinky while failing to properly rerack a 60lb dumbbell and now it hurts to use it while climbing
time to 3 finger drag everything I guess

>>243943
>The chad 3 finger dragger versus the virgin half crimper.
Based.
>>243940
Look bro, what you're feeling is real, but fixation will actively fuck you over. You literally said it yourself
>Add no matter how much I want it, or put effort into it, it gets me little progress.
You probably are progressing, just slowly. Confirmation bias hits hard when you climb solo, try climbing with people at your level. But pretty much every gym bro goes through that. Climbing outdoors will make it so you never feel like that, because you're too busy having fun that the progress just comes by itself. I know its gonna hurt to hear this but for your own sake just keep climbing. Climb to have FUN.

>>243940
People that fail to progress despite giving lots of effort, especially newbies, are almost always missing something fundamental about training. Either they don't know what's missing, or they know and tell themselves that somehow that fundamental principle isn't important or doesn't apply to them

I won't claim to know your situation, but I would put money on the fact that you're missing something crucial.

Trying hard is no guarantee for success. If you were to park your ass under a v15, you can try as hard as you want, you would never ever make progress on it if you didn't have the skills and strength needed to pull and move between the holds. In this situation, you could easily be frustrated, but no amount of effort would be enough to overcome your deficiency. It's not always a matter of effort.

I've been climbing for a long time and I often see people in the gym spinning their wheels. Same problems, year in and year out. Usually noobs make the following crucial mistakes:

>they have no concept of rest between attempts
>they consistently select problems that are too easy or too hard
>they don't attempt to make a mental model of their climbs and just wing it every time, no strategy
>they aren't aware of or ignore their weaknesses
>they are physically very weak and don't bother doing targeted training to address it

>>243835
how do you get used to the crimps? My fingers slip the fuck off.

>>243946
>they have no concept of rest between attempts
I rest at least 3 minutes, sometimes 5 between boulders.
>they consistently select problems that are too easy or too hard
How do you make this determination? This is completely subjective.
>they don't attempt to make a mental model of their climbs and just wing it every time, no strategy
Probably my biggest weakness. Sometimes I record myself, but oftentimes I'm employing beta someone else is doing and I can't execute it because of strength.
>they aren't aware of or ignore their weaknesses
I get criticized by my friends for saying my finger strength is a weakness.
>they are physically very weak and don't bother doing targeted training to address it
Doesn't apply to me. I'm a meatball, used to lift before climbing. I have benched, squatted, deadlifted, and overheadpressed more than 95% of climbers ever will. But my fingers are dogshit.

I get stuck on single problems on kilter for months, just because there's a sequence I keep pumping out on, and nothing seems to get better. But I know I am improving. My body tension's getting better, I find ways to break beta, I have better heel hooks, drop knees, etc. But when that doesn't translate to sends it makes me feel like garbage. After all - Am I really better if I still can't crack a particular V6 on kilter?

Then I start hangboarding and increasing volume and it just feels like more of the same.

>>243953
Started with isolated moves that I could do, using the best holds the Moonboard had to offer. I think I started with benchmarks directly, I managed to send "The Warm Up Problem" on the 2019 set after a few weeks and after doing the first one the others came soon after.
As much as it sucks, take your time and work your way up slowly.

Or be a naturally gifted freak like a friend of mine and go from starting moonboarding to #2 in my country and top 15 worldwide within one year...

>https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/02/balin-miller-climber-death-el-capitan

>>243986
>https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/02/balin-miller-climber-death-el-capitan


Link to the actual fall?

>>243986
Anyone have a link to the video?

>>243986
ok?

>>243989
>>244016
It’s not that interesting, he just rappels of a rope that’s not long enough and falls out of frame. Tie your stopper knots, they save lives

>>243986
>>243989
>>244016
>Anyone have a link to the video?
It's in the dedicated thread...
>>244018

>>243965
I would stick with the hangboarding, be consistent with it for a few months and I don't think finger strength will be a weakness for you at your grade level. Make sure you progressively overload, don't just do the same weight every sesh and expect to progress.

You might be giving grades too much credit, grades on boards are all over the place. I have climbed quite a few v7-10 outdoors and still get rekt on certain benchmark moonboard problems way below my grade, or even my flash grade. Problems are morpho, sandbagged, soft, they're all over the place. I have flashed benchmark V8 on the tb2 at 45 degrees and there are benchmark v6s on that board that feel absolutely ridiculous.

I started climbing about 2-3 months ago. To start off, I got LS Tarantulas as advised. Flat, snug, but not super tight.
I am currently at about V3-4. I think, I have a limited frame of reference.
I don't wanna blame my shoes but it does seem like it sucks at smearing and it has stretched out too much despite sizing from my street size.

Is it normal for me to want to get newer shoes now or am I premature in wanting to upgrade. I was hoping my first shoe would last me my first year of climbing. I was thinking of getting the scarpa vapor v.

>>244091
>I would stick with the hangboarding, be consistent with it for a few months and I don't think finger strength will be a weakness for you at your grade level.
Duly noted. Some other stuff you said helped. I cracked a boulder this week that's been on the side for awhile by recording each attempt and correcting my beta for it. Also helps to know that grades are subjective even at the higher levels.

Got any hangboarding advice? People say not to increase the weight too fast, but the sets. Something I found is just do max hangs, start at 4 sets, if it feels easy, go to 5, then 6. Then after 3ish weeks, increase the weight slightly.

>>244166
Your shoes are fine. A stronger climber could flash your project in flip flops. Don't worry about your next pair until they wear holes in the toe.

>>244266
My personal experience with hangboarding was very positive, here is what I did:

>Pick grip types that are widely applicable to climbing. For me, it made the most sense to just focus on half crimp and 3 finger drag.
>Pick an edge size that you can easily hang bw as a starting point
>Test your max weight for each grip type that you can hang for some time, say 10s. So you would start at bw and then add weight to your self until you fail to hang for 10s. Note your max for each grip type.
>Your starting weight for your hangboarding routine will be your max minus some amount of weight. For example if you were able to hang for 10s on a 20mm edge in half crimp with bw+20lbs, start your hangboarding training block at just bw. If you could hang bw+50lbs, start at bw+30lbs. The point is to give yourself a margin so you're not maxing out right away.
>From there, do a typical max hang protocol. For max hangs, you want to do short duration hangs with lots of rest between each hang. A good starting routine would be 4-6 sets per grip type, each set is 10s of hanging followed by ~3 mins of rest.
>Increase the load progressively. If you have access to very small weights, you can increase the weight every session by something small, like 1-2lbs, and just do that indefinitely until you plateau. If you don't have access to micro weights, just increase the load every few sessions by 5lbs.
>Keep going until you plateau, then deload some amount, repeat.

You can also progressively overload by doing more sets at a certain weight, but I really like the idea of just adding weight at the same amount of sets.

I went from hanging bw + 20lb in half crimp on a 20mm edge to bw + 105lbs on 20mm in about a years time using this protocol. 3 finger drag went from bw to bw+80lbs. Climbing on crimps went from a weakness to a strength, and the 3fd helped a lot with sloper strength and making full use of my reach.

>>244279
Very interesting... What about training pinches? The pinch is a weakness of mine as well...

Also, is doing both half crimp AND three finger drag the same day a good idea? That's basically like double overloading the same joints? What do you do if your fingers get tweaky? Do you climb on the days you hangboard? Did you personally get better results from 4 sets versus 5 or 6?

>>244281
Any grip is valid as long as long as it makes sense to you. If pinches are a weakness, I don't see why not other than it might be hard on a hangboard.

I found half crimp/3 finger drag to compliment each other well specifically because they load the tendons differently. I felt fine doing both in a sesh, whereas when I tried doing both half and full crimp that felt like too much.

As far as sets, I started each of my training blocks with 6 sets per grip and progressed to 4 sets as the weights got heavier. I found I could tolerate more volume after a deload, and that reducing volume while continuing to increase weight towards the end of a training block allowed me to push past plateaus easier.

Back then I would climb 3 days a week and hangboard twice a week. I would tweak my sessions such that if I was hangboarding the same day or on the previous rest day, I would avoid overly crimpy climbs. An example week:
M-climb (no crimpy) + hang
T-rest
W-climb
Th-hang
F-rest
S-climb outside
Su-rest

>>244283
Really good template, thanks for the advice and I'll see if I can implement it. I might prefer hanging before a climb, that way I can really put effort into it.

>>244166
I made the exact same mistake. The website I got the shoes from actually recommended one size down for the tarantulas, even for a beginner. I've definitely lost performance in some coin type footholds but I'm struggling to justify the cost of newer shoes

If your foot fits it well, the mad rock drone series of shoes are a good step up from beginner shoes and are pretty affordable, around $130 new. They have the famous cheater heel and it really works.

>>244305
Yeah. If I curl my toes there's about a thumb's worth of space in the toe box. And I downsized 1 size from my street shoe size.
I wish I was given actual advice rather than the standard
>Oh don't worry about down sizing at this stage, just get your usual street size for comfort.

I like slabs too, and now standing on small edges is just frustrating.

It might be because of my shitty schedule change but over these last few weeks I went from climbing a few V6's in my gym to barely being able to do some V4's. Time to promptly kill myself.

>>244338
Good man. Let he who climbs for fun get raped and die in shame. Let us who chase grades die with honor. Seppuku is the clear option of choice. >Bro it's just a hobby
I'm going to kill your dog.

>>244336
Your shoes are way too big. Downsize more. 1 size down is just a rule of thumb, I went 3 sizes down until my shoe fit how I wanted it to.

I'm taking a deload after weeks of high intensity and high volume. All I'm noticing is that each day, I'm more sore than the last, the fuck is happening. 4 days in and it's hard to get out of bed

>find shoe with perfect toebox... heel is fucked
>find shoe with nice fitting heel... toebox is too small
This is so frustrating

>>244553
Real, but take time experimenting with different shoes. Toebox fit is more important than heel fit, so prioritize that, but just try diferent pairs every now and then and climb on

I shifted my reality to focus on raw improvement. I haven't skipped a climbing session in two months now, and my gains are steadily coming. Better body tension, better footwork, I'm able to execute old projects with flow and effortlessness. I'd say the biggest boon to my climbing has just been the consistency. Back in April-June, I took a really lax approach, going 1-2 a week but going hard, and I think my body really needed the volume because while there was improvement, it felt milder. Instead of going 7-8 times a month, I'm now going 10-11, this 40% increase in time on the wall is significant.

For moonboard 'no kickboard' problems, are you allowed to smear the kickboard as long as you dont use the foot chips?
I was trying Monooqlo Tokyo 7b on the 2024 set, and I can skip the toe hook and move straight to the first hold by smearing the kickboard which made me think it wasnt allowed. But in all the send videos with the toe hook they are also smearing the kickboard with their other foot so im a little unclear on the rules.

>tfw v4 subhuman
It's so fucking over for me.

>>245020
If you keep comparing yourself to others, you will never enjoy anything.
I've had more fun projecting V3 than flashing V4.
Just look for something that looks cool and try it. Every time you manage to do one more move is a win.

>>245087
I know, but still...

File: IMG20251014164813.jpg (2.24 MB, 4000x1816)

2.24 MB JPG

Behold, my home wall. 45 degrees, 12 feet of diagonal, 16 feet wide.

>>245087
>LMFAO look at this bozo who can't be better than 70% of climbers on day one.
>KYS LOSER
Based chad mentality.

>>245181
How did you set that up? Was it expensive? I'm a normie fag who doesn't know anything about woodworking or construction. How can I acquire the skills to build this without having it collapse on me?

>>245192
I'm a normies too, I had a wall builder help me. It's a pretty simple design, with proper wood working tools it's feasible to do it your self. I think petzl has a home wall building guide that is very thorough and can be followed step by step.

>>245192
Metolius has a guide
https://www.metoliusclimbing.com/pdf/How-to-Build-a-Home-Bouldering-Wall.pdf

>>245181
How you went about the rock holds, and how tall is the celing? i want to build a home wall with rock holds

50 or 55 degrees on the Kilterboard?
60 feels too much like roof climbing already while 45 is too soft

>>245535
55° obviously, even 50° is soft

>>245460
The rock holds are from a company called realstoneholds. They're pretty affordable compared to other companies doing stone holds.

The ceiling is ~9ft, so for the bottom/back portion of the wall I dug about 1ft down into the soil to make room for a kick board. I'll probably dig the whole floor down a foot eventually but it's a pain in the ass to do by hand as each square foot of dirt weighs about 100lbs and there is a shitload to take out.

File: nice.gif (2.6 MB, 320x240)

2.6 MB GIF

got my first 1-5-8 yesterday

>>245648
That's very impressive anon, gz

>>245192
It’s expensive and time consuming. Expect to spend twice as much on climbing holds as you will on materials. It’s fun to set problems at first but it gets a little old after a while. Unless you have no gym within 50 miles I’d argue a home climbing wall is a waste of space and effort despite being a cool idea

>>245648
How long did it take you?
I just started with this section of the gym and even those big round logs are kind of bitch.

>>245685
31 years old, training boulder with medium intensity on-off since 18 or so. currently probably a year or two of active training without much time off or injuries, few times a week. no specific training for campusing, just in peak shape currently.

just found out the ifsc event is being held in Fukuoka japan this weekend where I happen to be. bought tix for the boulder finals on saturday. Mao is going to be there and is my climbing waifu but I can't be a weird white monkey trying to talk to her lol. should I bring a sign with me that says /xs/ or something else autistic?

>>245777
definitely not bro just enjoy it like a normal person. sounds dope.

>>245777
Definitely take an autistic sign. Something like "Professionally brushing toes" or "I'm here for the armpit kino"

I have been stuck at like 160% bw 20mm max hang since spring this year. Been hangboarding for two years in total. I think there is a massive genetic component to this and my fingers just aren't particularly strong
I have started doing 14mm max hang as well, and this is still going up, to see if it can spur on my 20mm and create some of kind synergetic effect. But really, I don't have good finger strength genetics really

I did get stuck at like 130% for ages, but after I broke that plateau it went up rapidly- maybe the same thing will happen again and I'll be at 180 bw soon. But really my fingers just aren't that strong, I have seen zoomers hangboarding more than me and they aren't even routine hangboarders. Annoying because I am pretty strong gym-wise

>>245873
Stop blaming genetics, if you've climbed for less than 10 years, you're not close to your genetic ceiling. Gains take longer the more you train, but also a sudden plateau doesn't just happen for no reason. Assuming you're getting proper protein intake, sleep, and nutrition, you need to find other ways to progressively overload your fingers. Consider doing one arm hangs, or keep training smaller edges as you are. There are various programs that don't just rely on max hangs, things like repeater variants, or simply hangboarding more often. If progress halts, it is usually because you are not being stimulated enough. Happens in lifting all the time. Alternatively, maybe too much volume is the problem. Consider hangboarding close to your 100%, but for less time and having longer rests between individual sets and between hangboarding days.

Keep a dedicated training log so you can see what works and what doesn't.

A fairly decent post there, thanks
But I don't need to keep any kind of log because I am not a memorylet/brainlet

>>245873
Do a round of repeaters for a few months. That broke me out of my plateau. I attribute it to way higher volume leading to forearm hypertrophy vs max hangs where it's super low volume and mostly neuromuscular adaptation. I went from 150% to about 180% on my next max hang block.

Watching the finals now
Do they ever share their DJ mixes anywhere on the internet? They're too good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBxtF11EuHY

Yo climbcels, is it possible to get kinda decent with 1x per week indoor climbing or is that "forever hardstuck at being able to do a few 7As that fit my style" tier?

>>246084
Hardstuck for sure. Even 2x a week super intense session is pretty much maintenance imo (unless you do stuff outside of climbing like finger training)

>>246086
Sounds like it's pretty much impossible to get anywhere with climbing if you also want to do other physical shit like regular lifting or running desu.