training options near Conway NH?

I didn't mean for my comments to come across as personal attack or anything dragons. I just don't think doing more pull ups is the best use of time. I know several people who can't do any/many pull ups but can climb 5.11+

In terms of weather. Yes you are correct, people have mentioned some places that could work. In 2015/2016 I climbed at Rumney at last once a month for 15 consecutive months because that winter(November 2015 through March 2016) was so mild. I have lived here in Vermont for the past 9 years and that was the first year I was successful in doing that.

The issue with the strategy of only climbing outside in North Conway is that I just don't think you can be successful in climbing rock outside regularly in winter.

Lets say weather lined up and you climbed once a week outside, and then the rest of the week you did a hangboard routine, pull ups, and other calisthenics. No doubt would you get stronger. But what you wouldn't get is an understanding and mastery of technique and subtleties of climbing.

Even if you were blessed with a 40 degree sunny day every week and went to rumney, sundown, humphries etc... You would hope to get how many pitches in 3-4? 6 or 7 if you really get after it?

In a gym you can climb upwards of 15 pitches every time you go. 3 days a week and you are climbing 45 pitches a week vs 6 in one day outside. That type of "mileage" will do wonders for your strength, technique and understanding of climbing.

Even if you ignore everything I just said, the bottom line is that:pull ups, hangboards and workouts can not teach you how to properly weight a sloping foothold, how to mantle the top of a boulder, when to drop knee, step through, flag or bump your hand to the next hold. They won't teach how to keep your hips close to the wall, how to hang in a restful way, how to smear your feet on a difficult lyback.

Only climbing can teach you that, climbing is amazing and a huge part of my life. It sounds like you are asking these questions because you really care and want to get better. I wish that when I first started climbing someone had passed on more advice to me. I just don't want to see you get discouraged and caught up in "training" to get stronger and neglecting all of the other aspects of climbing. There may be roofs on the 5.6's at the Gunks you don't have the strength to pull, but there are plenty of finger cracks that 100 pullups won't get you to the top of.

In just a few weeks you can climb around Conway anyway. My favorite early season places are Jockey's Cap, which has some great bouldering, and the longest traverse wall to pump out on. The boulders at Humphrey's will be good to go early too. Right by the covered bridge off the Kanc are some good cruiser boulders. If going south, hit the boulder by Chocorua Lake , the crack is 10d I think.

Plenty of butt kicking climbers come out of here, you just need to figure it out locally.

DRusso wrote:I just don't think doing more pull ups is the best use of time. I know several people who can't do any/many pull ups but can climb 5.11+

That's encouraging. I don't even care about climbing 5.11+. Right now, at least, if I could lead 5.8s, it would open up a lot more areas for me.

DRusso wrote:They won't teach how to keep your hips close to the wall, how to hang in a restful way, how to smear your feet on a difficult lyback. Only climbing can teach you that

I agree with you, and your point is well taken. For some context, I started climbing in 2011. The 361 routes I've ticked off at this site are just a small part of the total number I've climbed, and I've also done plenty of climbing indoors.

I know that I have a lot to learn, even so. I only enjoy climbing outdoors, though, so when I climb indoors, I do it to maintain my shape for outdoor climbing. I'm not really clear how indoor climbing will help improve your outdoor climbing skill, aside from its use as a training tool to keep in shape. I'd be interested to hear from people who found their outdoor technique improved due to indoor technique training (as opposed to just maintaining the muscles you use in climbing).

For example, you mentioned a difficult layback. I've climbed several laybacks, e.g. the Layback route at Quincy Quarries. I've never climbed a layback like this at a rock climbing gym. I can't think of anything I did at a climbing gym that would have prepared me to cruise up it. You said "Only climbing can teach you that". I would amend it to read "only outdoor climbing can teach you to climb outdoors."

I agree that climbing indoors can help to supplement your routine when it's not possible to climb outdoors, though. I'm not arguing that point.

Troy S wrote:Sounds like you're all set on equipment but if you're interested in learning about training for climbing, I'd recommend that book.

Thanks! Actually, I've been meaning to buy that book.. thanks for the reminder! It seems to be out of stock at Trango, but it appears to be available here still: rockclimberstrainingmanual.…

Tom Stryker wrote:In just a few weeks you can climb around Conway anyway. My favorite early season places are Jockey's Cap, which has some great bouldering, and the longest traverse wall to pump out on. The boulders at Humphrey's will be good to go early too. Right by the covered bridge off the Kanc are some good cruiser boulders. If going south, hit the boulder by Chocorua Lake , the crack is 10d I think. Plenty of butt kicking climbers come out of here, you just need to figure it out locally.

Thanks for the beta, Tom! In fact, it's the boulders off the Kanc that piqued my interest (I also saw some boulders off of another nearby trail). If it looks like we're in for a non-snow week, I plan to go over there and clean the snow off a few boulders so I can get some hours on rock.

We just got a crap-ton of snow dumped on the area in the last couple of days. I hope it will lead to good skiing, but with snow coming down almost every day, it's no good for climbing outdoors right now. I'm hoping to get to a gym one day next week.

the climbing outdoors seems to be just fine this winter :)

DRusso wrote: I would not worry about how many pull ups you can do as a measure of how hard you climb. If I were you and your goal is to climb "harder" then it sounds like you need to just climb more often. The best way to do this is to climb at a gym...necessary evil in my opinion. The climbing gym is the best modern tool for getting better technique and climbing with frequency.

this says it the best - i strongly disagree with your use of height / weight / lack of strength as the rationale for inability to climb higher grades. i too am 5', 100lbs, and though i can (barely) eke out some pullups, i do not rely on strength to climb. balance and technique will be WAY more helpful to you in advancing. forget pullups - climb, climb, climb!

dragons wrote:I believe this to be true. However, if you cannot train on real rock, and your "off-season" is at least a few months, you're going to become detrained and risk injury (or at least incredible wimpiness) when the season begins. In another comment, Chad mentioned his "off-the-couch" ability. My "off-the-couch" ability involves groveling up a 5.2. So I need to do something to maintain strength and balance until I can get more training on real rock. It just snowed here yesterday, so I think the boulder that I found the other day will probably be covered in powder. I'm going to go take a look at it again today.

If you mimic climbing specific muscle movements as close as possible in your strength training then sure you will get some stimulus, but it will never be as good as simply climbing itself. So we compromise since we aren't all dirt bags outside 365 dpy. It's better than nothing, but in strict sense it is not ideal, even for amateur athletes looking to build their skill level.

There are a lot of coaches for various sports that believe in "function strength training" which I think is complete bullshit. If you lift weights, that makes you better at lifting weights. Some of that strength may or may not translate well to your chosen sport, be it climbing or something else. It will never be better than simply performing in your sport and this is particularly true when you factor in the opportunity costs of choosing strength training over specific practice. In multi-disciplinary sports, such as triathlon for example, there is simply no time to do anything else other than swim, bike, and run. Doing so is will actually be detrimental to your performance as it cuts down on the training stimulus you need to excel at a high level.

Dana Etra wrote:i too am 5', 100lbs, and though i can (barely) eke out some pullups, i do not rely on strength to climb.

That's encouraging, thanks!

training was good yesterday ;)