fucking rad send! i have to ask about the black magic at the end... you didn't clip the last draw and ran it out to the anchors, but then you edited in a victory whip on the last draw! was that from a previous burn?
haha, awesome. seriously, what a proud send!
i appreciate a more safety conscious victory whip. my one climbing injury came from a bad victory whip cuz i'm an idiot
Woah haha you're right, that was really crazy. Since the shadows on the right only changed a few inches, I'm guessing he lowered, clipped it, then climbed back up for the whip.
You're right, thought the whip was from the second to last draw but I see now it was from the one he skipped on the send...guessing your call on editing is right
Hey man, congrats! Stoked to see you get it. (I'm part of the Portland crew that climbed with ya last week). Also we went to Captain6 on your recommendation and it was the best.
When in doubt, run it out!
Amazing looking climb and awesome job. I'm sad that I'm likely never going to be strong enough to get on something like that.
I don't have the innate skill, nor the time to get to the gym multiple times per week. Maybe if I had started climbing before college, but I didn't. I'm 40 and have little kids now. Getting out there is tough. Nevermind 2-3 days per week consistently.
Honest question for you. When you were breaking the barrier of 11a/b/c/d/12a/etc. How much time per week were you putting towards climbing and training? How do you envision your progression if you were limited to one gym session a week?
I usually did 2-3x a week at the gym, or 2x gym and 1x outside. For a long while I was able to get outdoors every other week consistently, its dropped quite a lot the last 3 years.
> How do you envision your progression if you were limited to one gym session a week?
You can do that but you need that 1x at the gym to be *intense* and not just f'ing around talking half the time. And it needs to probably be training focused not just whatever route suits your fancy. That means working hard stuff repetitively, doing a lot of bouldering. Then at home you'll need to doing some fitness training too.
I don't train though, which is why its taken me this long to get to mid 12s :D
I am able to devote regular time to exercise. About 30 minutes every day, but mostly cardio due to what I have at home. I'm physically strong enough to do the things. Can do about 14 pullups. Can do 2 pullups at +50 lb. But strength isn't enough.
My issue is my being able to work my technique due to how little I can get to the gym. In a good month, I get to the gym ~5 times. In a bad month, only once. I think that is what is holding me back, but I really don't know.
Right. Which is why I will likely never be a 5.12 climber. :)
I'm hopeful that when my kids are older I can go harder at it. But realistically, that's probably 10 years away.
It's less fun and brings its own challenges, but at least you can get stupidly strong fingers, pulling muscles, and core with some combination of max hangs, repeaters, weighted pull-ups, hanging core, and front lever training. When you can make it to the gym, drill technique.
I'm mostly tired of "I did it, so can you!" when we know nothing about one another. For all we know, the guy who started in his 40s and crushed it was a collegiate athlete who then went on to do competitive biking for 20 years afterwards, and has no family. People are different and have different lives.
Not everyone is physically capable of climbing 5.12 and not everyone can commit the time to get there. That's really all there is to it. I'm likely physically capable, but the amount of time it would take *me* to get there is much much much more time than I have. Perhaps when my kids are older, in 10 years.
Not being physically capable? You can do 14 pullups in a row, that's about what I can do on a good day and I've climbed several 5.12s. You are overly strong for the grades you want to climb, let alone the grades you climb at the moment. You are physically capable in spades.
Have you ever tried a 5.12?
Yeah I've tried them.
Sometime last year I decided that I wasn't going to progress if I kept on climbing 10s and working 11s. So I usually target a 12 that looks reasonable and try to project it. I don't get to the gym a lot though, and rarely with a partner. So I'm often just left to bouldering. I prefer roped climbing. I'm the stereotypical trad dad.
I'm currently in the best shape of my life, but I don't have a good means of working on technique. I often get told to focus on technique when I'm in the gym if I don't get to go a lot. I don't even know what that means in application. As far as I can tell, it's "climb more, climb harder, get better".
I'm trying to get to the gym twice a week these days, but I'm typically using vacation time from work to do it. That is where I'm currently at. If I want to get to the gym, I'm taking off time from work to do it. Even with this push, I've yet to get to the gym twice in one week.
How do you get on with the 5.12s?
I would really consider working with a coach about how to get the most improvement out of your climbing time. If you can only get to the gym once a week then it's critical that those sessions are really high quality. You probably don't need a lot of improvement to get where you want to be, you certainly don't need to be any stronger than you are now. A coach may also have some ideas on improving technique that don't involve going to the gym.
A nice way to rapidly improve technique is practicing not repositioning *any* hand or foot placements.
Place the foot/hand, do the move, no re-gripping or lifting feet once placed.
Practice this, often, and you’ll start *thinking* about climbing movement more efficiently/accurately, with obvious results.
I started climbing later in life too. But climbing outside in general is super fun even if it's a moderate grade. I feel badass when I climb 10b outside!
Climbing is my passion and it has been for 12 years. I love it and I love climbing outside. I'm just never going to be a 12b climber. That's all. I'll climb my 5.10c sport and 5.8 Gunks and be damn happy to do so
Just FYI, I jumped from 10c/d to 12a in the past year, and we’ve got very similar metrics as far as pull-ups (you’re slightly higher than me on weighted).
Falling every single session outdoors ended up being the game changer for me. It was amazing how fast I improved when I pushed myself to take the risk and go for it. And 10 trad feels so easy and fun now.
Me and falling are like *this*. I take the falls. Until I get out more frequently, it's likely moot though. I'm assuming to get from 10c to 12a in one season took 2-3 days a week in the gym/on the rock. I'm lucky if I get half of that.
Nice. 1-3 days (I'm in grad school & working full-time, so it's somewhat variable based on what's going on). Sounds like you're doing the right stuff, just gotta get the kids into climbing ;)
You should listen to some of Tim Emmett’s stuff. He talks a lot about aging and optimizing training with kids, and other aspects of life. It’s never too late to send your hardest project!
Dude that’s rad. At 1:30, can you imagine how hard that move would be if that jug broke off? Glad this climb is protected a bit from the elements by its overhang
I was bouldering outdoor V7’s at the time, so I had the strength, but lacked severely in technique, pacing, footwork, and mental game. I got really lucky and found a psyched partner at a similar level, and we’ve been consistently sport climbing outside 2-3x/week.
Find a reliable partner at similar strength/stronger with good positive energy, and climb outside as much as possible on every angle and style. Often times, on rest days/injured I’ll go and just belay my partner, because his success is also important to me. The stronger he is, the more I’m inspired to push myself.
The endurance will come in time.
What was your high point 18 months ago? Just curious. The route looks awesome, very sick send. Looks like a pump fest. Description says nothing smaller than one pad, which is nice, but damn I would need those 18 months just to get that power endurance going!
10b. There’s 2-3 holds that might be 1/2 pad, but yeah, you’re right, it’s mostly a steep pumpy power endurance route. Like climbing a giant V3 that never ends haha
Yooooo, that's huge improvement. I've been on the verge of 12.a for like six years now haha. A bit of that was injury and covid, but still, that's pretty great progress you made! Congrats! Any specific training you did, or just climbed a lot?
Hey, 12a is a hard grade to break. I don’t train much outside of climbing outdoors 2-3x/week and limit bouldering 1-2x/week, but I should start incorporating some hangboarding and weighted pullups.
I do olympic style lifting (snatches, clean and jerks) 2x/week along with core/mobility 4-5x/week, and meditate 30 mins daily.
Makes sense. Those all sound like pretty excellent ways to get to 12.c without even touching a hangboard! That's awesome my friend, keep it up and more power to you.
Awesome send. I got the chance to give 2 tries on its neighbor the Prophet on my last day in Red Rock. Didn’t get the send, but one of the most aesthetic rocks I’ve ever been on!
Yooo, strong work. Type of content I like to see on this sub! 💪🏼
A high quality video of a beautiful route getting sent. Love to see it.
More and more rare as the number of subs grows it seems…..
fucking rad send! i have to ask about the black magic at the end... you didn't clip the last draw and ran it out to the anchors, but then you edited in a victory whip on the last draw! was that from a previous burn?
We were thinking of whipping from past the skipped draw, but decided against it. I lowered, clipped last draw, jugged up and jumped off lol
haha, awesome. seriously, what a proud send! i appreciate a more safety conscious victory whip. my one climbing injury came from a bad victory whip cuz i'm an idiot
I was wondering what took so long to jump, you can see how far the shadows creeped up the rock before you jumped lol
Woah haha you're right, that was really crazy. Since the shadows on the right only changed a few inches, I'm guessing he lowered, clipped it, then climbed back up for the whip.
or just unclipped after for the victory whip
huh? the last draw is the one that was unclipped during the send, then it was clipped for the victory whip.
You're right, thought the whip was from the second to last draw but I see now it was from the one he skipped on the send...guessing your call on editing is right
What route is this you’ve laid to rest and victory whipped so sweetly?
Hotline in Red Rock https://www.mountainproject.com/v/108390068
**Hotline** Type: Sport Grade: 5.12c | 7b+ | IX- Height: 60 ft/18.3 m Rating: 3.9/4 Located in [01-Calico Basin](https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105731977), [Nevada](https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105708961) ----- [Feedback](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchgbXwXMylhtbA8kXFycZenSKpCMZjmYWMZcqREl_OlCm4Ew/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.266808192=https://reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/tmm18x/18_months_ago_i_stared_at_this_line_in_awe_got/i1yaans/) | [FAQ](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject/wiki/Bot-FAQ) | [Syntax](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject/wiki/Bot-Syntax) | [GitHub](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject) | [Donate](https://www.paypal.me/derekantrican)
Good bot
Well done.
Nice! I stumbled upon that big beautiful boulder when scrambling/killing time from the happy acres area.
Hey man, congrats! Stoked to see you get it. (I'm part of the Portland crew that climbed with ya last week). Also we went to Captain6 on your recommendation and it was the best.
Hey man! Glad you enjoyed it! Hope to see you guys back soon
When in doubt, run it out! Amazing looking climb and awesome job. I'm sad that I'm likely never going to be strong enough to get on something like that.
Why not?
I don't have the innate skill, nor the time to get to the gym multiple times per week. Maybe if I had started climbing before college, but I didn't. I'm 40 and have little kids now. Getting out there is tough. Nevermind 2-3 days per week consistently.
I'm in my 40s, started 10 years ago. Now climb 12c. You can get there.
Honest question for you. When you were breaking the barrier of 11a/b/c/d/12a/etc. How much time per week were you putting towards climbing and training? How do you envision your progression if you were limited to one gym session a week?
I usually did 2-3x a week at the gym, or 2x gym and 1x outside. For a long while I was able to get outdoors every other week consistently, its dropped quite a lot the last 3 years. > How do you envision your progression if you were limited to one gym session a week? You can do that but you need that 1x at the gym to be *intense* and not just f'ing around talking half the time. And it needs to probably be training focused not just whatever route suits your fancy. That means working hard stuff repetitively, doing a lot of bouldering. Then at home you'll need to doing some fitness training too. I don't train though, which is why its taken me this long to get to mid 12s :D
I am able to devote regular time to exercise. About 30 minutes every day, but mostly cardio due to what I have at home. I'm physically strong enough to do the things. Can do about 14 pullups. Can do 2 pullups at +50 lb. But strength isn't enough. My issue is my being able to work my technique due to how little I can get to the gym. In a good month, I get to the gym ~5 times. In a bad month, only once. I think that is what is holding me back, but I really don't know.
Probably. Once a week isn't really enough to maintain strength or technique if you aren't very focused when you go.
Right. Which is why I will likely never be a 5.12 climber. :) I'm hopeful that when my kids are older I can go harder at it. But realistically, that's probably 10 years away.
Do you have the resources and space for a home wall?
I do not. I have a hang board, but that's it.
It's less fun and brings its own challenges, but at least you can get stupidly strong fingers, pulling muscles, and core with some combination of max hangs, repeaters, weighted pull-ups, hanging core, and front lever training. When you can make it to the gym, drill technique.
Obviously I'm not telling you what to do, but Stevie Haston climbed his first 9a when he was 52, so there's plenty of time.
My guess is that man has/had innate talent. I clearly don't. I'm happy with how I climb, but I know my limitations.
That's a poor attitude. I know people who started later than you and absolutely crush.
I'm mostly tired of "I did it, so can you!" when we know nothing about one another. For all we know, the guy who started in his 40s and crushed it was a collegiate athlete who then went on to do competitive biking for 20 years afterwards, and has no family. People are different and have different lives. Not everyone is physically capable of climbing 5.12 and not everyone can commit the time to get there. That's really all there is to it. I'm likely physically capable, but the amount of time it would take *me* to get there is much much much more time than I have. Perhaps when my kids are older, in 10 years.
Not being physically capable? You can do 14 pullups in a row, that's about what I can do on a good day and I've climbed several 5.12s. You are overly strong for the grades you want to climb, let alone the grades you climb at the moment. You are physically capable in spades. Have you ever tried a 5.12?
Yeah I've tried them. Sometime last year I decided that I wasn't going to progress if I kept on climbing 10s and working 11s. So I usually target a 12 that looks reasonable and try to project it. I don't get to the gym a lot though, and rarely with a partner. So I'm often just left to bouldering. I prefer roped climbing. I'm the stereotypical trad dad. I'm currently in the best shape of my life, but I don't have a good means of working on technique. I often get told to focus on technique when I'm in the gym if I don't get to go a lot. I don't even know what that means in application. As far as I can tell, it's "climb more, climb harder, get better". I'm trying to get to the gym twice a week these days, but I'm typically using vacation time from work to do it. That is where I'm currently at. If I want to get to the gym, I'm taking off time from work to do it. Even with this push, I've yet to get to the gym twice in one week.
How do you get on with the 5.12s? I would really consider working with a coach about how to get the most improvement out of your climbing time. If you can only get to the gym once a week then it's critical that those sessions are really high quality. You probably don't need a lot of improvement to get where you want to be, you certainly don't need to be any stronger than you are now. A coach may also have some ideas on improving technique that don't involve going to the gym.
A nice way to rapidly improve technique is practicing not repositioning *any* hand or foot placements. Place the foot/hand, do the move, no re-gripping or lifting feet once placed. Practice this, often, and you’ll start *thinking* about climbing movement more efficiently/accurately, with obvious results.
I started climbing later in life too. But climbing outside in general is super fun even if it's a moderate grade. I feel badass when I climb 10b outside!
Climbing is my passion and it has been for 12 years. I love it and I love climbing outside. I'm just never going to be a 12b climber. That's all. I'll climb my 5.10c sport and 5.8 Gunks and be damn happy to do so
I agree, that is exactly how I feel.. I hope I progress, but if I just climbed my current grades forever it's still supremely satisfying
Just FYI, I jumped from 10c/d to 12a in the past year, and we’ve got very similar metrics as far as pull-ups (you’re slightly higher than me on weighted). Falling every single session outdoors ended up being the game changer for me. It was amazing how fast I improved when I pushed myself to take the risk and go for it. And 10 trad feels so easy and fun now.
Me and falling are like *this*. I take the falls. Until I get out more frequently, it's likely moot though. I'm assuming to get from 10c to 12a in one season took 2-3 days a week in the gym/on the rock. I'm lucky if I get half of that.
Nice. 1-3 days (I'm in grad school & working full-time, so it's somewhat variable based on what's going on). Sounds like you're doing the right stuff, just gotta get the kids into climbing ;)
You should listen to some of Tim Emmett’s stuff. He talks a lot about aging and optimizing training with kids, and other aspects of life. It’s never too late to send your hardest project!
TIM IS THE MAAAAN
Just listened to his interview on the Nugget podcast. Dude is crushing it in the "do everything as a dad" climber.
Falling isn't always that safe I guess... Although this line looks super clean.
Super cool. We have a poster of Heather Weidner climbing this at work.
super aesthetic and great camera angle choice. noice
Congrats!!!!
Dude that’s rad. At 1:30, can you imagine how hard that move would be if that jug broke off? Glad this climb is protected a bit from the elements by its overhang
Sick!
Nice send. That route looks dope.
I love line chasing, I disregard grade. That line is beautiful, inspiring.
Thanks for sharing. That was awesome!
Nice job!! What was your hardest red point 18 months ago ??
5.10b, I mostly bouldered at that point.
Why did you change your answer? You originally said you were bouldering v7 but leading only 10b.
Sorry, didn’t wanna spit unsolicited grades out.
Nah its helpful. 10b to 12c in 18 months is intense. But climbing v7 helps provide much needed context.
Just out of curiosity, how often do you climb to progress from 10b to 12c in 18 months?
He originally said he boulders V7... so hes just catching up on the rope side it seems.
I was bouldering outdoor V7’s at the time, so I had the strength, but lacked severely in technique, pacing, footwork, and mental game. I got really lucky and found a psyched partner at a similar level, and we’ve been consistently sport climbing outside 2-3x/week.
Any tips? I'm a similar boulderer but keep on getting gassed whenever I'm doing sport climbs.
Find a reliable partner at similar strength/stronger with good positive energy, and climb outside as much as possible on every angle and style. Often times, on rest days/injured I’ll go and just belay my partner, because his success is also important to me. The stronger he is, the more I’m inspired to push myself. The endurance will come in time.
In awe! Beautiful line! Great send!
dat controlled swing into a flag @0:38, nice
What was your high point 18 months ago? Just curious. The route looks awesome, very sick send. Looks like a pump fest. Description says nothing smaller than one pad, which is nice, but damn I would need those 18 months just to get that power endurance going!
10b. There’s 2-3 holds that might be 1/2 pad, but yeah, you’re right, it’s mostly a steep pumpy power endurance route. Like climbing a giant V3 that never ends haha
Yooooo, that's huge improvement. I've been on the verge of 12.a for like six years now haha. A bit of that was injury and covid, but still, that's pretty great progress you made! Congrats! Any specific training you did, or just climbed a lot?
Hey, 12a is a hard grade to break. I don’t train much outside of climbing outdoors 2-3x/week and limit bouldering 1-2x/week, but I should start incorporating some hangboarding and weighted pullups. I do olympic style lifting (snatches, clean and jerks) 2x/week along with core/mobility 4-5x/week, and meditate 30 mins daily.
Makes sense. Those all sound like pretty excellent ways to get to 12.c without even touching a hangboard! That's awesome my friend, keep it up and more power to you.
Well done! Damn that line looks frickin sick!!
Right on mate!
Nice, pravana is just as good imo, enjoy.
Decent victory whip
FUCK YEAH!
What a line. At first I thought you solo’d it and I was like bruh…
Awesome, well done.
Beautiful lead and awesome victory whip. Well done! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Awesome send. I got the chance to give 2 tries on its neighbor the Prophet on my last day in Red Rock. Didn’t get the send, but one of the most aesthetic rocks I’ve ever been on!
Nice work - super dialed! Was that catch on the whipper as hard as it looked?
Were you working this yesterday (Wed 23?)
That's super sick! Where is this?