Aims for 2025

[Duma]

No idea I'm afraid, my sole knowledge of the place is the guy in Sofa Boulder (Albarracin) raving about it

 

[Ed booth]

- Continue with unfinished Aims from 2024
- Climb more and harder than last year
- Get to Pembroke more
- Get to some other areas I haven't been to
- Make use of new pop top bed, to head off at weekends with Wife and kids, and get better at Taz to prep routes.This should help with the above to goals as well. Currently I don't do any climbing at weekends, so going off to camping at climbing areas with the family should allow me to have to some short sessions here and there, which could add up to a good amount of time over the year.
- Continue to make better use of home wall, and nearby training options.
- Continue to just get out on days when I'm not feeling it/forecast crap/tired from night shifts. If they turn out crap, I've only lost fuel money, but chances are some of them I will get stuff done. (If tired though be wary to not get injured).
- Continue to improve conversion rate. Unless dangerous, get on the lead even if success seems unlikely. I won't improve by not trying.

Have fun everyone!

 

[Ross Barker]

Last year I set my goals to more or less represent what I would naturally/unconsciously be doing anyway, but with a bit more direction and focus.

I think that worked quite well, but I'd like to lean into goals that require a bit more discipline. Not so much in terms of getting problems done, as the variables of weather/time/partners/etc might put too much pressure on it, but stuff that I can knuckle down on without feeling like I'm sacrificing other stuff too much.

I carried over some goals from last year and whittled away a few problems that I didn't generate any psyche for last year.

Anyhow, here are my goals for 2025:

- Be a good husband.

- Be less injured than 2024.

- One arm pull-up. Both sides. Preferably no kipping.

- Have a good time in Font in March.

- Get the van finished.

- Do some DWS.

- Finish decorating the house and garden.

- Plan an autumn trip.

- Keep visiting places and problems that inspire me, and get better at persuading people to join me in falling off on shit that is likely too hard!

- Revisit some problems I've already tried, including but not limited to:

*Louisville Lip
*Main Vein
*Rigpa
*Cosmic Wheels
*Awooga
*Amarna
*Cobra Strike
*The Punk SDS (the was here originally but I did that last week, wahey!)
*Harvey Oswald SDS
*Bad Moon Rising
*Silence of the Rams

 

[36chambers]

copy, paste, tweak, go

• 5 off the never ending “why have you not done these yet?” list
  • Thought I'd explicitly list some lower hanging fruit, so that the shame gives me the kick to go and do them (Barly Mow, Ed's Dyno, Slopey Traverse, Pebble Wall Variation, Maurice Chevalier, Waite, Heart Shaped Slab Arete, Heaven In Your Hands)
• 5 new UK crags
• 5 7C+ and above
• 5 FAs cleaned and tried
• 5 climbing trips/weekends
• 5 training blocks of any sort
• 5 PBs of any sort
• 5 Children of Bodom songs on the guitar (including solos...)

 

[Duma]

I thought heaven in your hands broke?

 

[36chambers]

I thought heaven in your hands broke?

I wasn't aware of this, do you know what happened? I can't imagine it breaking in a way that would stop it from being climbable .

(unless you're thinking about Brownian Motion, which is the only thing I can think of that broke recently?)

 

[jeh]

I did it a couple of months ago and there were no signs of breakage as far as I could tell...

 

[Duma]

Ignore me! Sorry I think I was thinking of China in Your Hands

 

[remus]

Ignore me! Sorry I think I was thinking of China in Your Hands

Oh how's that broken? I know the footholds in the break are a bit knackered but I didnt think there was much else on there that was fragile.

 

[Duma]

I could be wrong twice here? JB didn't China have a pebble originally that broke?

 

[i_a_coops]

Arguably aiming to punch above my weight this year but also feel like I've improved quite a bit over the last few years, but haven't really tested how that feels on harder grades. If nothing else the theme is 'get out of my comfort zone'. Here goes:

1) Post more on UKB
2) Don't get injured
3) Go big walling somewhere. Free something hard-for-me. Feel at least semi-competent at moving fast.
4) At least 2 new trad routes in the UK (out of 6 current projects total).
5) Stand start of the mega boulder project in Crete.
(Bonus: easier sit start of above)
6) F8c+, probably either Goofy (doesn't suit me but is roadside which might make up for that logistically) or Nid de Fadas in Leonidio. (bonus: find a 9a I'm psyched for that feels potentially possible)
7) 5.14 on gear.
8) Font 8B
9) Onsight or flash E7
10) At least start trying to OS/flash 8a+.
11) Either a) Get back on Meltdown, not tried it for years and feel like I’m a lot better at climbing than last time I tried, but potentially worse at slate.... can’t wait to find out.
and/or b) Get back on Dynamics of Change but definitely don’t try and lead it unless I feel like there's no chance in hell of falling off the slab (unlikely).
12) Stay consistent with learning Greek.
13) Get good enough at aerial straps to not be embarrassed about having a set.

 

[Johnny Brown]

I could be wrong twice here? JB didn't China have a pebble originally that broke?

Yes it did. It was very small, and only really useful as a point to move around rather than a hold. The aspirant hordes ignored the warning, and some Glossop fingers snapped it off around the time of the first repeat. It going didn’t really affect the move. Plus most people seem to do it without the pirouette, tragic really.

 

[Duma]

The pirouette is fucking glorious and any philistines doing it front on on should be summarily executed imo.

 

[spidermonkey09]

Any vids of the pirouette?

 

[Duma]

Any vids of the pirouette?

I reckon likelihood of doing the pirouette is inversely correlated with likelihood of videoing ones ascent...

 

[remus]

The pirouette is fucking glorious and any philistines doing it front on on should be summarily executed imo.

(Just bitter because I can't do the pirouette)

 

[seankenny]

Long covid recovery
I can do a lot more than I could at the start of 2024, and I would very much like that trend to continue.

Work
Start doing more and more regular work, and get my economics skills back up to a suitable level.

Climbing
Go to the wall regularly. Climb outside (I would have done this ages ago if I lived in Sheffield, but I live in London so it's a tougher proposition.)

Improve Sinhala and generally engage my Indophilia
Learn lots of Sinhalese words and get to the point of holding a five minute conversation. Unfortunately my health is almost certainly going to mean I can't visit the Indian subcontinent and I would very much like to, so I'm going to try to fill that gap constructively with some reading, museum visits, concerts, etc.

 

[Fultonius]

Arguably aiming to punch above my weight this year but also feel like I've improved quite a bit over the last few years, but haven't really tested how that feels on harder grades. If nothing else the theme is 'get out of my comfort zone'. Here goes:

1) Post more on UKB
2) Don't get injured
3) Go big walling somewhere. Free something hard-for-me. Feel at least semi-competent at moving fast.
4) At least 2 new trad routes in the UK (out of 6 current projects total).
5) Stand start of the mega boulder project in Crete.
(Bonus: easier sit start of above)
6) F8c+, probably either Goofy (doesn't suit me but is roadside which might make up for that logistically) or Nid de Fadas in Leonidio. (bonus: find a 9a I'm psyched for that feels potentially possible)
7) 5.14 on gear.
8) Font 8B
9) Onsight or flash E7
10) At least start trying to OS/flash 8a+.
11) Either a) Get back on Meltdown, not tried it for years and feel like I’m a lot better at climbing than last time I tried, but potentially worse at slate.... can’t wait to find out.
and/or b) Get back on Dynamics of Change but definitely don’t try and lead it unless I feel like there's no chance in hell of falling off the slab (unlikely).
12) Stay consistent with learning Greek.
13) Get good enough at aerial straps to not be embarrassed about having a set.

Jeez, when did you get so good? Props to that!

I'll be looking out for info on your big walling escapades. Are you based in Crete now?

 

[i_a_coops]

Jeez, when did you get so good? Props to that!

I'll be looking out for info on your big walling escapades. Are you based in Crete now?

Ha I've always been good at being a bit delusional and aspiring to do things that are way too hard for me . Props only due if I actually get any green at the end of the year!

Loosely based in Greece at the moment, will probably be working in the UK most of the summer.

 

[jwi]

Ha I've always been good at being a bit delusional

I saw an interview with Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player of all time, and he said that "the right balance is somewhere between optimistic and delusional". I thought that this probably holds true for climbing as well.