Achieving perfection in climbing

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With more reflection I’m not sure I could achieve this. On the occasions I’ve done something hard (for me) that required maximal effort, paradoxically it doesn’t necessarily feel hard. I’m sure we’ve all had this experience: you try a move 20-30-40 times, it feels impossible. The 41st time you latch it just right, a few seconds later you’re at the top. Maybe the wind is blowing the right amount in the right direction, your skin is just right, maybe your body position is imperceptibly in just the perfect position…. You’ve just done the hardest move of your life, but you’ve no idea what was different this time, and it felt fairly straightforward….. oh well, couldn’t have been that hard, on to the next….
Maybe that’s more a gritstone thing?

Anyway, just highlighting the paradox between the hardest thing, and the perception of hardest effort. Hope it translated.
 
Never had the pleasure myself (must try harder :chair:) but was interested to read the comments about seeming to see yourself from the outside. A mate told me exactly this, how he seemed to be observing himself on a l particularly challenging (and successful) redpoint from about 15’ up and behind whilst he climbed. Curious.
 
I’ve always thought that it’s impossible to climb perfectly. You could’ve always placed your foot perfectly first time rather than having to readjust or rotate your foot a smidge to get better purchase. Same goes for hand placements. But then again I’m primarily a route climber and not operating at the top level. Guess it could be different on top end boulders
 
I have not achieved perfection in climbing but I have achieved euphoria and I've definitely done things and thought "I could not have tried harder" which is a savage joy in of itself
 
This long buried gem has some old school pondering on related themes (thanks due to Uncle Derek for the spot)

https://bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/600eb7b53a53aa002791fbac?q=climbing
 
I am very sceptical that perfect movement can be achieved in climbing, even on stuff that is relatively easy to climb.

Even on musical instruments perfection is extremely hard to achieve—even for professionals who can practice insane hours per day as they don't fatigue much playing their instruments. There is almost no studio recording of a longer musical piece that is not a mixture of several different performances of the same piece, and in the case of non-fretted instruments like the violin you can be pretty sure that pitch correcting software has been applied to the signal, even on the performances by the greatest musicians alive.
 
You need to come soloing with me at Stanage sometime jwi.

But seriously, if we define perfection as unattainable then I think that maybe isn't a very useful definition. An analogy: if you watch Ronnie complete the fastest ever 147 you could find the odd point where shots dould have been executed better. But you could argue those mistakes force harder shots which actually raise the overall level of performance, which is the greatest there's ever been. Is that not therefore perfection? And, crucially, he never runs out of position, which is not a pinpoint thing but continually putting yourself in a position you can work with. I think these ideas transfer to climbing quite well.

Personally I find onsight performances the most satisfying because they involve creativity which adds a dimension. So rather than nit-picking precision on a redpoint, for which the music analogy above is appropriate (jazz aside obvs), you can take a broader view that consistently hitting the sequences right first time and never running out of position or even climbing yourself out of an error is a thing close to perfection, by which I mean like Ronnie it may not have been bettered.

I'd also add that an important dimension was missed from the OP, which was that Varian did not simply find a problem that tested him to the utmost, it was a new problem at a crag he has largely developed himself, in his extended backyard. In the interview I think it's clear those are as important to his idea of perfection as the technical challenge.
 
That's a beauty!

Johnny Brown said:
You need to come soloing with me at Stanage sometime jwi.
I was chatting to someone the other day and the conclusion was that you are basically an almost pure board climber, the only difference being your "board" is slabbier and made of out gritstone :p
 

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