What Grade Were You Able To Climb After 1 Yr

Li Huwrote:

10 months climbing, but with caveats.

Gym The Post

5.11c/d lead hanging once

5.12b TR, hangdog

V3/4 flash

Some v5 (At the Post)

Month 11:

Arcadia Hangar 18 Flashed my first V4 there and finally got this 5.11- climb that was giving me difficulties. Close to getting 3 v5s.

Mainly, avoiding injuries and trying to use as much technique as possible.

Ricky Harlinewrote:

We don't have good gyms out here and I'm mentoring a kid who went to the gym a few times, top rope soloed a few times on his own outdoors, and then I took him outdoors and he flashed 10b on lead outdoors. He led a 5.11 sport route a couple months later. He has top roped a 5.11 finger crack clean and might very well lead it this winter. He took a fall his very first trad lead, and has taken many lead falls on both gear and bolts since then. 

He insists on leading LRS which seems a little bold to me for how short a time he's been climbing, but I helped him make sure he's got a good rig and I've seen him LRS some pretty bold stuff. Watched him take a 20'+ LRS whipper on bolts when he fell trying to clip the next bolt. He's already a redpoint rope soloist. Kid's insane. In a few years he's going to be leading some seriously badass stuff. Once he gets his crack climbing dialed and builds a base of experience this kids gonna be eating the rostrum for breakfast. 

Also, he's already attempted a big wall. Twice. Again, his first lead was last spring. 

So yeah, people like that exist. They're just not so common. 

If he’s got plenty of partners, there’s no need for LRS. I’ve done that on mountains, but super easy stuff and the choice was to LRS or combine pitches that could hurt my second such as a traverse that can be bypassed going higher up. Typically double rope up mountains, so LRS up rope number 2 or something like? Also depends upon the second.

In general, LRS is really not very useful, and the kid sounds like an up coming talent. Not worth the risk.

Li Huwrote:

If he’s got plenty of partners, there’s no need for LRS. I’ve done that on mountains, but super easy stuff and the choice was to LRS or combine pitches that could hurt my second such as a traverse that can be bypassed going higher up. Typically double rope up mountains, so LRS up rope number 2 or something like? Also depends upon the second.

In general, LRS is really not very useful, and the kid sounds like an up coming talent. Not worth the risk.

I disagree that LRS is significantly more dangerous. What risk do you see as being much higher? For big alpine objectives of course it's way more dangerous, but for single pitch I don't see it being super dangerous. 

But indeed he doesn't have many partners. Finding partners is a bit tricky out here, especially for newer climbers. We're not a major climbing scene (for reasons I will never understand), which is also why I've done a bunch of LRS out here. 

Indoor V3/5.10b. 5.8 outdoor on lead. I  started at age 46 though. 

Doug Chismwrote:

Indoor V3/5.10b. 5.8 outdoor on lead. I  started at age 46 though. 

Welcome to the club Dough. I started 3 weeks away from my 47th b-day

I think there can be a difference between when you start climbing and when you start Climbing.  At least there was for me.  I started and would go to the gym maybe 3/4 times a year.  After maybe the first 8 months or so I bought a harness shoes and chalk, it was cool and I enjoyed it. Did this for a little bit, it was interspersed with covid and I got to take some trips outside with guides while I was on hiking trips.  If I had to guess I was prolly hang dogging 5.10- .  Take this for my first year climbing, despite dealing with some injuries and sickness and being a little heavier I was sending 11s first go inside, and my bouldering in particular has come leaps and bounds. This includes sport and trad outside as well, in less than a year of climbing becoming very important.  This is with "adventure climbing" being my primary goal.  I come from some mountain expirence and a resonalble athletic background.  

I started at 5.8 comfortably

at the end of the year im leading some 5.11 outside but feel my flow and confidence in 5.10. 

Trad: 5.9

I was leading 5.11 inside within 2 months but took 6 months off because I didnt have access to climbing(I had mountains all around me but no gear or friends ). but now that i have both, and I am getting strong. however I got surgery on my knee in a few weeks which will put me out for a month or 2. No sweat. dont need knees to hang. I wanna climb 5.12 by the end of next year.

Most of my climbing was mellow trad and a bit of sportclimbing, until gyms became a thing. Actually, I sewed my own crashpad back around 1994, with some donated orthopedic mattress foam and cardboard to spread out the impact. Worked surprisingly well...

elba idriswrote:

Most of my climbing was mellow trad and a bit of sportclimbing, until gyms became a thing. Actually, I sewed my own crashpad back around 1994, with some donated orthopedic mattress foam and cardboard to spread out the impact. Worked surprisingly well...

"elba"

1953. Probably 5.6 or 5.7, scrambling around on rocks in Georgia while a high school student. Not sure the modern YDS even existed then; I didn't know anything about grading systems until a year or so later. Dark Ages, but it was fun to learn to climb for its own sake without knowledge of any sort of scale or competitive environment.

At the one year mark I had toproped up to 11- indoors and 10c outdoors. I had lead up to 10+ indoors, had my first 10a outdoor sport lead and my first sport multipitch climbs under my belt. I bouldered up to V4. When I started I climbed about 3x a week until I finished my degree 8 months later and now climb 4-5x a week. I’m 18months in now and have only improved a little from the 12month mark (sprained my knee bouldering in between): now 11 on TR and some more 10a outdoor leads. Also started trad climbing up to 5.7. 

The Butt-Shot Whispererwrote:

did no one else here start following then leading trad climbs in the first year? say after passing lead tests in the gym? then found an outdoor mentor? then gor hazed by said old school mentor to repoint a classic 3-4 star climb? in a world class area? like in eldo on the route mescaline 

I’m at the stage of looking for the grizzled mentor to bully me into redpointing climbs. I started learning trad at clinics about 11 months into climbing and did my first trad lead a few months later. 

"Grade": I did Royal Arches my second day lead climbing and it's Grade II.

"Rating": 5.10b sport and 5.9 trad.

Gloweringwrote:

"Grade": I did Royal Arches my second day lead climbing and it's Grade II.

"Rating": 5.10b sport and 5.9 trad.

Agree with you, but it's a lost cause my friend.

phylp phylpwrote:

Agree with you, but it's a lost cause my friend.

I know, but I always hold out hope that it gets someone thinking about it.

Started at the same time as you, just last week completed my first v3. I'm starting to do more wall climbs though recently because I'm not nearly as good at that as I am at bouldering (5.7/5.8 level right now... my arms get pumped about 2/3rds of the way up usually).

kiele sanchezwrote:

Started at the same time as you, just last week completed my first v3. I'm starting to do more wall climbs though recently because I'm not nearly as good at that as I am at bouldering (5.7/5.8 level right now... my arms get pumped about 2/3rds of the way up usually).

"kiele,"

Where do you climb?

What do you think about bots?

I have been climbing for just over 9 months and lead 5.10a sport 5.8 trad

I didn’t climb in a gym until I’d been climbing for a year or so but it wasn’t exactly a year of progress, more experience. I was leading 5.10a my first day out and didn’t climb any harder until I hit the gym. After 6 months I was consistently getting v7s on plastic and onsiting 5.11 sport and trad 5.10, probably sent a v8 in the gym somewhere in there too. One year saw my first couple of 5.12a redpoints and moonboard v8s. Took about 2 years of climbing in the gym to redpoint 5.13a and 2.5 to onsite 5.12. All route grades are for rock but I was probably doing a full number grade harder in the gym until I was redpointing 5.13s just because its easier to work routes at a gym faster. 

one last thing I am 13 years old.