Any indoor rock climbers?

[Humphreyshead]

What’s your routine?

I try to get to the wall 3 times a week. Each session is basically the same:

Warm up on a couple of auto belays on 5s, A couple of warm up leads at 5s on the shorter wall.
6a leads on the overhand wall, pushing 6b.

I’m pretty consistent at 6a on the overhangs. But would like to improve on the vertical 6a and the pinchier holds.

I’m not really interested in bouldering as it hurts my knees. I find it knackers me for what I’m really wanting to do.

I have a beastmaker at home which I’m very random on, and need to put in a routine.

I don’t do any strength training apart from adhoc pilates and yoga.

I run twice a week in the hills and mnt bike once a week.

I moved away from my climbing friends and haven't been for a year. I miss it and I feel flabby.

I still exercise but frankly I miss the shoulders I used to have 😆

I bought a beast maker. It lurks above the garage door staring at me, unused.

My climbing superstrength is teeny tiny crimps on slabs. I do like a big meaty overhang sometimes though. I feel like a proper climber when I manage one.

There's a new bouldering centre opening near me before the end of the year so I think I'll check it out. Definitely easier to go bouldering on my own!

Do you have any clubs or socials near you?… Intoo moved away from many climbing friends about 10yrs ago. That and having children have meant I don’t climb as often as in my 20s. Certainly not outdoors anyway.

I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been climbing outside in the past 2 years.

I have however managed to get in to a nice routine at the wall, 2-3 times a week and I’m seeing some progress ☺️

I can lead overhanging juggy stuff up to 6b, but wig out on the crimpier stuff. So I’m near plateau atm, so I’m increasing my time bouldering… which I’m not that psyched about. And auto belays on vertical/slabby stuff.

Where in the country are you based?

I climb mostly with my husband. But have found the social at the local wall nice for meeting people to chat to, but many are novice and I don’t trust their belaying 🙈

Similar, mixing trail running and climbing, outdoors when I can and indoors if not. Loving it and nice friendly vibe. Saying ‘each session basically same’ stuck out to me. Is there any way you can embrace a bit of bouldering? There’s normally a downclimb on jugs option at my wall to save your knees. Failing that try and mix things, like doing laps on something to work your stamina.

I'm down in the SW now, frankly the outdoor climbing is much better than what I'm used to but it's finding people to climb with.

I think you are right about finding a social - i used to go to the ones at my old wall occasionally and forgot they're probably a thing elsewhere too 😂

I’ve become an accidental climber as my children are obsessed, meaning DH and I had to learn to belay and then realised we quite liked the actual climbing part too!

Pattern now is we all climb at a roped wall twice a week, DH and DC climb at roped wall another evening without me and I do a session at a bouldering centre with oldest DC once a week. Like you I’m less of a fan of bouldering but have found it’s definitely improved my technique.

I lead up to 6b+ but am not sure I really have the ambition to progress beyond this… my priority at my current life stage is to avoid injuries and stay fit, and I think I can achieve these aims better in the 6s.

Children compete so we’re currently in YCS season. Got thoroughly put in my place when I tried the youth E boulders (ages 8-9) the day after one of the competitions and my eldest DC pointed out if I’d actually been competing in that catagory I would have come last😂

After lots of rambling, I guess my question to you would be- what is it you want to achieve, as that will drive what to do?

Yeah we have the jugs too. It’s more that I can’t push myself bouldering as I hate falling off.

On rope I’ll throw myself off all day, so I can really push my climbing.

I’ve fallen out of the habit of doing laps on the auto belays because my dh now comes with me to belay. So I fell bad him just hanging about. I’ve suggested to him that I go on my own once a week so I can work on building strength/stamina.

I also got in tk a good routine last winer of going in to the wall’s gym to donsome finger strength training… I do this at home now, but not as regualr as I should

The YCS is brutal! We have some awesome little ones at our wall.

I’d like to push 6c in the wall and 6a sport and VS4c trad outside. Then it feels that I have a good variety to go on.

In the wall I need to work on slopers and small over hang crimps.

Yes, at 40 I want to avoid injury, and be able to climb in to my 90s 😁

Hi @Humphreyshead
Edited as I posted too soon.

Strength training helped me improve immensely. Do you have access to dumbbells or a gym?

Yes I do have the weights at home. Plus our wall has a decent gym. But I don’t use them other than for finger training. I can’t afford a gym membership on top of wall membership.

What’s your routine at the wall?

Today I managed climb a 6b+ I’ve been working on for the past week. Got to the top today, but a few rests in the way. Our wall is 30m in height, and has some good overhang on it.

I climbed:
Warm up on auto belay 4 x 5/5+ grade
1 5+ grade lead
3 x 30m lead from 6a-6b
15 mins bouldering at the end, which I still don’t really like. So tried some drop knee drills on an overhang one.

Wow a 30m wall, that's much higher than mine. Max height of 12m at my gym with an overhang and when I get to the top I'm super pumped! Would love to learn lead, my partner is not so enthusiastic about that though.....

I tend to warm up on the auto belay like yourself with some 4s and 5s.

Then I usually look for some 6's to work and move up the scale. Currently projecting some 6cs and hoping to smash them today but let's see as I find I'm a bit hit and miss some weeks. However if it's a sloper, I'm screwed! Going to book a coaching session for those as I'm useless on them.

I usually climb twice a week so one session on top rope and belays and the next session purely bouldering.

I'm trying to incorporate some drills for technique into sessions as I still have bad habits to undo! I found John Kettle's book Rock Climbing Technique really useful so I try and do one technique in the book near the end of the session. It's basic stuff but still useful.

At the end of each session I hit the training rooms and am trying to gain finger strength so will do some hangs on the beastmaker they have in there. Might go on the moonboard if I have time but I find that challenging on the fingers.

I got a pull up bar installed at home and do some weighted hangs, pull ups, lock offs, etc. This has really helped!

To climb 30m, you must already be pretty strong and have good stamina 💪

Yeah, I think it’s one of the highest walls in the UK. I’m only recently managing to climb to the too of it due to increased stamina, but only on a couple of them. They have to be corner ones so I can bridge a little.

I used to only do auto all last year as I didn’t have a partner. I found it was really good for strength compared to leading… with leadi g I only like falling off the steep stuff which means I’m not pushing on stuff with smaller holds on the vertical or slabs. Auto works really well for this.

I’ll have a look at john kettle’s book. Thanks! He a coach in our wall and he’s really friendly.

We have a beast maker at home, but what I find more effective for finger strength is a finger block added to weights. It isolates the fingers so it’s much more focused.

I lied sorry… it’s 25m 🙈

I'm guessing this must be KendalWall?

Awesome place. We went ot the lake District on holiday a while back and paid a visit. I did think John Kettle was based out of there when I watched one of the training videos.

I have seen the finger block with weights on lattice training and have thought about giving it a try so I might now do that, thank you!

Indoor rock climbing?

To be honest I am beginning to find the stairs a bit of a struggle at times. 😆

Yeah, Kendal wall. It’s had a revamp recently. A whole new big bouldering area and new panels on the main wall. It’s a great wall. We have some other really good coaches based there too. They also have a women’s social, which is free to take part in and they often have some of the coaches come in. That’s where I learnt about the hand block thing.

The Lattice youtube channel is really good.

I hope you enjoy the wall today.

😂 Sometimes I find climbing easier than the stairs… I live in a bungalow so don’t have much practice!

I bumped into John Kettle at the crag and he felt like the sort of person I’d happily pay for coaching. I should start with the book really 😁

6a fitness should get you up any VS, it’s more about experience and confidence outside. 6c is more like E3 fitness, not that I’m there right now.. if the wall is fairly graded that is!

I think your logic on what grades you want (and your plan to climb at 90!) are sound.

im very envious of you being based in Kendal

My wall routines sound similar to yours, but interrupted by having to belay offspring.At roped wall I tend to do 3-5 auto belays to warm up, 5 to 6a+, then try and do 3-5leads, starting at a 5, then a 6a, then 6bs. Often finish with a pushing the grade top rope (6c/7a) which I never finish but it forces me to try outside my comfort zone without the lead fear.

The bouldering session is climbing all routes of one (low) grade to warm up on one level (usually 10-15 routes) then go to the other level to pick routes that look fun, then finish with the (easy) circuit board.

youve made me wonder if I should push my ambition grade higher!

I can lead VS4a/b outside. It’s when the crux move gets to 4c I struggle. It is definitely a head game outdoors. I can happily second up and E2 5b/c

I have to belay my daughter too… gives me a rest between climbs.

I can’t seem to push more than V3 bouldering. It’s the fear stopping me. I don’t want to land awkwardly if I fall off. I’m 40 now and don’t want to get hurt 🙈

I give that if you can climb 6b happily then it opens up lots of choice in the wall. Which is the only reason I want to sit comfortably at this grade.

There’s a couple of 6a sport routes on limestone near me that I want to do in the spring too. So have those in mind when I’m at the wall.