[gruff]

What's the longest any of you guys have spent working a single problem?

I personally get bored and sacked if I have to go back to it 2-3 times, I guess that's why I've never done anything very hard. I'm just wonderin coz I'm spying me out some problems to work should the weather improve here in North Wales.

And how much harder are problems you project in comparison to what you would usually expect to send in one session?

g

[Bonjoy]

Have only got the full focus obsession when trying for a first ascent. Lowrider took six dedicated visits with minimum skin growth periods in between, Sheffield Steel (in Sydney) took about the same spread over four weeks with pressure on due to leaving for NZ at end of month. All a bit of a head-fuk really, but worth it if it pays off.

[Fiend]

Myself, 2-3 sessions with a max of 1 hour per session (usually less and usually due to skin loss / tiredness), although sometimes those sessions have been months apart.

Most problems I'll do in a session though. I guess I have no real aversion to working stuff but if it's looking like it will take ages it's also looking like it's too damn hard. Still plenty of things to flash or do quickly.

The ones I've worked (never really projects i.e. I don't plan specifically for them) have been a little harder than single session stuff. But most of them would have gone in a single session IF I'd just gone and focused on them and not mashed myself against other stuff.

[a dense loner]

3yrs to do green traverse, spread over uni time, comin up from down south. 3yrs to do a prob of my own, but shunt ave bin tryin it at all for the first yr. realistically 2 yrs.  :D  sure i cud thought of somethin better to do wi my time.

[dave]

i thnik FBSF once told me he tried westside story for 13 years before doing it. Respect - does that make it harder then Monk's Life?

[Big Frank]

Theres this unclimbed wall int dale, that I go to probably twice a year for a crack at, every time I think I'll get it but fail!!

It's not the best looking problem in the world but it would be nice to do it!

[Avoiding the Traitor]

Been working on my problem at Churnet for last 15 months and came close to nailing it !! bugger

Going there next weekend and I'm certain I will do it.

[squeek]

I've got problems to do at different places, but don't go there especially to
do that one, although I'll try it every time I'm there.

[nik at work]

Normally half a dozen focussed sessions with a relatively short time span between them (i.e. a week or two) will see me either get up a problem/route or bag it off. If I'm not visiting the problem regularly or not really focusing on doing it then it will take me more visits, but I won't get bored as quickly.

My longest effort was about eighteen months of almost exclusively visiting a crag once or twice a week to try one route. In the end I did it in two overlapping sections on a rope then access was temporarily banned at the crag in question and I just stopped climbing.
It was exhausting and demotivating in the extreme. Although now I've started climbing again (rather than going out once a month to bimble) I'm thinking I'd like to get back on it - sucker for punishment me...

[Kim]

3yrs to do green traverse, spread over uni time, comin up from down south.

exactly the same for me (cept comin down from up north...) makes it all the sweeter when you nail it :D

[a dense loner]

did full version second go, same day. felt like rite tool. but suppose i did know how the meat of it went. :roll:

[Doylo]

I get pissed off after 5 sessions trying something, so usually leave it for a few months or something then start again. Normally longish problems where i keep falling off the last moves!

[dave]

theres a few things in the peak that we went to 2/3 evenings a week for a couple of weeks to get done, after trying them on and off before. theres some stuff i alway meant to session but never got round to it.

in yorkshire its different cos you can generally knock off font 7cs in a half hour.

 :wink:

[a dense loner]

I get pissed off after 5 sessions trying something

is this indoors? heard rumours that uve taken to the school room 24/7  :wink:

[Doylo]

Believe it or not i used to climb outside! I've realised this winter that i can't be doin with sub zero temperatures, can't warm up, can't stay warm, fingers hurt etc... And besides for the stuff i wanna do it doesn't have to be flippin baltic. Roll on the summer  :D  :D

[Naylor]

It took me just over a year to get my thing at Nesscliffe, before that I`d get bored after a few tries. (bouldering and routes.)

[fatboySlimfast]

i thnik FBSF once told me he tried westside story for 13 years before doing it.

Oi cheeky git...........it was actually 12
First tried in 1988 but a large fall on to a new bouldering addition, a piece of lino on to the then quite lush grass saw me surf off down the hill and hurt me knee. from then on i only half hearted tried it very occasonally each year(dont forget i actually used to do some routes!) Finally ticked in 2000.

[Pantontino]

I tend to spend no more than 3-4 sessions on existing problems, but if it is a first ascent this has stretched on occasion to 15 seperate sessions!

There are old bugbear problems (like Jerry's Roof) that I never really get stuck into, but keep trying every now and then, until one day (hopefully) I'll get lucky with the combination of conditions, feeling light and discovering a subtle tweak to the sequence. This happened recently with Johnny's Wall at the Cromlech, only V6, but I've never managed to do it. Last week I changed my finger position slightly after a tip off from a mate, and bingo got it 2nd go, and it felt ok. Now I've got a new project, because the link from the low level traverse has not been done yet - wonder how many after work sessions that'll take? Could be a real long termer.

[Jim]

I try to not go back to the same place over and over so don't really session problems. I think it took me a year or so from first trying gorilla to doing it, but I ended up doing early doors first and then I did gorilla striaght after which I was well chuffed with and then fell off the easy slap for the jug on soft on the g, all in the same day. 2 out of 3's not bad.
Prefer to go to different places than keep going back all the time just for one or two problems

[dave]

early last summer we went through a month where everyone was uber-psyched and we went to the kudos wall about twice every week and sessioned problems. It were great - went from having done 1 problem there to having done 6. mad for it again this year :up:

[ian h]

depends on the problems in question there have been some things i have been trying year in year out since i was a kid but never really focussed on these normally tend to be ones i have to travel to so dont get on them as regular as local things.

if there is a prob i am desperate to do i will usually try and get on it at least once a week. but prob only spend around 1/2 - i hr on it in a session.

[Blunk]

The longest I have worked a project and actually succeeded was 15-20 days over 6 months. Never got up anything I have worked on longer than that, though I've sure as hell worked some things to death.

Interestingly, my hardest probs have been done much quicker, within 4 days each. I suffer from severe loss of momentum past that point, and really shouldn't bother continuing...just that some lines are too compelling to pass up!!

I have also found simply working on strength in the basement is much more likely to yield success than throwing myself repeatedly at the real thing.

[dontfollowme]

P.S. I heard on the grapevine that the North Wales guide has been postponed until 2006/7 .

Please tell me this is a wind up!?!

[a dense loner]

I hear -10 is brilliant this time of year

any time of year