The psychology of climbing grades

Climbing is a graded sport. Every wall or piece of rock can be assigned a level of difficulty, based on the several factors: the distance between the handholds and footholds (for easier routes you can effortlessly reach the next handhold without reaching very much), the size/shape of handholds/footholds (for easier routes the handholds are easier to hold on and feel secure), the strength/power required to reach the next hold (for harder routes, it might take a gymnast/ninja move to reach the next hold), and the angle of the wall (walls that lean towards the climber, where the climber have to fight harder against gravity are harder).

There are also style preferences. A strong but not flexible person might not mind the power pull ups but hate routes that require one to lift one's foot super high or far out to reach the next foot hold, while a super light person might have less trouble with crimpy handholds (holds that barely fits a finger knuckle) than heavier person.

While there is logic to the grading of a route, there is also a lot of mental games involved. The other day, my boyfriend struggled through a 7/6b/5.10c lead climbing route, but told me to try it. While I have top roped many routes at this level before, I have never lead climbed at that level. I was sure I couldn't do it, but he said to just give it a shot and come down when I have hit my limit. So I went up, and with several hanging rests (I tend to rest when I have trouble reading the next section or think the next section will be challenging), I made it to the top with no problems (cheated on one foothold).  I was super (pleasantly) surprised. So then I tried another route, graded 7-/6a+/5.10b, which my boyfriend also struggled on. Because I could do the harder route, when I struggled on the 7-, I told myself that since I just did the 7, my body must be able to handle this route. And so, even when the hands felt like they were burning, I just shook them out and kept going. I kept expecting the burning hands to fail me while I clipped in the rope with the other hand, they hung on with no problems. So I managed to onsight this 7- with no hanging rests. But I know for certain that I would have taken hanging rests had I not just attempted a 7 before this route, because: hands and forearms felt like they were on fire.

As I have mentioned before, sensations are not good indicators of how much stress my body can handle. A lot of the on fire feeling may have been generated by the head to protect my body (and my mental security). In my case, maybe my brain is a bit overprotective. But maybe not, because every time I come home my body is sore for 3+ days. So while the body could perform at that intensity in the moment, it basically tells me afterwards to take it easy for a few days.

I hope I can keep pushing the limits of my body and my mind for many more years to come.

Rock climbing progress after 1 year

The activity of climbing is like being on a hamster wheel or an angled treadmill -- you have to keep doing it to just move up in levels, or even just to stay at the same level. The moment you stop doing it (for more than a week), you slide back down in the amount of power, strength and endurance.

First I went on vacation for 3 weeks and did zero climbing. When I came back, even the simplest route (5b/5c) felt difficult. I guess that was somewhat understandable, given I wasn't exercising my body (especially upper body) much for like 20 days. But then, when I spent a month only bouldering, which emphasizes short bursts power moves, I also felt weak on the rope climbing wall, which consists of a series of moves requiring less power but more endurance. My wrists were really feeling it after a few routes. Climbing at my highest level (6b/5.10c) felt impossible.

Then when I started training for lead climbing (bringing the rope up the wall as one climbs, instead of having it set up at the top anchor, known as top rope), I picked the easiest routes on the wall (4 to 5bs). It felt super awkward to have the rope in between my legs instead of hanging from above. I also did not know exactly where to place my body to minimize energy usage. As a total chicken about slipping and falling to my death, I gripped the handholds super hard. One year of climbing seems to have provided me enough endurance to do a lot of over-gripping (read: waste more energy than necessary to keep me on the wall) the holds while still completing several easy routes. I would be sore the next day, feeling like I have trained pretty hard. Unfortunately, when I went back to the bouldering wall, I could no longer boulder at my highest level at bouldering (6a+/6b). 

So the situation for the last 3 months is somewhat frustrating, but also kind of illuminating about this activity. Even though I have been climbing every single week, I have been slipping back because I haven't been consistently pushing my limits. It's not like I feel I climb worse every week. In fact, I have been feeling better about being in a lot of awkward body positions. It's just that, specifically, hand/wrist strengths and power moves require consistent training. I can already see that by starting so late in life, I will not get super far in this sport. However, I am still hoping to build a foundation such that I can still climb 6A-6B when I am 50-60 years old.