[Moo]

It's horses for courses then as I'm also called Tom ( but just once ) also a Scorpio but I'm not a fan of thrash metal and I'm allergic to cats.

[Oldmanmatt]

I was 38 when I did my first 8A, but only 22(?) when I did my first 8a... But only 74 Kg at 1.83m. Started climbing in 1978. You work it out, just makes me feel old.

[Dexter]

took me almost exactly 4 years from my first time climbing to boulder 8A.
I think I did my first 6C about a year and a half after I started so 2 and a half year for 6C-8A.
I started at 19 and I'm a lanky sod (6ft 2' whatever that is in meters). Also I've always been pretty skinny.

[Durbs]

Personally I'd say if you're bouldering 6C after only a year, that's pretty good.

I've been bouldering about 2 times a week for the last er... 5 years, and have only just started to get 6B's with any regularity. But this is based purely on my local wall's grading (I flashed 6C recently at another wall - yay!), which is roughly inline with my outdoor grade.

Recently I've started regularly (ish) going 3 times a week and the difference is immense. Stronger, better flow, more tenacity...

So basically I think if I'd applied myself more, I would be a lot better than I am. But I don't really mind as I still love it, and do lots of other things as well as bouldering, so would't want to focus just on climbing.

In summary: Anything is possible, depending on your motivation.

[ghisino]

i've only bouldered 7C+ although one 8A felt doable before this christmas (curious how it feels now, after holiday feasting and a prolonged hiatus from rock due to shitty weather).

took me 15 years (started @16, i'm 31) although my first 6C should have been 7 yrs ago, and i've only really focused on bouldering in the last 5 yrs.

Apart from that my progress has been slow and relatively steady with occasional accelerations and slow downs.
Overall i've been much slower than most of my climbing peers but in the long run i've outperformed several of them since injuries or loss/shift of interests stopped them.

from my perspective you are the most qualified person in this forum to say if you can achieve grade x in time y.
The only advice i can give from my perspective is to be careful with big and abstract objectives such as this. It is ok to keep them in the back of your head as a dream that may (or may not) come true and they will definitely fire your motivation levels up if and when you will feel realistically close... but most of the time it is much easier to deal with shorter-term, concrete objectives (eg make a mental list of problems graded you'd like to climb this season or the next, 6B-7B. Pick the monthly objectives from the list depending on current shape and weather).

also, abstract objectives such as grades may not be that rewarding when you finally reach them.
I feel that a lot with routes, where i've definitely had the objective to climb the grade 8a : ironically my most vivid and rewarding memories are about slighly easier routes (7c/+) that i perceived as having a special status, or that i've climbed in special circumstances.
When i think about 8a/+ routes, my fist thoughts are about those i haven't finished or tried yet, even though the two i've managed are by no means crap routes.

[Sasquatch]

Based on the immense and highly accurate knowledge base accumulated here at UKB, it will take you somewhere between 282 days and 1,4768,987,376 days to climb 8A.  When you do you will weight somewhere between 30.2 and 182.6kgs.  You will be able to deadlift approximately 1.84 x BW.  Additionally, you will have experienced an average of 1.43 injuries per year. 

 

[Oldmanmatt]

Based on the immense and highly accurate knowledge base accumulated here at UKB, it will take you somewhere between 282 days and 1,4768,987,376 days to climb 8A.  When you do you will weight somewhere between 30.2 and 182.6kgs.  You will be able to deadlift approximately 1.84 x BW.  Additionally, you will have experienced an average of 1.43 injuries per year. 

The real sad part about this is...




It's true.

[Sasquatch]

Ask a amiguous question, and get a perfect answer.  It how we do it

In honesty for the first two questions: I started climbing in 1995, and did my first 8A in 2002.  I didn't do another 8A until 2011.

Probably not.  My gut says the OP has climbed 6C in the gym, and is really excited by how quickly they got there.  The subset of the climbing population that is UB, has a relatively higher proportion of obsessive dedicated climbers who really like to climb and climb hard, and the subset of that group that went from 6C to 8A in two years is probably less than 5%.  So What're the odds that the OP can do so.  VERY SLIM, but yes its possible.

Perhaps if the OP gave us a few more details, we'd be able to give a better answer. For example:
How long have you been climbing? where? how often?
What's your background in other sports/activities?
What's your lifestyle allow for in terms of time/freedom to climb, etc.?
What's your access to training facilities? Climbing areas? etc.

[rosmat]

When I was 17 or 18, I climbed with a guy Mark who progressed really quickly:

He went from starting climbing to:
-  First 8b sport red point within 2 years
-  First 8A boulder within 2.5 years

But he was amazingly talented, and had all of the following:
- He had been a competitive slalom kayaker from a young age and to a very high level.
- He had good genes - his brother was Kayaking World Cup champ, and an Olympic silver medallist at the Sydney Olympics).
- He had the highest natural finger strength I have ever seen.
- He had a training mentality, and trained really hard.
- He built a 45 board at home.
- He was naturally light (under 65 kilos).

So, yes it's certainly possible if you are lucky enough to:
a.) have good genes
b.) enjoy training really hard
c.) not get injured

[tomtom]

a.) have good genes
b.) enjoy training really hard
c.) not get injured

d.) have enough time...

[Eddies]

I'm packing 7.5" and I haven't crushed 8A yet 

[haydn jones]

started when i was 19, Ht: 5ft 11in Weight: 59-65Kg, went from nil to 7C+ 3 years, then my elbows both broke. haven't been able to climb properly since October 2013 :/

[as646]

Obviously I'm not expecting a definitive answer, I understand that a: it's an incredibly naive question, and b: there is no "answer" as such. That said, it's nice to see that I get such a range of diverse replies regardless. I can't imagine what kind of responses I'd get if I asked this on UKC.

I've mostly pulled on plastic, comes with living in London, but have done plenty of climbing in Font, the Peak and N Wales (where my parents live). I'm actually moving up to Sheffield in 2 weeks, where I will be, er, partially-employed until I start a Masters in September. So I will have a lot of time to climb. Also I have an extremely obsessive personality and love to geek out on training science. So I'm really psyched for the next couple of months.

I'm not overly keen on thrash metal either, but I do like kittens.

[SA Chris]

When I was 17 or 18, I climbed with a guy Mark who progressed really quickly:

He went from starting climbing to:
-  First 8b sport red point within 2 years
-  First 8A boulder within 2.5 years

But he was amazingly talented, and had all of the following:
- He had been a competitive slalom kayaker from a young age and to a very high level.
- He had good genes - his brother was Kayaking World Cup champ, and an Olympic silver medallist at the Sydney Olympics).
- He had the highest natural finger strength I have ever seen.
- He had a training mentality, and trained really hard.
- He built a 45 board at home.

There's a group of people who are like that. They're called jammy fuckers

[rosmat]

I'm packing 7.5" and I haven't crushed 8A yet 

That's under performing for man with good genes.

[Sasquatch]

Obviously I'm not expecting a definitive answer, I understand that a: it's an incredibly naive question, and b: there is no "answer" as such. That said, it's nice to see that I get such a range of diverse replies regardless. I can't imagine what kind of responses I'd get if I asked this on UKC.

I've mostly pulled on plastic, comes with living in London, but have done plenty of climbing in Font, the Peak and N Wales (where my parents live). I'm actually moving up to Sheffield in 2 weeks, where I will be, er, partially-employed until I start a Masters in September. So I will have a lot of time to climb. Also I have an extremely obsessive personality and love to geek out on training science. So I'm really psyched for the next couple of months.

I'm not overly keen on thrash metal either, but I do like kittens.

Good luck.  It seems like you'll have alot of the pre-reqs in place to make some big strides in the next 7-8 months, so re-assess then.  Also the masters program could make a big impact on both training and getting outside.

[Oldmanmatt]

I'm packing 7.5" and I haven't crushed 8A yet 

That's under performing for man with good genes.

Reckon that's kinda small for a pair of genes...

[Bonjoy]

Thinking about it it took about ten years.
I do reckon that pushing hard bouldering in your youth is a poor long term strategy if you hope to do a range of types of climbing and remain doing it for a long time without moving country. As you get older and more strapped for time (as seems to be one of the truly universal laws of existence) you find that bouldering becomes easier to fit round your life and leading becomes harder. If you've already rinsed all your local bouldering then you might be in a bit of a bind.
However given that another truly universal law of existence is that youths always ignore good advice from grumpy old gits then I probably just wasted 5mins of my lunch break.

[SA Chris]

Word, especially if you are Peak based with so much amazing sport and trad readily accessible. Seems a somewhat reductionist (is that the right word) approach? Taking a long, narrow path which can easily lead to a dead end and one with injury potential lurking at every turn.

Unless you are a bullet proof, single minded individual with a very low boredom threshold.

[Stewart]

Some of the replies are a bit -ve. There's nothing wrong with wanting to achieve 8A in x years. If you're building the pyramid of lower grade outdoor climbs as you go then it's not going to be a boring journey. Perfectly possible as well without any fingerboarding at all up to around 7C.

[Bonjoy]

Perfectly possible as well without any fingerboarding at all up to around 7C.

Fingerboards were invented after 8As, ergo....

[Johnny Brown]

I've never used a fingerboard.

a.) have good genes
b.) enjoy training really hard
c.) not get injured

d.) have enough time...

...and, presumably, some sort of supportive community around you offering good advice/ beta/ exemplars. I just about got to Uk 6a over ten years living in the sticks and with a copy of Fawcett on Rock as my guru. As soon as I started climbing with a group of equal or better climbers, things really moved on, not so much top end but in breadth of ability. Just being around people who don't consider such climbs impossible made a big difference.

[ardeer]

my tuppence on this is limited but what i can say is that since starting a masters ive found my life to be much more regimented and as a result my climbing has become so too. trips to the wall are a useful reward for certain amounts of work done and if you wanted to get monastic about it you can pair academic and climbing results together and really focus on the whole thing as a general exercise in self improvement.

[a dense loner]

Thanks for that Johnny I'm touched

[Johnny Brown]

Your optimism when choosing a project is an inspiration to us all Dense.