[jamesprice]

Due to work commitments and living nowhere near rock, most of my climbing is done indoors. When I do climb outdoors I try my hardest to achieve my climbing goals in the short time I have on the rock. As well as wanting to do many classic routes, one of my goals is to climb Font8A (not a traverse) so I want to tailor my training to achieve this. I know technique will determine whether or not I can get up any climb but from a power point of view if I aim to:

Do 3 one armers on each arm;

1 – 5 - 8.5 on campus board half crimp;

1 – 4 – 7 on campus board with middle two fingers on each hand; and

hang some slopers,

will I be able to bag a Font8A in a day? If not, any other indoor training tips?

[Houdini]

I doubt if any of what you have listed will help you get up Duel in Font'.

[jamesprice]

No kidding

[Nibile]

Do 3 one armers on each arm;

1 – 5 - 8.5 on campus board half crimp;

1 – 4 – 7 on campus board with middle two fingers on each hand; and

hang some slopers,

will I be able to bag a Font8A in a day? If not, any other indoor training tips?

call it basic.

[chappers]

go to devon.

[jamesprice]

I will obviously be consolidating any strength gains through power endurance exercises, and dead hangs on fingers (two at a time on each hand, using both hands or one hand at a time, all fingers on smallest rung). I also do tons of boulder problems on plastic, but these rarely get above Font 7C/7C+. I find it really hard to set problems on plastic harder than about Font 7B+. They are either too easy or impossible, there seems to be no middle ground.

[webbo]

do em with weights on .

[Houdini]

do em with condoms on!




Remember James, climbing Font 8a is very much like making love to a beautiful woman...

[jamesprice]

Heavenly, but likely to give you a rash!

[Stubbs]

Probably be handy to have a specific problem in mind - that way you know what you need to be training. It's obviously a lot easier to train for a basic power problem on plastic, so you would be better off training for something in the cave, rather than careless torque, for example.

[c.j.d.]

  I would agree with Stubbs there - you need an idea of what problem it is you want to do.  Get yourself there (even if its along way it will be worth it) and have a go at the problem you think you may want to do (maybe choose something you think you may enjoy the process of working!?).  You'll then have something to monitor your progress on, and a good idea of the difficulty and the gains you need to make before heading up/down to the area again.  Its good for the psych to do this as you actually feel that youre getting somewhere, and who knows, you may be strong enough already

[dobbin]

Do 3 one armers on each arm;

1 – 5 - 8.5 on campus board half crimp;

1 – 4 – 7 on campus board with middle two fingers on each hand; and

hang some slopers,

will I be able to bag a Font8A in a day? If not, any other indoor training tips?

My god, if you can do all that you will be much stronger than some people I have met who can climb Font 8a's! Strength ain't everything. Also, if you are doing tons of Font7c/+'s (and they are actually 7c+) then you should have no problem nipping up an 8a. Where do you live? What have you been on? and how did you do?

You need to have some ranging visits to different areas to work out what suits you, although to be honest, it takes effort to get into the style of a new area so you need a bit of time. But travel is one of the best things about climbing, so get involved.

If I'm honest though - I think you have got it arse about face. You should be psyched to climb something cos it looks good or the moves are fun rather than to bag a grade. But I can also see that with no easy access to the rocks, you might not know what looks good, which moves are fun so the only thing keeping you motivated (on all that gnarly painful sounding training) would be to focus on something tangible.

[ferret]

hav bouldered the odd 8a, can occasionly hang on some slopers  but wouldnt have the slightest chance of doing any of the others, how useful any of this will be is gonna depend alot on the venue, my suggestion go to america

[account_inactive]

[r-man]

You need to have some ranging visits to different areas to work out what suits you, although to be honest, it takes effort to get into the style of a new area so you need a bit of time. But travel is one of the best things about climbing, so get involved.

I know there are loads in font and wotnot, but how many 8as are there in the UK? Is there that much variety that people can find one that suits them, without going abroad?

Between 50 and 100? I was going to say less than 50, then I realised lakesbloc had around 25 in their list http://www.lakesbloc.co.uk/sei/s/1284/f75.pdf

They do seem to be popping up in the ukb news quite regularly. Though I guess the number of people who put up 8a FAs is probably quite small, with the usual suspects responsible for the majority of em?

And less than 25 8bs and above?

Haven't got a clue, really. Just curious.

[webbo]

is that a hint for another list.

[LucyB]

Can I ask why? How old are you? Is there a time limit before you will no longer be able to climb? Do you need to climb Font 8a right this minute?

Climbing on rock is great, if you haven't done much then it's all just fantastic. Yes, you might need to experience a bit of humility 'cos climbing hard grades is hard!

Take your time, see your progress and enjoy it even if it is gradual. That's life. If you could visit a new area and get up pretty much everything there, wouldn't that be incredibly satisfying? If you can't do all the 8as yet, you'll still have something to keep working towards.

Feel the force, my son. Patience and humility it needs.

[SA Chris]

Wise words Lucy. Wad points awarded.

I started climbing about 6 months before Hubble and Liquid Amber got climbed. I was convinced I would be the first climber to do both.

Now I just enjoy what I do.

[r-man]

is that a hint for another list.

Not really. More curious to see how much and how standards have changed in the last 10 years or so. There's an old OTE in the house (the one with a free giant poster of dawes) where they list the hardest problems in the country, and there aren't any above 8a+. There are only 19 straight up problems, half of them are 8a, one of them is in The School and the last two are "Some Very Hard Problems in Deepest Darkest Yorkshire". The mag is from December 1999. It seems incredible that in less than 10 years the cutting edge has moved on so far, and that there are so many problems now as hard as those that only a short while ago used to be the living end...

[SA Chris]

Si Panto's OTE Bouldering issue (2002 or so?) had a list, proabably double that number.

[jamesprice]

I enjoy climbing for a number of reasons, particularly for doing great moves on great routes. But I would be lying if I said that I didn't want to better myself. And of course one way of measuring achievement is against grades. There are others, for example measuring progress on a particular route - but I don't climb on rock enough for this to be meaningful.

Anyway, thanks for the helpful advice, I'm off to Devon.

[Johnny Brown]

Do 3 one armers on each arm;

1 – 5 - 8.5 on campus board half crimp;

1 – 4 – 7 on campus board with middle two fingers on each hand; and

hang some slopers,

will I be able to bag a Font8A in a day?

- but I don't climb on rock enough for this to be meaningful.

Follow this little program and you'll be well on your way to the muscle-bound 'strong but technically dense' types that we in sheffield like to sn**ger at at the crag. I'm of the same school as Ferret, train by climbing and you might end up actually being able to climb rather than just show off on a board.

[r-man]

Follow this little program and you'll be well on your way to the muscle-bound 'strong but technically dense' types that we in sheffield like to sn**ger at at the crag.

Only cos we're jealous. 

I think this argument gets bandied around quite a lot - but it's not all that black and white. Lots depends on the person. Some people have naturally good body awareness and some people don't. Some people need to spend years climbing gritstone before they learn the tricks and the knack. Some people pick up technique fast, maybe the first few sessions they'll get spanked, but give them a couple of weeks climbing holiday and they'll be grit monsters by the end of it.

So for some people, the best way to improve (I'm ignoring the whole but you should be climbing for the fun of it bla bla bla - honestly, who doesn't?) will be to crank indoors and get strong for a few months, then spend some quality time on the rock, rather than climb outside non-stop. For others, no amount of getting strong will overcome lack of time spent on the rock.

Whether or not someone enjoys what they are doing is a personal thing. Why do we always feel we need to lecture people about their soulless approach to climbing?   ???

[Andy F]

If you can pull that hard on plastic you should head out on't real stuff youth. As a complete punter I have no idea how strong you need to be, but having climbed with some beasts I know how GOOD you need to be. Pure strength is handy, but a bit of technique, footwork and body tension are waaaayyyy better from what I've seen.

[jamesprice]

People climb for different reasons, but I've never met a climber who doesn't enjoy climbing, whether its on plastic only, rock or both. Personally, I wish I could climb on rock every day, but I've got bills to pay so I spend most of my life at work, dreaming of rock and wiping my hands before someone sees that they are glistening with sweat. I also like to climb harder, better and more effortlessly every time I go out on the rock, which is why I train; if I only climbed when I had the opportunity to climb on real rock, I would still be climbing 4c, and after 9 years of climbing would have climbed just about every 4c in the country. So I guess climbing harder isn't only about achieving, it also means I can climb routes I haven't climbed before and which I have eyed up on a previous visit to a crag. My problem recently was that no matter how much bouldering I did indoors, I didn't break through the 7C plateaux outdoors (did the Terrace but don't think it counts), hence the question about campussing, which I started training about 4 weeks ago. In that time I've made a lot of progress on the board, like going from not being able to hang off two fingers on each hand to being able to campus with them. But I don't want to push myself too hard and get an injury so just wanted to know what was enough. From reading responses it seems 8A is hard, and it takes more than strength to get up them. Perhaps its time I bought another train ticket to the peak and found out if I've got what it takes.