[Muenchener]

Whoever starts this off is supposed to put in links to the previous years, right?

Aims for 2008
Aims for 2009
Aims for 2010
Aims for 2011
Aims for 2012
Aims for 2013
Aims for 2014
Aims for 2015
Aims for 2016

2017: 7b, 7A. Do not put training time & effort into anything else.
Big Goal: 8a before 60.

I am 55, 56 in the spring. I have a strong sense of my remaining time for athletic ambitions - not running out, let's not over-dramatize, but definitely being finite. Body and soul begin to fall asunder.

So I have a limited time horizon, and a job & a family. I need to focus. The last few years I've been trying to sport climb, get long alpine days in in the summer, and get some decent trad done on infrequent & short visits to the UK. This is not a recipe for getting significantly better at any of these things.

I enjoy the endurance factor of pushing myself on long rock routes in the mountains, but I have family commitments in the UK in the school holidays, which means I generally only have a few weekends free in the summer, which makes actually getting on big alpine routes a complete game of weather roulette. I was lucky with that in 2016, other years I haven’t been. And the aerobic mileage required to get to the necessary level of all day fitness is time consuming & probably detracts from strength training. So that's canned for the time being.

Get stronger. I read a comment somewhere that improving endurance might get somebody from 7a to 7b, but get from 7a to 8a you simply have to get a lot stronger. And given that I enjoy plastic bouldering and fingerboarding, and detest plastic routes, I’m definitely up for believing that and acting on it.
 
In order to get stronger: boulder. Somewhat plateaued here. Have done four 6C+’s this year (2 on lime, 2 on plastic) which is a step forward, but most of what I do is still around the 6B/+ level and anything much harder tends to feel unrealistic. Otoh I hardly project a boulder properly – all four 6C+’s went in half a dozen goes or less – so I should probably start putting in more work on things that feel really hard.
 
On the downside, the biceps tendon in my right shoulder is not in a good state. It isn't going to like a training programme centred on powerful bouldering and heavy deadhangs no matter how many rehab exercises I do. Am probably going to have to reluctantly bite the bullet and take a few weeks off at some point.

[Wood FT]

Thanks for starting the thread, one of the best for psyche on the site.

I think if you can get up to 7a on the boulders you will find an 8a route for you and there is every reason you can achieve your goal well before 60. How long would you be willing to spend on the route, or is that hard to answer not having found yet?

[Wood FT]

Routes:

A few in New Zealand (unlikely as I'll need more time given the grades but it's good to aim high)

No Country for Old Men 29/Collosus 27 - Little Babylon, Darrans
Protoplasm 29 - Hanging Rock (Bonjoy - how is it?)
Something cool looking in castle hill area

DWS in Ha Long Bay, drip sweat on belayer in Thailand and catch a fish.

Once back in UK

Onsight uk 7b (fell off at the belay of 'dive dive dive' so am eager to achieve this)
Climb 8a again, go back on Supercool
Onsight E5 (proper onsight, discounts quite a few due to the geek in me)
Boulder 7b

Life

Have a bloody good time away
Apply for course
Get a temp job either Devon, Bristol or Sheffield
Save up again
Get a van sorted out
Ride a horse

Happy new year ukb

[Hoseyb]

Same as last year as the Tosheroon and the Marchlyn project still need doing.  To achieve this I'm thinking that unlike last year I'm going to need to train, and that means I'm going to have to take my aging body seriously and solve a few niggles (as well as find my therabands).
This one conventional action aside I hope to keep wandering along less frequented pastures and having fun.

[the_dom]

1.1. Climb again - have been off climbing for the last 6 weeks with a shoulder injury and the best (worst) thing about an injury is that it does serve to remind you about what's important.

1.2. If 1. starts to happen again, then I'd like to start ticking off some of the items on my bucketlist. Nothing exceptional, just problems around the world that I've gotten close to and never finished off (see point 2)

2. Move to Europe and live a slightly nomadic climbing-focused-ish lifestyle for a while, and then settle.

I can't ask for much more than that.

[Murph]

1. One Arm Pull up
2. Close a #2 Captains of Crush
3. Palms flat on floor with legs straight
4. 1-4-7
5. +50kgs for 10s off the smallest BM1k
6. +20kgs koyamada test on rockrings
7. 50 7s
8. 8A
9. Nine hours in bed a night (ave, obvs)

[Nibile]

6. +20kgs koyamada test on rockrings

Get in! 

[TobyD]

1 Regain at least pre injury climbing performance and cycling performance by the end of the year.
2 Get a complete skull back, recover from the operation (hopefully March- April)
3 overcome the hefty psychological burden of having nearly killed myself on an easy sport route.
4 Get my driving licence reissued.

Unfortunately 2 of these objectives rely on 2 of the most Byzantine organisations I can imagine having to deal with: the DVLA and the NHS....

[TobyD]

Boulder 7b
Ride a horse

Happy new year ukb

I can't believe you haven't bouldered 7b! You're actually pretty strong! Have you ever tried one? I'm sure you can smash that one in this year... ie in the next week

I love the second of these objectives I've quoted. Massive respect.

[Wood FT]

Boulder 7b
Ride a horse

Happy new year ukb

I can't believe you haven't bouldered 7b! You're actually pretty strong! Have you ever tried one? I'm sure you can smash that one in this year... ie in the next week

I love the second of these objectives I've quoted. Massive respect.

I have done weedfiller at the Tor but that was years ago and I've been bouldering infrequently since around 6c-7a.

Would love to ride a horse, yeehah, did as a kid but it sat on me.

[Murph]

Get in! 

Haha! I haven't done it yet mate but may as well throw the intention out there.

Incidentally, the "touch floor" goal is inspired by that Klokov video you put up - where he is stretching before crushing the pause snatch. I don't know why, but seeing that as well as the heavy lifts was a strong reminder of how winners are made

[Teaboy]

Never done this before and always feel I've missed out come the end of year even though I would invariably miss most targets....

1. Recover my shoulder or at least get a decent diagnosis and work around that.

2. Get stronger, I only want to do this to help achieve some of the other aims but if I manage to get up my other targets without getting stronger it probably means I've cheated somehow so I should list it separately to keep me honest.

3. Climb a UK 8a

4. Climb 2 big routes at Gordale

5. At least three visits to Chapel Head Scar

6. Obscene Toilet

7. There are three routes at Terradetes I've scoped out. If I go, doing one is a minimum and doing two would be nice.

8. On sight 7b+ in Kaly at Easter (there are still holiday grades there, right?)

9. If I get injured, something decent in the Alps or on trad.

Non-climbing
1. Buy a house
2. Do something decent fitness wise (e.g. Welsh 3000s, Rossendale Way, MT Loop)
3. Buy a car befitting of someone in a mid-life crisis
4. Some thing at work has to give, not sure what or how.

[Bonjoy]

Protoplasm 29 - Hanging Rock (Bonjoy - how is it?)
Something cool looking in castle hill area

I do remember it was good but other than that the only details I recall are it having a dodgy bolt that I had to tie to the one above with a long tat (this was 13 years go, must be fixed by now!) and 'big' Seb physically ripping me off some jugs when I shouted take (smashed knee into rock and couldn't climb for a bit). Check out Hulk Hogan wall while you're in the area!

[Wood FT]

Protoplasm 29 - Hanging Rock (Bonjoy - how is it?)
Something cool looking in castle hill area

I do remember it was good but other than that the only details I recall are it having a dodgy bolt that I had to tie to the one above with a long tat (this was 13 years go, must be fixed by now!) and 'big' Seb physically ripping me off some jugs when I shouted take (smashed knee into rock and couldn't climb for a bit). Check out Hulk Hogan wall while you're in the area!

Ta la, looks like glue ins now.

[abarro81]

2017 will be an onsighting and training focused year...
Onsight some 8bs
Flash 8b in UK
Onsight or flash 8b+
Some UK redpoint stuff - maybe Hajj, Devo, Sabotage, Money for Nothing, one of Jordan's things at Hollywood Bowl...
More 8Bs

[cjsheps]

This year will be to some extent about laying a solid foundation of planning and preparation for my sabbatical year beginning in June. During that year I want to do 8b+ and onsight 8a, so with that in mind:

Climbing goals:
1. Climb at least one 8b fairly fast, without relying on a diet-induced peak.
2. Become stronger on the fingerboard, campussing etc, outside of a peak.
3. Onsight another 7c+.

Study goals:
1. Get a result in my MPhys project on Higgs-driven inflation that nobody's seen before.
2. Stay consistent with my exam marks until the end of my degree.
3. Practise my Spanish at  least occasionally.

Life goals:
1. Make a solid plan for my sabbatical year, including work and travel.
2. Understand my obsessive behaviors a bit better (in particular, my weird sleep/diet thing). Do I have some form of OCD or am I just uptight? (Is there even a difference?)
3. Make the effort to let some people through the defenses I use to keep others far away enough that I can avoid intense emotion.

[csl]

Try an 8a more than once
Boulder something harder than 7A

[shurt]

Boulder something harder than 7A

You could do that tomorrow Conor. I'd up the numbers if I were you!!!

[Nibile]

Get in! 

Haha! I haven't done it yet mate but may as well throw the intention out there.

Incidentally, the "touch floor" goal is inspired by that Klokov video you put up - where he is stretching before crushing the pause snatch. I don't know why, but seeing that as well as the heavy lifts was a strong reminder of how winners are made

Ahah that's cool!
The test-oriented training is very motivating!

[Footwork]

Boulder something harder than 7A

You could do that tomorrow Conor. I'd up the numbers if I were you!!!

Agreed! I'm hesitant to post until actually the new year but 2017 will be the most ambitious yet!

[mrjonathanr]

Get uninjured.

Stay uninjured.

[fried]

Don't get injured

[moose]

Short Term Goals
- Get mojo back in time for my Chulilla trip at the end of January.  I badly need a motivational prod to reverse (or at least allay) my usual slow, winter slide into dissipation.  Unfortunately this likely needs some heartening bouldering time on real rock, which isn't a given on this wet and windy Isle (I find it hard to be temperate when all there is to look forward to is another weekend at the  Depot). 
- Either climb lots of good easier routes in Chulilla, or hopefully at least one 8a; although, the main target is just to arrive back enthused, and eager to climb hard at Malham in March / April.

Medium Term Goals
- Open account on Predator, or if it doesn't appeal try The Groove.
- Find a medium/longish term project at Kilnsey, and get stuck in (maybe try Bullet for starters).
- Get back on Supercool.

Long Term Goals / vague intentions
- Make proper RP progress on Predator in autumn, and climb something at least 8a at Kilnsey
- Climb at least one UK route of 7c+ or harder outside Yorkshire - likely Chapel Head Scar or the Peak.
- Spend, or at least arrange, a climbing holiday somewhere I have not been before.
- When I do end up bouldering indoors, get on the 30 and 55 boards at the Depot - crap footholds are the-way-and-the-truth.
- Keep up the finger-boarding.
- Don't let work destroy me.

[Three Nine]

Goal for last year was to start route climbing again and do an 8b.

Goals for 2017 are to do a few 8bs away from home under time pressure, onsight a proper 8a (ie. no slash grades/things that are actually 7c), do a tricky boulder like Jerry's Roof. Tidy up some nemeses at home.

Don't get fired from job, sort my head out, go to church more, be less of a prick.

[Doylo]

Den 7c