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Post by alexandra on Mar 16, 2016 12:19:12 GMT -7
Hi all, I am planning a trip to Font for two weeks in July. This will be my first longer than two days bouldering trip where I actually plan to climb as hard as I can for as long as I can. I have never been to Font, but i have heard that there are a lot of slopers. My plan was to fit in two training cycles before the trip, the first one being somewhat contrived, in the sense that I would mostly omit the two week performance phase and go right into strength after the power part ends. I am just about to finish my first HB cycle, where I used somewhat "generic" grips, I just did the grips recommended in the book. I have the following two questions 1) What grips should I train more for the next HB cycle? I feel that the sloper in the RCTM hang board is not really the type of sloper I would face in most problems outdoors (especially judging from the fact that i can complete my sets with baseline +30lbs and this does not happen to real life slopers - unless i am doing something wrong on the hangboard?) Are there any other ways to train slopers? If some of you have been to font, what other grips are common there? 2)The second question is a little more strange and less straightforward but I feel it does hold me back. So here it is: I will be climbing with a bunch of strong (male) climbers who are all taller than me, have climbed longer than me and are much more competitive than me (but not necessarily more motivated;p). In other occasions where I have been climbing with even just my boyfriend, I tend to feel super stressed out and discouraged. I always think: if this move was hard for him, there is no way i can do it, so I have a hard time summoning the energy to try hard. I might also be afraid that I will look like a clumsy silly person struggling on something that they can just do. In general, I feel intimidated. Whenever I climb with other women, however, I usually do well- but i have a very small sample size to judge from. I just don't know many women that are free or able to go on those trips with me. I was wondering if anyone else here ever feels intimidated in the way i described above which hinders performance and if so, what do you do to get over it? Do you just go work on different climbs on purpose for instance? I don't even know if there are any other women in the forum but if so, come to Font with me?  Thanks so much! |
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Post by Lundy on Mar 16, 2016 12:38:29 GMT -7
Alexandra,
Great question. I climb pretty regularly with two female pro climbers, both of whom I'm sure have gone through this at some point in their careers. I've cut your paragraph out and will send to them in an email and post any responses I get...
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Post by alexandra on Mar 16, 2016 12:44:10 GMT -7
thanks! Looking forward to their responses and always great to hear there are so many strong girls out there!
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Post by chrisbecker on Mar 16, 2016 16:40:55 GMT -7
Slopers, slopey crimps, slopey pockets, ridiculously slopey footholds and compression (preferably on slopers...), mostly on angles around vertical. Some tiny and sharp crimps as well, often on slabs.
The climbing is quite unique and the style takes time to get used to. Since this is your first trip to Font (and assuming that you want to have a good time), I would recommend not getting too stuck in any projects, especially for the first few days. The real beauty of the place is to have massive amounts of great quality boulder problems of all grades next to each other, so bring some extremely comfy shoes and do some circuits. Make sure to climb the blue one at Roche aux Sabots and enjoy the most fun day of climbing you will ever have.
Conditions will suck in July and make everything feel a grade harder at least. Add to that that everything (except for the few steep problems) feels a grade harder anyway. When you - inevitably - go to Bas Cuvier and get on La Marie Rose and all the other gems there, make sure it's first thing in the morning, before the air warms up. Try not to get frustrated about the 60 year old blokes hiking up your project with a walking cane. Finish the days before your skin is completely wrecked - though, having said that, I have yet to manage that one.
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Post by jessebruni on Mar 17, 2016 9:54:51 GMT -7
...I tend to feel super stressed out and discouraged. I always think: if this move was hard for him, there is no way i can do it, so I have a hard time summoning the energy to try hard. I might also be afraid that I will look like a clumsy silly person struggling on something that they can just do. In general, I feel intimidated. The most important thing I've learned since I got married is that my opinions on these sort of things will always be misinterpreted as sexist (or perhaps they just are sexist?) ...however, I still feel compelled to say "Stop thinking about what other people think about you. This is not high school." Nobody cares about how you perform, or how you look when you try to perform, a fraction as much as you care about your own performance. Seriously. Nobody. Gives. A. Damn. Now here comes the sexist part. It's incredibly likely that what I just said won't resonate with you, because it doesn't resonate with my wife, or any other female climber I know. Every once in a blue moon a female climber comes along who truly does not care about looking good in front of the guys, who realizes that she has a completely different body than the guys and therefore a comparison with them just doesn't work, who understands that she has different strengths and weaknesses and accepts that and uses it to empower her rather than keep herself down. This girl always ends up crushing. After spending years watching nearly every girl you know hold herself back, not trying her hardest for fear of looking bad, it's easy to spot the girl who is crushing. She's the one falling the most, eating shit going for big moves, generally just failing a lot...and also the only one who eventually sends. Now, I'm sure that little rant was incredibly sexist (though to me it just felt like honesty, I have accepted that in this day and age pointing to the fact that men and women approach things differently, and insinuating that one approach has an advantage over the other is considered sexist) so I apologize if anything I said offended you, that was not my intention. My intention was to draw attention to what I think is the #1 thing that holds back female climbers. Hopefully someone else will come along with some better advice (and way more tact). |
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Post by alexandra on Mar 17, 2016 11:44:03 GMT -7
I don't think this was sexist at all, however the only thing I would argue is that my main fear is not so much looking like an idiot to others but rather to myself, which is the part that affects me the most (something to do perhaps with my expectations being high in those occasions).
But regardless, thank you for the advice and mostly for reminding me something that I had completely forgotten due to not having surfed much the last couple years. I did face a similar issue when I started surfing, where everyone around me at the waves I used to surf was a big strong male, taking all the waves, while I was sitting on the shoulder being very self conscious. I did manage to get over this by surfing every minute I could, no mater the conditions, no matter how big the waves were or how scared I was and never giving up or allowing myself to get disappointed. I did fall a lot, hurt myself on rocks and coral, had scary hold-downs, but eventually it worked!! Now I feel no different (or rather no less competent) than any of the male surfers around me in any conditions. I hope that the same technique applies to climbing, so I will try to gain my old mindset back and see how I can progress on that matter.
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Post by aikibujin on Mar 17, 2016 21:20:19 GMT -7
...I tend to feel super stressed out and discouraged. I always think: if this move was hard for him, there is no way i can do it, so I have a hard time summoning the energy to try hard. I might also be afraid that I will look like a clumsy silly person struggling on something that they can just do. In general, I feel intimidated. The most important thing I've learned since I got married is that my opinions on these sort of things will always be misinterpreted as sexist (or perhaps they just are sexist?) But female climbers are not the only ones who get intimidated. There are also male climbers who get intimidated by people who climb harder than they do. I know a bunch of climbers who prefer to climb with others with similar climbing abilities. So I don't think this is a male vs. female issue. Personally I really like climbing with people stronger than I am. It's a great way to learn new things by watching their technique/movement, watching their redpoint tactics, or simply get psyched watching someone try hard on something that looks impossible. I value any chance I have to climb with someone who are stronger, I even warned my regular climbing partner that if I get invited to go climb with someone stronger, I'll drop everything else, include a planned trip with him. He understands. The downside of climbing with a stronger climber is that I often dangle like a useless sack of potato on their warm ups. But as long as they don't get too disgusted by these epic belay sessions (to the hardman reading this: I'm working hard to make these belay sessions shorter) and are still willing to climb with me, I'll always make it a priority to climb with a stronger climber. Oh on looking like a clumsy silly person struggling on something, I get inspired by watching people try hard on any route, doesn't matter the grade. It can be a 5.9, or a 5.13, doesn't matter as long as the climber is trying hard. I actually like watching a 5.9 climber trying hard on a 5.10, than a 5.12 climber onsighting the same route. Sure, the 5.12 climber has better technique, looks much smoother, in control, and just make the route looks easy... and boring to watch. The 5.9 climber going for the same route with all they've got, not holding back, maybe scream a little, fall off a bunch. That actually inspires me and make me want to push myself more. So forget about looking clumsy. Focus on trying hard on your own problem, don't worry about what others are sending, and other climbers tend to feed off on that energy (especially in a bouldering setting) and try hard themselves too. |
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Post by chrisbecker on Mar 18, 2016 9:07:59 GMT -7
The most important thing I've learned since I got married is that my opinions on these sort of things will always be misinterpreted as sexist (or perhaps they just are sexist?) ...however, I still feel compelled to say "Stop thinking about what other people think about you. This is not high school." Nobody cares about how you perform, or how you look when you try to perform, a fraction as much as you care about your own performance. Seriously. Nobody. Gives. A. Damn. Thanks for writing that post! I've had similar discussions with my wife a few times and have since given up the topic (almost... I'm a tenacious little bugger at times) even though the issue is so blatantly obvious. Since we built our own wall half a year ago (and I built a ridiculous 1/2 meter thick pad to deal with the other big problem - fear of falling), her climbing level has gone through the roof and she is now warming up on problems that were supposedly way too hard when I first put them up. Back to topic, the way I would recommend training for Font (as far as it's possible indoors) is by looking for slopey problems that require lots of body tension to stay on the wall, problems with bad feet that force you to smear a lot and generally keep your heel down, and if you have any chance to do so, it's probably worthwhile to spend some time on difficult mantle and top-out moves. Nothing worse than having done all the hard climbing and then sliding off after a 2 minute struggle with a slopey top out... www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeelqzHmsQ |
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Post by alexandra on Mar 18, 2016 11:58:02 GMT -7
Oh man, I know slopers are not my strength, but this sounds even worse than I thought:(
luckily my home crag has only slopey topouts so I am somewhat comfortable there, and much better at toping out/mantling slopers than compressing...
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Post by MarkAnderson on Mar 18, 2016 18:42:45 GMT -7
(to the hardman reading this: I'm working hard to make these belay sessions shorter) LOL! |
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Post by MarkAnderson on Mar 18, 2016 18:47:59 GMT -7
Holy shit! Is there going to be a German maniac screaming at her during every mantel? Remind me never to go there  |
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Post by Chris W on Mar 19, 2016 3:09:33 GMT -7
Jesse, I'm sexist and tactless too.
Alexandra, I'd highly recommend you check out The Rock Warrior's Way by Arno Ilgner.
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Post by chrisbecker on Mar 20, 2016 12:16:46 GMT -7
Holy shit! Is there going to be a German maniac screaming at her during every mantel? Remind me never to go there This is the one and only Klem Loskot and he is actually Austrian... I actually wouldn't mind the experience but I guess that we Germans seem to be strangely attracted to Austrians telling us what to do. |
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Post by Lundy on Mar 20, 2016 17:58:57 GMT -7
Hi Alexandra,
Here are two answers from some badass lady climbers:
#1:
It's easy to feel discouraged when you think you're the weakest link. But this can have advantages. When I first started climbing, I climbed with people way stronger than me, guys mostly, (looking at you, Eric!) and as a result I think I became a better climber more quickly. This was on ropes. ...and sometimes I think bouldering can be a bit more 'bro' if you know what I mean.... but yes, I'm always psyched to climb with more experienced climbers, there's always something new to learn. Even though it can be disheartening to try something way above your paygrade, it teaches you to try hard. You just have to ignore the bros while you try hard. Maybe come up with some kind of mantra to say to yourself when you start losing your confidence. How you think is how you act, so think confidently so you will act the same. Bouldering really is all about those subtle improvements, you've gotta get excited about the small progress. I get it. Bouldering is hard! And long moves are going to be harder when you are shorter. But women really tend to have the best beta (no offense Eric!), so get creative. Sometimes you will have to do things differently. so think outside the box, even when some bro tells you to use his beta. And sometimes a v7 will feel easier than a v5. Bouldering grades are especially subjective.
Also, you can't compare yourself to anyone else, especially some dude who is probably strong but might not have the best technique. (Quite common with those young 20somes who have crazy strength but shitty technique) not lumping all male boulderers into this category, but it seems more prevalent in this style of climbing. Ugh. Bros. Haha. You just gotta let go of expectations and remember that everyone sucks at their own limit! You gotta get over failing in front of others. ...
I also love climbing with the ladies. we are pretty supportive of each other and can share good beta. But honestly, doesn't matter if you are male or female, as long as you have a good attitude. Maybe you are just climbing with the wrong crowd?
#2:
Climbing is supposed to be fun and sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that— I try to have fun and do things that feel good and possible every time I go climbing. That might sound obvious, but it’s integral to remember. This means that even after you do your warm up, choose pitches you’re going to enjoy and choose ones alongside things that are very hard. It sounds like she is going cragging which means that it’s very easy to get on a different route. Bring her own draws, another rope, and put a stake in the ground for her own project for the day AND get on anything else she wants to. I’d say the same if she was going climbing with a bunch of stronger female climbers as well!
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Post by alexandra on Mar 20, 2016 18:21:07 GMT -7
thanks everyone!! it looks like I have some physical and mental training to do the next couple of months. thanks for all the great help!
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