Pushing the grade - my first 8b!
It’s just over a year ago since I climbed my first 8a outdoors. Having focussed primarily on indoor training for the majority of my climbing career up until that point, it felt like a big achievement for me. When you first break into a grade it inspires confidence in your ability to climb more routes of the same level, and since completing my first 8a in Siurana last April, I have now climbed 12 in total. Whilst climbing in Ceuse last year I broke the 8a+ barrier, which both took me by surprise yet also made me wonder whether I was capable of climbing just a little bit harder…
Due to studying at university and through having to endure persistent niggling injuries, my training had to take the back seat for the last year or so. I had had rare and precious intervals of being fit to train, and I really had to make the most of these without pushing too far. Sometimes the motivation wasn’t there and if I’m honest, I was mostly floating around the wall trying to have fun and not get frustrated at my lack of focus for training. I had no specific goals and no dates to achieve them by, which is a peculiar notion if you happen to be a competition climber who is used to having their motivation and aims dictated by a calendar of events on exact dates throughout the year. It is possible in a competition to know beforehand the hour, let alone the date, in which you will need to perform. However, on rock it is a completely different story. You may have a trip planned with a start and end date, yet there are many more variables which can interfere with your performance. Weather, conditions, other people’s plans and gut instincts come into play, and picking the right routes and the right moments becomes more difficult. The choice is yours - whether to take it easy or push it to the limit.
Personally, I find it a lot harder to get into the “zone” when outdoor climbing. It is fairly easy in a competition to get psyched up and ready to go - the impetus to succeed is right there in the heat of the moment. You only have one chance and the computer has decided for you when it’s time to step up to the wall. In order to win, you have to focus NOW! At the crag I can sometimes take on a happy go lucky, slightly blasé approach to climbing. I could try really hard and go for it, or I could quite easily just sit about and wait for the “right” moment to get on a project. There is no time constraint in this game other than that which you decide to place on yourself. As a result I think I have had a tendency to rest on my laurels and think “I will climb grade x when I’m ready. I’m not 100% fit just now. There’s no rush. Maybe next year…or 5?”
Having just returned from Gorges du Loup, I would say my approach to red pointing changed dramatically. I went out feeling fairly well-rounded physically - not too strong but not weak either, not too fit but fitter than I’ve been in a while. Additionally, I think the fact that I had visited Gorges du Loup previously 4 years ago filled me with confidence - I knew what to expect and I knew I was a lot stronger and fitter comparatively than I was at 16. I went out with the intention of climbing 8b. I had gained enough mileage in the lower 8′s that to shy away from trying an 8b would just be silly. I gradually worked my way through the grades in the first week and a half, climbing two 8a’s and an 8a+, the bottom of which was also the start of an 8b I had set my sights on - Deverse SatanX.
The first section of the route provided flowing movements on good blocky/tufa holds, a short 7b in difficulty. The mid section was the trickiest for me to work out - moving across from a shouldery pink tufa onto some undercuts and side pulls on a crozzly tufa system, before coming to an awkward rest on The Mushroom hold. Luckily a sneaky knee bar provided a more comfortable stay on The Mushroom, and interestingly - although Robbie and I both used a knee bar in this rest position - I favoured right knee and Robbie the left, along with a toe hook on a lower tufa. From here to the top involved some more technical climbing on crimps, but also featured some powerful shoulder presses on tufas, which almost always exhausted me by the time I was nearing the crimps.
The night before we were due to try the route again, Robbie and I drew our own route maps and rehearsed the sequence in the field of our camp. We must have looked like martial arts enthusiasts - eyes closed, limbs moving in all directions yet our movements were always executed with poise and control (if only they worked that well on the rock every time!) The route still felt difficult and there was a day or two when I seriously started doubting myself. I simply wouldn’t be able to link all of these moves together, there is too much to think about! I kept at it and gradually with each try I was inching closer and closer. So near yet so far. In three consecutive attempts I fell off one hold higher each time, working out a better foot sequence after falling. With every attempt I felt I would need to give so much more in order to overcome the difficulty of the route. However, one day everything fell into place and I somehow found myself at the chains, clipping the rope in and sighing in relief. Maybe I had waited for the perfect moment, or maybe I just believed that little bit more in myself. It was one of those glorious moments when something which felt so hard along the journey to completion eventually felt within my capabilities, yet still required my absolute and undivided attention. It hadn’t quite hit me yet, but I’d just completed my first 8b. After a good few years of setbacks with injuries and a feeling of stagnation I had finally moved forward and pushed my climbing to a level I had always wanted to achieve. Onwards and upwards!