Why climb harder?

“To understand the limitation of things, desire them.”
¯ Laozi, Tao Te Ching

it FEELS good.

your muscles grow.

the body responds and adapts.

your mind expands.

your confidence builds.

you are a super-human BEAST.

You climb hard because YOU want to climb hard .otherwise you would be playing golf.

Simple .....

Golf is pretty hard.

Because all the really cool routes usually happen to be hard. In general, easier routes around here are not as long, unique, or intersting. I train so the when I get back outside in the spring I can get off the 40 foot 11a warm up and climb the 90 footer to the right of it with three consecutive dynos at the top (which to me sounds awesome.) it is several grades harder.

This is like asking why advance from skiing blues at the resort because blues are just fine-otherwise your just chasing an angle. Personally, I never even spend a moment on a blue and like double blacks the best-if you want the good lines in the mountains you will likely practice hard lines in the resort. In otherwords-one reason you ski harder is to prevent boredom. Same with rock/ice.

Why climb harder? Because you can. In case that is not true, as long as the climb feels really hard you are in the good zone.

I would guess that climbing 'harder' has buckets to do with personality; how much does someone appreciate the immediate here and now of 'hard', as compared to the here and now of being able to look around and take in the greater surroundings? That Jedi-ninja kind of thing I guess, balancing pride with vanity, competence with ability... which kinda defines what's fun.

Either I'm drunk (I am) or that's a bizzare post. Competence and ability are roughly synonyms. No idea what jedi-ninja means (Star Wars was largely a reimagined ninja movie, is that where we're going?) The here and now isn't directly affected by the grade (well maybe the here is, as there are a lot more heres).

I've climbed a lot of easy routes, some many times but the unfinished routes are the ones that haunt me. Plus Positive vibrations and Moonage Daydreams are you hard.

Why not?

Chicks dig dudes who climb hard, it's science man! And dudes dig chicks that climb hard. Oh, and also, anything worth doing is worth overdoing!

MC Poopypants wrote:“To understand the limitation of things, desire them.” ¯ Laozi, Tao Te Ching

stop climbing at all, then

"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -Bruce Lee

"Man is lost and is wandering in a jungle where real values have no meaning. Real values can have meaning to man only when he steps on to the spiritual path, a path where negative emotions have no use."Sai Baba

"Chicks dig dudes who climb hard, it's science man! And dudes dig chicks that climb hard." -- Mike Sheridan

Wisdom.

The more nuanced questions, which I think the OP is trying to have answered, are:

1. At what grade(s) is it no longer worth doing repetive or otherwise unenjoyable training to climb harder?

2. How much unenjoyable training are you willing to do, in order to be competent at your target grade(s)?

Speaking for myself, I will likely contine to be motivated to train until I am "solid" at the following grades 5.11c (redpoint), 5.10d (onsight sport), 5.10c (onsight trad). Once I reach those milestones, it will be intersting to see how much additional work would be requried to continue pushing grades.

I generally do not like to spend more than 1.5 hr/day or 6 hrs/week training to climb harder, when I do not enjoy the training activity for its own sake.

David Barbour wrote: stop climbing at all, then "There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -Bruce Lee

Beat you to it! (see post#26). I love this quote - it won't convince those who don't understand, but it certainly seems to resonate with those who do understand. It's less of an argument then a Rorschach test for your athletic soul.

Karl Henize wrote:The more nuanced questions, which I think the OP is trying to have answered, are: 1. At what grade(s) is it no longer worth doing repetive or otherwise unenjoyable training to climb harder? 2. How much unenjoyable training are you willing to do, in order to be competent at your target grade(s)? Speaking for myself, I will likely contine to be motivated to train until I am "solid" at the following grades 5.11c (redpoint), 5.10d (onsight sport), 5.10c (onsight trad). Once I reach those milestones, it will be intersting to see how much additional work would be requried to continue pushing grades. I generally do not like to spend more than 1.5 hr/day or 6 hrs/week training to climb harder, when I do not enjoy the training activity for its own sake.

I think those grades are achievable without having to do any unenjoyable training. do you mind if I ask what your training regiment entails?

Jon Zucco wrote: I think those grades are achievable without having to do any unenjoyable training. do you mind if I ask what your training regiment entails?

At the moment, I currently live about as far away from a crag or climbing gym, as is humanly possible (Port Moresby, Papua New Guniea). So my current training regimen is somewhat irrelevant to most. However, now I generally follow the Eric Horst recommended regimen (frenchies, finger hangs, finger rolls, hyper gravity pull ups, treadmill, stationary bike, etc).

Back when I lived in a more climber friendly locale, I did mostly unfocused indoor bouldering and top roping for training, during the week days. I would do mostly alpine or low grade multi pitch climbs, on weekends. I hardly ever did any projecting or redpointing, as I preferred to climb things that I could on sight. I plateaued at 5.10b.

If you can flash .13D or so, isn't going to most common areas a little like skiing greens and blues all day?
I've noticed with some of the better climbers I've hung with is that they out-skill themselves out of certain areas.

Old and Busted wrote:If you can flash .13D or so, isn't going to most common areas a little like skiing greens and blues all day? I've noticed with some of the better climbers I've hung with is that they out-skill themselves out of certain areas.

I've noticed similar things like when someone knowingly chooses to start projecting sport climbs way above their onsight level, say 12s and 13s) they may never climb trad anything ever again, often because they cant be seen flailing up a 5.9 in public