[ghisino]

Started in 1998

Rp
2005 7a+
07  7b 7b+ 7c
09 7c+
10 8a

Os
07 6c to 7b
11 7b+
14 7c

Boulder
07 7a
08 7b
09 7b+
11 7c
13 7c+

[Doylo]

I did 7c in Ceuse in 2001 then Let the Tribes Increase 7c+ and Mussel Beach 8a in 2002. Then jumped to Melanchollie 8b in 2004 then Walking Mussel 8b+ in 2012.

Lack of progression after Melanchollie was down to a) it being fuckin hard and nearly 8b+. b)right route at right time, essentially punching above my weight. c) going bouldering a lot and d) not leaving Wales much (not much choice of 8b+/c especially then).

[petejh]

e) development of Golf Ball Wall (may you burn in hell)

[Doylo]

Golf Ball Wall is the Welsh Clark Mountain...

[gme]

Pretty much a grade a year. 7b-88 8b in 94

Progression halts due to taking the easy route out and going bouldering.

[cha1n]

Sport RP grades with Font grades in the same year in brackets. Most of the years that there's no grade increase there's a fair amount of consolidation and I didn't list O/S grades as I rarely bother O/Sing anything that isn't warm-up grades.

2010 - 4, 4+, 5, 5+, 6a, 6a+, 6b (Font 6A-6C+ higher grades at the end of the year during winter)
2011 - 6c, 7a (Font 7A, 7A+, 7B)
2012 - 7b, 7b+, 7c, 7c+ (No bouldering grade increase but lots of volume at 7B, think I didn't travel to boulder much that winter)
2013 - more 7c+'s tried a couple of 8a's. Did all the moves on them but not enough endurance. (Font 7B+, 7C)

Tied into a rope for the first time since late 2013 about a month ago and only to get some active recovery on tweaky fingers. (No bouldering grade increase but fair amount of volume at 7C. Fair amount of finger injuries too).

Now hoping to get 8a+ (fuck 8a) before my 30th in August.

[petejh]

The constant in this thread is:
up up up up. Injury. plateau, slow up if tenacious.

'Getting strong is easy. Getting strong without getting injured is hard.' As someone said.

[Luke Owens]

2011 - Started sport climbing - 6b
2012 - 7a+
2013 - 7b+
2014 - 7b

Bouldering

2010 - Started bouldering - 6A
2011 - 6A+
2012 - 6C
2013 - 7A+
2014 - 7A+

Plateaued in sport since 2013...

[peewee]

Started climbing in 2008

2008  6B
2009  7A+      
2010  7A+   
2011 7B+   
2012 7C+   
2013  8A   
2014  8A+   
2015  8A...... (finger injury at new year)

[TobyD]

1999: 7a pump me tenderly, winspit
2004ish: 7b+ mandragora, siurana,
2005ish: 7c body machine, raven tor (with tree)
2006ish: 7c+ herbie, 8a new age traveller
2011: 8a+ GBH, 8b predator

I need a seperate list for 'first at grade not at Malham'

[haydn jones]

2011(early) 6c - pebbles at Torbryan Quarry after 2 days of working the moves
2011(late) 7a - Poisonality at horseshoe
2011(late) 7a+ - Mindmeld at the cuttings
2011(late) 7b - dumbfounded at the cuttings after 3 days of trying it! this felt like a mile stone in my climbing....

2012 i climb indoors......a lot.....

2013 7b+ - Viejo traidor at el chorro.... i flash it. my first 7b+ and a flash,never knew this till just now looking back.
2013 7c in the same trip i redpoint a short 2 bolt 7c and onsight another 7c Honk Down...
2013 7c+ redpoint Rima Libre after 3 days of effort on the same trip took 8a for it at the time and thought it was the first, back in england i get a reality check and realise its not my first 8a :D
2013 8a hot fun closing
2013 8a+ chimes of freedom

move to the peak from down south

2014 8b weedkiller into chimes, a linkup as my first of the grade!
2014 8b+ mecca, my first roped 8b+ thought did lots of bouldering to prepare for it including staminaband which is more moves more sustained and harder in my opinion

2015 ....8c???

[PipeSmoke]

Was thinking about this the other day, proper interesting. I wonder how big an effect age has on rate of progress.
Mine personally is:
2013: V6 (started climbing) - started training at end of year
2014: V9
2015: V10/11

[haydn jones]

Just redpointing for me cos my onsights are embarrassing and I haven't done any in 2 years!

7b+: 2010
7b+ to 7c: 1 year (11 - Easter)
7c to 8a: 0 years (11 - summer)
8a to 8b: 1 year (12 - Easter)
8b to 8c: 1 year (13 - summer)
8c to 8c+: 1 year (14 - summer)
8c+ to 7c: 1 year (15 - Easter)

Back around.

did you start in 2010 too? 8a in 1 year is good!

[krymson]

Yes that is really impressive but it would be good to have an idea how long it took for you  to get to the 7b+ starting line!

[krymson]

6b 2006
6b+ 2007
6c 2007
6c+ 2008
7a 2008
7a+ 2008 (post downgrades, 2010)
7b 2009
7b+ 2011
7c 2011
7c+ 2012
8a 2014
8a+ ...?

A grade a year or so on average once I hit 7a, although some years have seen big pushes and some have seen consolidation. And then there's this year, which so far hasn't really seen either!

This seems like an interesting progression to me as there was a slower start,relatively to some of the beasts posting here, but the progress is more steady, whereas the others who started stronger had some more extended periods stuck at a certain grade -- admittedly a badass grade not to be ashamed of, but definitely an interesting observation.

[moose]

- started bouldering 2003 - got to around F7A in first year (but only a select few "lank between crimp" problems that needed no technique)
, then pretty steady around a grade a year until 2008 - up to F7C, greatly helped by two long 6 month spells of unemployment.
- 2009, got a job - bouldering plateaued
- 2010/2011, ill, lost lots of muscle, bouldering declined, down to around F7B after a good siege - present level (though suspect I might be able to raise my game to F7B+ if suitably motivated).

- 2011, started sport climbing in earnest, f7a (having only had on-sighting holidays abroad previously)
- 2012, steady at 7b (plus Obsession and Frankie at f7b+, and one very bouldery 7c - Chiseling)
- 2013, lots of f7c+ (plus a couple of soft / due to be downgraded 8as - Lapin, Dead Calm)
- 2014, lots of f8a, (plus a few f8a+s - Puppeteer, Drenka, Urgent Action)

- 2015... I would be surprised if I managed a single 8a... come out of winter feeling very unfit and washed out - feel miles from RPing my project left over from last year (Zoolook) - which has left me feeling a bit down about my prospects.  I need a new project to enthuse me (maybe a return to Kilnsey will provide).

[SA Chris]

Did my first E1 (in B4's)

Croft B4s? I had a pair of those they were terrible. Luckily my bag with them in got stolen and I had to buy a decent pair of shoes, or else my progression line would have been even flatter.

[bendavison]

Just redpointing for me cos my onsights are embarrassing and I haven't done any in 2 years!

7b+: 2010
7b+ to 7c: 1 year (11 - Easter)
7c to 8a: 0 years (11 - summer)
8a to 8b: 1 year (12 - Easter)
8b to 8c: 1 year (13 - summer)
8c to 8c+: 1 year (14 - summer)
8c+ to 7c: 1 year (15 - Easter)

Back around.

did you start in 2010 too? 8a in 1 year is good!

Yeah, I'd been to Sunderland wall once about 5 years beforehand for a friends birthday though. 8a was in a year and a half, which seemed like a big difference at the time...

[iwasmexican]

6b 2006
6b+ 2007
6c 2007
6c+ 2008
7a 2008
7a+ 2008 (post downgrades, 2010)
7b 2009
7b+ 2011
7c 2011
7c+ 2012
8a 2014
8a+ ...?

A grade a year or so on average once I hit 7a, although some years have seen big pushes and some have seen consolidation. And then there's this year, which so far hasn't really seen either!

This seems like an interesting progression to me as there was a slower start,relatively to some of the beasts posting here, but the progress is more steady, whereas the others who started stronger had some more extended periods stuck at a certain grade -- admittedly a badass grade not to be ashamed of, but definitely an interesting observation.

Or it just shows how fickle grades are relative to a persons strengths/ weaknesses and so on...

Personally:

2008: started climbing
2009: pretty sure 7A?
2010: ~7B+ (an eliminate but still, otherwise 7B)
2011: -
2012: 7C
2013: 8A

For me this has little to do with any kind of logical progression, all sorts of factors like injury, time spent actually climbing, actually trying harder things...

[Ally Smith]

Sufficiently intrigued enough to go back and look through some old log books:

1997-1999: College bimbling; trad upto E2, f6c
1999-2002: University hard grit headpointing days; trad upto E7 (7a+ at most?)

            RP          OS
f7b   - 2002
f7b+     ??         2004
f7c   - 2003       2004
f7c+  - 2004      2011
8a    - 2006       2014
8a+  - 2007  (PhD write-up, travelling, getting a job, partner getting ill, etc all got in the way of climbing more than f8a RP/f7b+ OS for a few years - started training more intensely over winter of 2010/11)
8b    - 2013
8b/+ - 2014

[Ally Smith]

2015 ....8c???

I don't doubt it for one minute! 

[Rocksteady]

You guys are wads. I'd be interested if this could be correlated with how much time spent climbing outdoors over the year?

2005-2008: Frequent climbing wall sessions, only ever toproping, occasional trad up to HVS on second. Lots of bad habits learned in these years.

2008: Started sport climbing. 6b, 6b+ OS, 6c redpoint.
2009: 7a.
2010: Lots of indoor climbing, getting frustrated at lack of progress and pulley injury
2011: 7a.
2012: 7b, started bouldering.
2013: 7b, 7A.
2014: 7b, 7A.

Think I've 'got' how to improve now and hoping to break the plateau. Don't get much climbing time (on average looks like between 20-30 days outdoors each year, one day a fortnight), so all about efficiency for me.

[cjsheps]

2008: 6a
2009: 7a+ (long siege)
2010: 7b
2011: 7c
2012: 7c
2013: 8a
2014: 8a+

Come on, 2015!

[stokesy]

Good thread idea, even if my progress is tediously slow...

2005: Started climbing indoors
2007: Started climbing outdoors, maybe 6A
2008: 6B
2009: 6C, soloed E1 (and got scared enough to decide soloing anything harder was a bad idea)
2010: 7B (a dodgy link up problem so probably doesn't count)
2011: Actual 7Bs, injured for most of the second half of the year
2012: Back up to 7B after injury
2013: 7C (if you're being generous about the grade of The Keel), then got injured again
2014 - present: Bimbling along at 7A/7A+ due to various niggling injuries. Technique seems to have vastly improved over the last couple of years even if the grades haven't.

[haydn jones]

You guys are wads. I'd be interested if this could be correlated with how much time spent climbing outdoors.

Last year i haf 125 days where i ticked something that day. However my # of sessions outside would have been higher since there are days you go out but not tick