Aims for 2022

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Ah cool - weather looks good for it! I'll have to see how I get on, my littlest has chickenpox atm so depends how that's going...
 
Liamhutch89 said:
remus said:
Liamhutch89 said:
Wellsy said:
My aims for the year are both going terribly and going great. Doubt I'll be doing 7B on grit or 7B+ on limestone any time soon. But I'm definitely much physically stronger, despite the whole knee disaster, and I've probably got a decent chance of getting a 7A+ on grit done, and various 7As and 7A+s have already happened this year.

If you want an on paper tick for lime 7B+ get to Roche Abbey and do fallen idol. A 1 move problem that's entirely down to finger strength. It's probably 7A+ in reality and not very good but think of the green tick on Instagram potential!

To make your visit more worthwhile, the fool is a much more legitimate
finger strength dependent 7B+, and there are some good problems from 7A / 7A+ such as bad habits sit and faith left and right hand versions.

Funny you say that, I find the fool piss compared to fallen idol (which I haven't done despite having a few sessions on it). I'm no crimp waif but Im not completely shit on small holds either.

Interesting. My finger strength on a 20mm edge is extremely poor for my climbing grade, but actually quite good on small edges. I've learnt that I need to be crimping at a very high angle and pulling outwards on the holds (like a pound shop Aidan), or I'm not very good! On my one visit to Roche, I had a power hour going right to left of Beef Buttress, trying all the independent lines up to 7B+. I started with Fallen Idol and nearly flashed it, but by the time I got to The Fool at the other end it felt pretty hard and I didn't quite finish it. It may be steady with adequate rest.

However, I'm dubious of your grading since getting to try Kleptomania recently; it definitely felt harder than 7A+ to me! In fact it feels quite a bit harder than either the fool or fallen idol and I didn't manage to clip the chains that session. Quality moves though, so it's not too disappointing having to return!

abarro81 said:
I concur with Remus - Fallen Idol is miles harder than The Fool, and incomparably harder than the crux of Kelpto.

Classic "fit and actually quite strong sport climbers underestimate the boulder grade of a route / very strong but unfit boulderer underestimates the grade of a boulder problem / overestimates the boulder grade of a route" here. :lol:
 
Good effs those who are pushing along despite illness etc.


Climbing
More E-points than last year (so >184) current count: 108
Try some harder trad routes (i.e. take some entertaining wangers): let’s say five E6s in fair style two (although one was a bit high-bally) but a finger pulley and dodgy elbow have been holding me back so not going amazingly on this front
Get on some big multi-pitch adventures (stuff like Main Cliff, South Stack, anything where if you get stuck you have to abseil into the sea [but ideally don’t get stuck]) Going to have to pull my finger out here!
Three 8a’s and a couple of 8a+’s (the latter would be the first in five years) ha ha ha... finger and elbow definitely curtailed this
Maintain some semblance of strength not being humiliatingly weak throughout summer by going on the board or hanging at least weekly. At a stretch, dare I say it, end the year stronger than now. hilarious; what was I thinking?
Get stuck into some dirty offwidth somewhere yes! (an injured finger is good for something at last); do some DWS and use the opportunity to heckle “friends” into the sea not had the chance yet; bivvy / wildcamp and climb somewhere green-tick wankers don’t go not made the opportuniy yet; another new route not made the opportunity yet; do a route at Malham (last time I did was 2013!) nope; 10 trips in the van 3 so far (unless you count the times we've slept in it on the drive when the neighbours have been noisy - see below); Darkthrone not tried; go abroad nope; get to a bunch of new-to-me crags as this was great fun in 2021 a mighty 12!.


Non-climbing
Sound-proof the entire house from our friendly (but shouty) neighbours. New kitchen. no and no, but last weekend I did put the fence back up which blew down in November
Finish bloody PGDip before the fucker gets extended – yet again – to the following year so close to finishing this off now...
Keep on with general lifestyle changes and keep the passion for work, which is what makes it enjoyable I'll take this
Treat Marie even more than last year winning here
See more of friends – finding this harder than ever since March 2020 feel like I'm fighting a losing battle on this one at times
 
Mixed bag for my half year round-up.

A year for getting my priorities straight, so I'm nicking one of Ged's.

Ged said:
Do a good job of helping wife recover from giving birth to our second daughter (any day now) sometime in March, and helping her get back to fitness. Do a good job of looking after eldest daughter at the same time, whilst not being a grumpy arse.

Didn't make it till March - arrived in Feb, but nowhere near as early as the first one. My wife's back running again which is great, but room for improvement on not being a grumpy arse.

If the outcome of the above is less dramatic than round 1 was then :-

1. Make good use of 6 months paternity leave - house projects, climbing, running, whatever.

Started well, so bordering on green, but last 2 months have been a struggle to get much done due to eldest being ill, followed by me being ill then various holidays, so pretty much missed the last 6-8 weeks. Managed a fair amount of climbing in March/April and a few house and garden jobs.

2. Do more stuff on a rope. 2021 isn't a high bar to beat, but would be good to get back to enjoying routes. Ideally come back from a day on the ropes feeling more physically tired than mentally (a sign of how much by head game has disappeared over the last 3/4 years of minimal route climbing).

Next to nowt - afternoon at Stanage and an evening at Burbage North is the combined total of 6 months roped climbing. Difficult to predict when I'll get out, so hard to line partners up and not let them down last minute hence bouldering/running have been easier to fit in.

3. Commit to some hard(er) boulder problems - my recent output looks more like a cowpat than a pyramid, loads of low to mid sevens and nothing harder (apart from stuff that doesn't warrant its grade).

My bouldering pyramid looks more like a cowpat than ever! Loads of stuff up to 7B and nothing harder. Felt like I was going well in April and ready to commit to some harder stuff, but then illness and getting out infrequently means I've lost what form I had and feel like I've got a long way to go to get back to a decent level.

4. Keep on running. Two PBs on the road plus a decent effort at the English Fell Champs as it's my first year in a new age category. At least one category win in a local race.

Green for the road PBs, red for everything else. Amber overall seems fair.

Half marathon PB in January (1:18:30), 10-mile PB as part of the half marathon (59:29) and a 5-mile PB (29:23) as part of the local road league. All of this year's 5-mile courses were pretty hilly, so I've probably run faster for 5 miles as part of a flat 10k. Won the local road league for the V45 age group and was first V40 at a road 10k in February - came away with £50 in cash and £100 worth of kit, so pretty pleasing overall.

Fell season has been a shambles pretty much from start to finish. Ran well at first race of the year, then had 2 English Champs races where I've been ill and way off the pace followed by a third where I was running reasonably well before I picked up an injury in my foot on the first descent and had to hobble home. Decided to knock the rest of the series on the head and focus on road stuff for a couple of months.
 
You're about 3 hours later than it was this time last year when the 2021 thread got reopened. So seems like fair game!
 
csl said:
Climb one of each discipline from my "lifetime list" ticklist
  • Jerry's Roof
  • Dominatrix
  • Some classic trad in Pembroke or N. Wales
  • A long rock route in the mountains

Train consistently
  • Do at least 90% of planned sessions
  • Climb 50% of my "#ldnclmbr" ticklist

Make outdoor sessions count
  • Have a plan and visit specific routes/boulders
  • Do at least 2 sessions on each goal route/boulder

Well let me get us started with some abject failure, then everyone else can feel good about themselves.

I did none of this, other than "A long rock route in the mountains" - went to Lofoten and had the trip of a lifetime with some great pals. Highlight was climbing Vestpillaren Direct in the midnight sun, it was 28º in the Arctic circle so we started climbing at around 10pm.

Maybe I'll have to make some more realistic goals next year.
 
Trip of a lifetime sounds like a bigger win than any normal goal csl!

What's on the #ldnclmbr ticklist?
 
Hoseyb said:
Had a really good year climbing wise. Next year I need to focus on having as much fun as possible and moving further along the (lone wolf<pad partier) scale. The following goal s are based on this:
1) Make Fiend fall off a boulder due to giggling / well executed pisstaking
2) Burn AndyF off on some arbitrary but pretty piece rock, however transitory the experience.
3) Discover a perfect unclimbed offwidth (f**k realistic goals)
4) Get some more regular bouldering partners, who are tolerable and cope with my random availablity.
5) Feel on top of my 'to do' list, by climbing some of my arbitrary projects, completing my flights of fancy, and tilting at less windmills.

I'll just roll these over to next year. However did at least get some practice in taking the Mick out of Fiend, and my handful of trips out were at least mostly in company. Here's to staying in one piece next year.
 
Bradders said:
Trip of a lifetime sounds like a bigger win than any normal goal csl!

What's on the #ldnclmbr ticklist?

It was great, and followed by having a baby a month later so the lack of success is fairly easily explained.

The ticklist is a lot less funny than one Yoss would create - just stuff on the two granite boulders in London parks and a smattering of the least shit southern sandstone.
 
csl said:
The ticklist is a lot less funny than one Yoss would create - just stuff on the two granite boulders in London parks and a smattering of the least shit southern sandstone.

Intersperse that with a few board problems set with custom-designed black limba and olive wood crimps, fuelled by a diet heavy in natural wine and habanero granita and we’re halfway there…
 
Liamhutch89 said:
2 x 8A
10 x ≥7C
side splits

3 fails, but it has still been my best year of climbing in terms of climbing harder stuff.

Looking at the numbers, I managed:

1 x 8A that was probably legit
1 x 8A that I kneebarred down to 7C
1 x 8A that was downgraded to 7C+
1 x 8a route

Lots of sessions sunk into an 8A+ that was abandoned due to constant splits.

More sessions put into a different 8A+ that I'm still psyched for.

9 ≥ 7C

The biggest spanking was on the side splits goal. I've trained it 2-3 times each week and made almost no progress in a whole year :furious:

I think next year's aims will be more process based rather than achievement.
 
Andy F said:
1) Recover 100% from COVID
2) 7b+ sport
3) 7A boulder

Setting lowish goals (apart from No1) is the way forward. I'd rather be unambitious and successful nowadays, so much less stressful
1) success, but it took around 2 months
2) success, climbed my first 8a at the Tor aged 50, did some good stuff in the 7b+/7c range but injury curtailed the summer mostly
3)Fail, only went bouldering once and snow meant no top-outs
 
yetix said:
Can't find a post by me but have goals on my phone of:
3x8A (0 but feeling close on more than 3, just terrible at going back to anything I don't do in a session)
10x7C+ or above (11, so 1 goal done)
30x7C and above (20)
5 nemisis from last year (2 so far)

Need to get better at going back to things

Managed 2 8As.
-Fell off the last move of another many many times and was super close before the wet November period.
-Fell off one of the last hard moves of another twice I think.
-Nearly did foxy lady in about an hour in MW in mid summer and then nearly split and didn't get the chance to try it again as the skin damage never recovered (a lesson in over antihydral use)
-Did never ending story part 2 from a move in and could do the first move every go, but wasnt able to link it.

Managed to do 14 7C+s and up.
-big tick as thats way more than I'd ever done before.

So far managed 27 7Cs and above this year with 23 of them coming between April and July before I got pretty focused on projecting and training.
-Might still manage to do some more of these if the weather allows.

Managed to do 4 things I'd struggled on last year, was very close on a few others and may still manage to get this to 5 before the end of the year.

In retrospect I'm happy with my year, but I've definitely seen long periods of not feeling happy with how I've been climbing. Summer once again thrawted a good climbing bloc and then I found it hard to get going again really until earlier this week. May have to evaluate how I approach summer next year and not spend a trip abroad trying to project again because that sucks!
 
Yossarian said:
csl said:
The ticklist is a lot less funny than one Yoss would create - just stuff on the two granite boulders in London parks and a smattering of the least shit southern sandstone.

Intersperse that with a few board problems set with custom-designed black limba and olive wood crimps, fuelled by a diet heavy in natural wine and habanero granita and we’re halfway there…

Ha yes I was envisioning something involving climbing Captain Hook and Zippy's Traverse while it's raining, dabbing heavily on the crux of Jerry's Roof and then leaving enormous tick marks on Gorilla Warfare :-\
 
I didn't achieve any of my objectives, but they were all somewhat foolishly set anyway, and prior to my injury, and now I'm a bit wiser about it all and have more reasonable plans

I also am really loving bouldering and have never felt better about it, so all in all, having a good time :)
 
CLIMBING:
-Planning on trianing through Jan and Feb and into March with the aim of hitting Malham in the Spring. Would love to finish off Predator and really want to climb Bat Route. Plan to go on other routes there too to help build fitness and dial into the style again. Predator not fully my style so if it's taking ages and using up dry crag days I may just crack on with Bat Route. Never really got going with building a good strength base only spring trips to Yorkshire were to Malham where I failed to finish off Soft Option.
-Get back to doing more Fr8a's and above. Think I only did a few in 2021. Aim for >10 Think I only did a repeat of 1 8a at Dinbren and that was it this year !
-Whilst training this next few months will try to get out locally and want to finish off Sub-Moron (Tom Newman's Fb8a at Grinshill) and maybe the odd day out elsewhere to keep the motivation up. Fail , tried a few times but cycling started taking over early.
-Hopefully carry some form and fitness out of the Spring and just enjoy some good climbing around the country through the summer. I've got loads of trad and sport routes that have been on my wish list for the past 5 years now. With the kids I've had to manage my expectations better so I will be grateful for just doing anything really, I just want to feel like I've pushed myself. Generally just got totally bogged down with loads of cycle prep so the climbing took a back seat resulting in little action.
-Finish some things on the Slate like Quarryman Groove (and should try the rest too) and Wall Within. Didn’t get back on Quarryman but did do couple of cool 7c’s and got close on Wish You Were Here . Tried Wall Within but both the latter routes were wet .
- I would like to try Unchi Maka on the Sialouze in the French Alps if I can create an oppurtunity to get out there at the right time with somebody psyched. Also the Brandler Hasse in the Dollys (see below) Didn’t try either. Glad I didn’t try BH, would have been a disaster/epic (see further down).
-Couple of routes that I never got back on after getting close in a session are Supercool and Nemesis so be good to finish these off. Didn’t go on either. Was at Cornice in early summer when it was dry but I didn’t have any board form and after nearly doing it in a sesh year before couldn’t really see the point knowing I would struggle on the moves without the relevant power. Will make sure I’m ready to pounce for this one next in 2023.
-If I get to Pembroke and am feeling fit and have any trad momentum would be keen to try From A Distance .

LIFE:
-Got a 1 and a 3 year old so I'm always trying to get the balance right of doing my bit at home to maximise time away from the family, and juggling it all with work and being knackered. Relative success . Both sleeping through and that means more energy for my wife and I to be able to do more with our time off .
-Once early winter climbing training is out of the way and I'm getting outside more will start cycling again in preparation for hopefully doing the Dolomites Haute Route event in September. I'd like to tie this into to doing something like the Brandler Hasse which I have always wanted to do. Don't want it to take over my climbing but I'm crap at back to back days of sport climbing anyway so mixing it up with the odd bike day here and there shouldn't be too detrimental, and it feels good to get fit. Bike training went well and had a great time doing the Haute Route. My Brother and I both finishing top 50 after a big days racing up and over mountain passes through stunning dolomites scenery.
I suppose it should have been expected but the trainjng completely took over my climbing and didn’t really notice my climbing form dropping off . At the end of our trip in Dollies we had time for a few routes and I had been thinking of Brandler Hasse. We tried Yellow Wall instead . This is where I realised how not climbing all summer turned out to not be very conducive to staying in form. Had to bail after 4 pitches with terminal pump. In hindsight brandler hasse would have been a ridiculous prospect with the form (lack of ) that I had following a summer of biking.

All in all , a fun year , but really looking forward to getting back on it with the climbing in 2023. I guess most of the goals will stay the same but that’s for another post.
 
Ed booth said:
CLIMBING:
Never really got going with building a good strength base only spring trips to Yorkshire were to Malham where I failed to finish off Soft Option.

Don't beat yourself up, Ed. A trip to the right crag and I'm sure you'll fly up it.
 


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