[Footwork]

Focus this year is to maintain bouldering power and seek some climbing balance.

- Five 7C+'s or higher (this would be a new pb)
- Three sport routes off my list (will have to drag myself away from the Bowderstone)
- Three decent trad routes (completely failed before so lets keep it simple)

- In the words of M. Katz, "always do something". Less of the TV watching and more reading, writing, stretching etc.
- Fingerboard. I have never really done this and I think it's starting to show through as a main weakness.
- Take more holiday

[monkoffunk]

Ok, so I have a long list of potential aims for this year with varying degrees of importance and likelihood of success. These aren’t new years resolutions and some of the general life stuff I’m doing already so this isn’t a whole load of change in one go destined for failure (I hope).

Sport climbing

Climb Fighting Torque. Number one goal; if I do this I’ll be happy, even if I do nothing else.
Get back to some of my less frequently visited crags, Anstey’s, Cheddar etc. Tick off more routes from the old list. Climb Ninja Warrior, Circus Finale, Directoonima. Try Academic, Cider Soak again.
Climb significantly more routes above 7a than last year.
Climb significantly more routes of any grade than last year.

Bouldering

Cycle back to strength and power training after climbing Fighting Torque.
Main goal: Riders on the Storm. Step up in grade for me, but absolutely my style, probably best chance of climbing 7C at my current ability.
Tick off something from my ‘fuck-me-this-is-impossible’ sandbag list: Work Shy, Stompin’ with Bez, Full Power.
Try Ope in Hell at least once.
As it cools down later in the year, go to Dartmoor. Try Foal’s Chopper again.
Go to Font in spring (if Brexit doesn’t make this impossible).
Climb significantly more problems over 7A than last year.

DWS

Summer – climb anything above water, should be able to combine trip to Fisherman’s ledge with outing with the wife and her family.

Training

Number one goal: Maintain consistency.
Continue regular supplementary fingerboard stuff.
Cycle training in vaguely structured manner (this is sort of a plan to plan).

General life

Reduce overall use of screens. Discovered Screen Time on iPhone recently. Quite shocking the amount of wasted time. To that end:
1)   No TV at least every other day during the week. I never missed TV when I didn’t own one, somehow has become evening habit.
2)   Stop obsessively checking phone during any moment of down time. I’ll try replace with reading journals when I’m at work. Big habit to break, I have definitely become a phone addict, a feature I tend to dislike in others.
Leading on to - Sleep hygiene (again!). No phone use 1 hour before going to bed. Ideally have cut off at 2100 or something like that.
Yoga most days.
Would like to trial meditation, see if I get any benefit from it!
Read more books.
Call parents once a week.
Donate blood maximum number of times.
Back to non-Christmas diet (this will be easy).
Back to minimal alcohol (this will be easy when not at parent's or in law's).
Longer term: Re-evaluate my relationship with meat. Increasingly of the opinion that some degree of vegetarianism/veganism is ethically correct with regards to the environment, but I’m just not there yet. Reduce consumption at very at least.

Work life

Apply for job from August.
Dedicate time every week to continued learning of some sort.

[Coops_13]

Training Goals

Get below 80kg for March trip
10-second front lever
Complete McColl's silly 10-10-10 challenge
Complete at least three 6-week phases of max-hangs over the year

Climbing Goals

Boulder 7C in Macedonia
Boulder 7C+

Life Goals

Move to the States

[yetix]

2018 wasn't a terrible year but I spent much of it sieging a few 7C's and coming far too close, but failing to send. This year I plan to get to some different venues and build a decent pyramid along the way. Hopefully with a decent pyramid and some training blocs I can get 7C ticked. 

Bouldering
7C
10 7B's
Go on a trip to a new venue abroad
50+ days outdoors

Training Goals
Complete at least three 6-week phases of max-hangs over the year (stolen from coops)
100 benchmarks on the Moonboard
Pancake - pulled my groin last year when I nearly did this in box splits so should start working towards it again really.
Work on mental game/tactics (feel this really held me back in 2018)

Life
Work on sleeping habits

Any of the ones on Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout when you start working on this, had a few sessions last year on it and would be nice to get it finished off!

[Coops_13]

Any of the ones on Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout when you start working on this, had a few sessions last year on it and would be nice to get it finished off!

Likewise, I'm hoping the fingerboarding I'm doing may allow for a send...

[gme]

I have read that you need to write down your goals and tell people about them to put some pressure on yourself so here goes.

Goals for the year.

Routes - Redpoint 8a
Boulder outside - 7C and 50 new to me 7s ( guidebook grades, grovels and link ups allowed. Very much a quantity thing not quality)
Boulder School - 7C
Training - 1-4-7, one arm hang BM2k slot for 5 secs, front lever, 2 x BW DL. 1.5 x BW BP.

Work - drop to 4 day week from July. Things already in place to allow this to happen.

Life - Raise 30k to take 21 fifteen year olds on rugby tour to Japan for the world cup in October. 20k reached and flights booked. Been a time consuming challenge so far but will be worth it.

Think its all more than possible now my life is getting a bit easier. Biggest task wont be physical but getting out enough to do the 50 7s.

[Murph]

Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout

Likewise

OK chaps will do. Unlikely to be dry before April so we all have plenty of time to get in shape.

[Duncan campbell]

Always an exciting time of the year this! The last two years have been so good route climbing wise. This last year hasn’t been terrible for bouldering but I’m definitely struggling at this genre more than I have before. I can deal with it as long as I keep having route success, but it is something I will need to address.

Anyway my goals;

Heading to Spain for a couple of months so goals for that first as always.

- Consolidate at 8a. Would be great to rattle some more off and a bit quicker than i have before. So far both the 8as I’ve done have taken 4 sessions though serpentine was actually done in about 6 goes up. So this is achievable. To do an 8a in a session would be amazing.

- 7c onsight was very close to this a couple of years ago so this should be doable but o/sing is a fickle art form. Would love to flash 7c+ if one presents itself.

- I’d love to try something trickier for me like Mon Dieu, 8a+, at Oliana. Not so much about the grade (though maybe it holds some attraction)

My U.K. summer may be a little different to usual as I have a girlfriend who works one day if the weekend in Sheffield. I may well get less weekends away tradding. (A slightly terrifying prospect)

- Zoolook, Malham. I think we will maybe spend quite a bit of time at Malham as I really like it there. And I think it will suit Hannah’s strengths. Think this will be a big step up (maybe more so than Mon Dieu as a U.K. 8a that is nearly 8a+ is probably going to be harder than a euro 8a+)

-Some other high 7/low 8s (New dawn/Defcon/Biological Need)

- More E6s. If I do Lord this year I’d be absolutely made up. Other E6s I’d like to do would include; Suicide Blonde, Grezelda/knock yourself out, The Cad, Pretty Girls, R&S Special. Ahh the list goes on. Be amazing to build on my first E6 onsights from last year.

- Do some Trad with Hannah and have fun, get her into it and enjoying it. She is an ace climber so she shouldn’t struggle. Would be ace if she could enjoy doing trickier things with me, rather than having a shit time, especially if she got into leading mid E-grades. If she’s not into doing trickier stuff with me I won’t push this.

-Bouldering. Really struggling with this this year. Be good to do some 7Bs again. I basically need to remember how to move like a boulderer. Maybe I need to find the love again, who knows but I’m struggling with it at the moment for whatever reason.

Hope everyone has a great year!

[measles23]

Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout

Likewise

OK chaps will do. Unlikely to be dry before April so we all have plenty of time to get in shape.

PiB,  Byker Groove and Working 9 to 5 stand are a lovely trio of complementary lowball 7Cishs - I’ll give you all the sneaky hidden toehook beta etc if you can drag me over the road

Goals:

Somehow desperately hang on to current best ever form/weight until lime comes back to life..

Then: Mutton bustin (sooooo close), Mutton King, maybe King of Lambs, maybe get on Pork Chop if can face the pain, Floodgates

Continue relatively aimless engagement with Armed Forces Bouldering League with Alison

Start taking 9yo yoof to comps (he’s just qualified for the Stoke AW youth squad )

Lift 5 plates (220) again without putting in too much distracting effort - at current weight that would be a BW PR- I guess if lifting went well I could think about aiming for 3.5BW (230@65.7) - although I’ve lifted 230 twice before I think would be veeeery difficult at current weight/deprioritised training..

Finally build that 12x5m garage/ultimate training facility that’s been on the to-do for 10yrs now  Planning permission granted, architects plans done, builder engaged, funded, still have a lurking doubt it will never happen..

[TobyD]

- Zoolook, Malham. I think we will maybe spend quite a bit of time at Malham as I really like it there. And I think it will suit Hannah’s strengths. Think this will be a big step up (maybe more so than Mon Dieu as a U.K. 8a that is nearly 8a+ is probably going to be harder than a euro 8a+)

If ever there was a trad climbers 8a zoolook is it. I'm not sure it's nearly 8a+, just an 8a that's really easy to fall off perhaps?! Good luck, it's certainly one of the best however hard it is

[spidermonkey09]

It's not 8a+ but it's bloody hard for 8a I reckon. If the section up to the rest was any harder it would be 8a+ for sure. Fucking brilliant route though if you get that done in a session I'll buy you a pint Duncan! If you need some slightly shorter than average beta shout.

[measles23]

Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout

Likewise

OK chaps will do. Unlikely to be dry before April so we all have plenty of time to get in shape.

And while you’re farting about enjoying yourself and actually climbing whole problems on grit, PiB and 9to5 were both in condition today - just sayin’

[36chambers]

Effectively halfway there now.

- tick 5 problems off the “why have you still not done these yet?” list [2 down]
- put in 5 sessions on a good 8A+/B [A big fat tick! although the problem actually took 4 sessions...]
- tick 5 problems off the board list [only one down, close on 3 others]
- climb something at Malham [hasn't really crossed my mind since writing it...]
- 5 sec one arm hang the BM 10’s [zero deadhanging this year, still time though]

Having managed my main aim for the year, anything else just feels like a victory lap really.

[Fiend]

1. Move south - YYFY. There is an actual choice of crags for day trips and actual people to climb with and everything.

2. Climb / travel more - work in progress - getting plenty of mileage in but it's all local choss, need to start putting a lot more effort into getting away

3. Keep healing / improve health - little / very slow improvement in digestive health with a relapse during May but elbows are healing well and can tolerate a lot more usage
Fucking rivetting eh.

[duncan]

1. Look after myself mentally and physically (see 2-4). Very non-specific but I’ll know it when I see it.
A work in progress, no tweaks this year untl last weekend and that was a proper falling off type injury. Mental state has been very mixed but I'm hopeful I've recently turned a corner
 
2. Change my work status.
Verbal agreement from all parties to move to part-time working from September. Paperwork submitted

3. Spend a lot more time (like more than 19 nights) in the hills or by the sea. Should be able get away for weekends rather than day trips from April, however may need to spend some of these in Weston-super-Mare (see 7) which won’t count. It would be great to climb in North Wales for the first time in more than a decade.
35 nights so far!
 
4. Make a decent fist of being a dad.
A bit too much skype but seems to be going OK
 
5. A classic Pembroke E5 (Wall of Prey would be even better).
No but feels close: a good number of E3/4s or equivalent done. Assuming the wrist injury is not something too serious I'm still confident it will happen.

6. Continue to tick my teenage wish-list with Scenic Cruise in the Black. Bonus points for other western US destinations from Climb!  and Master of Rock.
Yes!
   
7. RP 7b+ (The Jimi Hendrix Experience?). Finish the job on Empire... and Paradise Lost. 
The plan is to focus on sport after September
 
8. Fall off a 5.13 (7c+).
As for 7.

I'm pretty happy with how things have gone, other than not even trying an E5. It's not trivial getting fitness, psyched partner, psyched self and dry rock to align.

[spidermonkey09]

Not too bad so far...

- complete Yorkshire Triple Crown, weather permitting. Noty even started this yet. Might get one done towards the back end of the season.

- fill in a few gaps on the long term goal of ticking the left wall at Malham. GBH and Baboo would be nice. Ditto. Had a look at Bab00 a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.

- investigate Cry Freedom or Bat Route. Done a bit more than just investigate. Nearly there now...I hope.

- go trad climbing a bit more to keep my hand in. Go to the Lakes especially for this. Done some trad in Scotland which I really enjoyed.

- sort out work to hopefully allow significantly more flexible working and/or some part time, remote work for a set amount per year. Equally perfectly willing to sack it off so hopefully a half reasonable negotiating position! Nailed this. Working remotely from January with 1 day a week in the office.

- get plans in place for a long Spain trip towards the end of the year. 3 months without work planned from October through to New Year, the majority of which to be spent in Spain I expect.

[andy_e]

Jammy git.

[spidermonkey09]

Jammy git.

This is more or less to the word what several others have said... 

[Coops_13]

Training Goals

Get below 80kg for March trip Didn't happen, not too fussed. Was a good trip - not sure I was ever going to crush on those sharp holds
10-second front lever Pah!
Complete McColl's silly 10-10-10 challenge Don't even remember writing this...
Complete at least three 6-week phases of max-hangs over the year Moving country and injuring a pulley has put this on hold...

Climbing Goals

Boulder 7C in Macedonia Nope, see above
Boulder 7C+ Still time to do this, gonna leave as amber

Life Goals

Move to the States YYFY, CO is mint 

Most important goal achieved 

[yetix]

2018 wasn't a terrible year but I spent much of it sieging a few 7C's and coming far too close, but failing to send. This year I plan to get to some different venues and build a decent pyramid along the way. Hopefully with a decent pyramid and some training blocs I can get 7C ticked. 

Bouldering
7C done. Revised this as 2 this year and a 7C+
[s]10 7B's[/s]
Go on a trip to a new venue abroad done
50+ days outdoors about 30-40 days so far with a similiar number of 7s done.

Training Goals
Complete at least three 6-week phases of max-hangs over the year (stolen from coops) done recruitment hangs most weeks since February twice a week but only 1 block of 6 weeks in January to start the year. Plan to do another cycle of actually maximal hangs when I get home from Rocklands.
100 benchmarks on the Moonboard managed to clear through these in January and early February when doing 2-3 sessions on the moon board a week. Definitely helped put me in good form at the start of the year.
Pancake - pulled my groin last year when I nearly did this in box splits so should start working towards it again really.
Not tried to do this at all.
Work on mental game/tactics (feel this really held me back in 2018)

Life
Work on sleeping habits

Any of the ones on Paint it Black?

Gimmie a shout when you start working on this, had a few sessions last year on it and would be nice to get it finished off!

[Wil]

2018 was, on paper at least, a good climbing year for me. I never really hit my stride though due to some family issues and spent a lot of the sunner not quite as fit as I'd like and with little headspace for harder trad.

Goals for this year:

- Redpoint another 7c, probably at Ban-Y-Gor, Brean is also an option. I'd love to get New Dawn done but it's a long way from home, worth a couple of weekends if I'm feeling fit. Not put any effort into sport projects.

- Mileage on 7a and 7b on Spain trip in February. It would be great to flash a 7b, but I'd settle for second or third go. Flashing a few 7as would be a good trip. Onsighted several 7as in a day, did some 7a+ and a 7b second go. Great trip with a good crowd and fantastic weather.

- the one that goes in every year. Onsighting some of the big E5s, Pembroke, Right Wall, Pacemaker etc. I didn't quite get to this fitness last year. Messed up the onsight on RW by missing a gear placement and not wanting to go further without more gear! Done 2 Pembroke E5s, one onsight so this is looking positive really :-)

- Support SO into fulfilling employment. WIP already. Starts September

- Lose a few kg, stay under 75. 76kg

- Regular running (min 5km per week) and min 1 session fingerboarding per week.

Fail on the running, hav been out a bit but very limited motivation. Have been fingerboarding regularly and has made a big difference.

[monkoffunk]

Year seems to be going by really fast!

Ok, so I have a long list of potential aims for this year with varying degrees of importance and likelihood of success. These aren’t new years resolutions and some of the general life stuff I’m doing already so this isn’t a whole load of change in one go destined for failure (I hope).

Sport climbing

Climb Fighting Torque. Number one goal; if I do this I’ll be happy, even if I do nothing else. Done. Very pleased to get this done as 8a has been a target for 10 years. Not sure I'll be happy to do nothing else though!
Get back to some of my less frequently visited crags, Anstey’s, Cheddar etc. Tick off more routes from the old list. Climb Ninja Warrior, Circus Finale, Directoonima. Try Academic, Cider Soak again. Have been back to both, but haven't tried any of those routes. Other projects taking priority right now!
Climb significantly more routes above 7a than last year. Low hanging fruit, done
Climb significantly more routes of any grade than last year. Lower hanging fruit, done.

Bouldering

Cycle back to strength and power training after climbing Fighting Torque. Happy with how this is going.
Main goal: Riders on the Storm. Step up in grade for me, but absolutely my style, probably best chance of climbing 7C at my current ability. Not yet tried, but hadn't planned to yet.
Tick off something from my ‘fuck-me-this-is-impossible’ sandbag list: Work Shy, Stompin’ with Bez, Full Power. Hardest goal? Not yet tried.
Try Ope in Hell at least once.Not yet.
As it cools down later in the year, go to Dartmoor. Try Foal’s Chopper again. Winter plan, low priority.
Go to Font in spring (if Brexit doesn’t make this impossible). Done, Beatle Juice highlight.
Climb significantly more problems over 7A than last year. Not yet.

DWS

Summer – climb anything above water, should be able to combine trip to Fisherman’s ledge with outing with the wife and her family. Not yet.

Training

Number one goal: Maintain consistency.
Continue regular supplementary fingerboard stuff. Happy with this.
Cycle training in vaguely structured manner (this is sort of a plan to plan). Nothing formal, but I've been training according to goals and it seems to be working so far.

General life

Reduce overall use of screens. Pretty poor. Discovered Screen Time on iPhone recently. Quite shocking the amount of wasted time. To that end:
1)   No TV at least every other day during the week. I never missed TV when I didn’t own one, somehow has become evening habit. Mostly failed here.
2)   Stop obsessively checking phone during any moment of down time. I’ll try replace with reading journals when I’m at work. Big habit to break, I have definitely become a phone addict, a feature I tend to dislike in others. Mostly failed here too.
Leading on to - Sleep hygiene (again!). No phone use 1 hour before going to bed. Ideally have cut off at 2100 or something like that. Total failure.
Yoga most days. Not most, but have been doing it.
Would like to trial meditation, see if I get any benefit from it! Still want to try this.
Read more books. Have a list longer than my project list!
Call parents once a week. Not done this.
Donate blood maximum number of times. So far so good. Every 3 months since March 2018.
Back to non-Christmas diet (this will be easy). When I needed to. Orange right now, but would have been green most of year.
Back to minimal alcohol (this will be easy when not at parent's or in law's). Again, when I needed to. Last couple weeks only been a bit off the wagon for some reason.
Longer term: Re-evaluate my relationship with meat. Increasingly of the opinion that some degree of vegetarianism/veganism is ethically correct with regards to the environment, but I’m just not there yet. Reduce consumption at very at least. Will take stock of where I am here end of June. Making progress.

Work life

Apply for job from August. Dorchester for 6 months from August. Lots of evening Portland trips I hope.
Dedicate time every week to continued learning of some sort. Hmm...

Next year I'm going to plan to do less I think.

So far...

Sport going well, just want more.
Bouldering, not yet done much, planning on doing more in Autumn.

Pretty happy with how climbing is going, which is the main thing!

General life. More misses than hits, but actually still pretty happy. Few improvements to make. I think I've been lax on the sleep hygiene because my sleep has actually been pretty good anyway so just hasn't seemed necessary. Most of the time I find it hard to sleep after a hard training session and CBD oil sorts that right out on the occasions I feel really wired.

Work life, can't complain either, just will need to start hitting the books again some time soonish.

[Footwork]

Focus this year is to maintain bouldering power and seek some climbing balance.

- Five 7C+'s or higher (this would be a new pb)
- Three sport routes off my list (will have to drag myself away from the Bowderstone)
- Three decent trad routes (completely failed before so lets keep it simple)

- In the words of M. Katz, "always do something". Less of the TV watching and more reading, writing, stretching etc.
- Fingerboard. I have never really done this and I think it's starting to show through as a main weakness.
- Take more holiday

One 7C+ so far and flipping close on another. I'm still holding out for all five this year.

I'll go sport climbing when I get my knee pad back...

Only thing I've used my trad rack for is weight on the finger board. I did do Dead Babies at Eastby and seconded Dream of White Horses in disgusting weather.

Bearing in mind I've just sat through an hour of love Island eating chocolate, this one is not going well. I have been forcing myself to exercise though even when knackered.

Had around 4 or 5 sessions not knowing what I was doing but trying hard. See trad rack comment above.

I had quite a bit of unused holiday from last year so putting it to good use this year. Got a week of snowboarding in and two and a half weeks being a tourist in Japan. Have a week coming early September in portugal and a week in Font in October. Feels weird not going climbing on holiday.

[Wood FT]

Half-time

Sport: 8a+ - Have chosen GBH, think the moves suit me and have the beta, will see how it goes with travelling and psyche.
Had 2 sessions in Feb climbing it in 2 halves, then work picked up. Went back in Easter and did the same link, then worked picked up. It's a wonderful route and I'll have some more trips across now I've got a bit more time, I think a week down there should do the trick, but the travelling does put me off, unfortunately.

Boulder: 7B+/C - I’ve not bouldered harder than 7B and I think this is holding me back on the harder Peak Lime routes.
Had a good day at Church Crag up to 7B and got close on Gulliver's but haven't tried much else since. Had a brief session on Ben's Roof with Shark coaching and could see an improvement straight away. I've felt relatively strong recently but a disappointing display on Lilly Savage has shot me down

Trad: Good mileage on E3 and E4 - a long weekend ticking the mid-grade classics at Pembroke, the Pass and Gogarth. Feel safe, get the love back. Try boat to Naxos on a top-rope if Ram goes back on his route.
I think this will take more work, starting at around HVS/E1

DWS: Mark of The Beast, Wizard of Oz Traverse with dinghy party & attempt new route.
The season is about to begin 

Belaying: 9a belay (current best 8c+). Also, as a long-shot, belay Simon on a season PB on the Oak.
I'm carefully observing Luke Dawson's progress.

Other: Buy house, get Job, free Murciana ‘78 on the Bulnes.
Nearly,YYFY,Might be winched up Deep Blue Sea instead

I'm happy with all that so far, climbing well outside of these aims.

Good luck for the rest of the year UKB.

[ericinbristol]

It's halfway through the year so I hope it's not too late to join in. I've been registered with ukb for years but only just started posting now.

My key goal for 2019 is my first 8a sport route. I'm just about to turn 58 and frankly the idea of me getting up an 8a seemed totally implausible. I had always been a trad climber (chuffer?) and had never tried redpointing.

Seven years ago I had a session on Liquid Crystal in Cheddar and could do almost none of the moves. In fact I couldn't even hold on to loads of the holds. Totally shut down.

In the intervening period I have done lots of sport 7s and so just doing more felt okay but also so what. Got back on Liquid Crystal recently and took four sessions to do all the moves (though one of them is low percentage) and a long link. So it feels like a matter of time now and I am psyched out of my tiny mind!