Older and Boulder

On Monday night’s session, I finally managed to get my first font 6c+ boulder ticked.
This put a massive smile on my face as prior to that night I had only managed a single 6c (which i thought was soft), and not been too close to sending any more.
I know that chasing grades is not necessarily a sensible thing to do due to the subjectivity inherent in them.
I’m also well the fact that there here have been some ‘easy’ boulders (6a+’s for example) that I’ve repeatedly thrown myself at and failed.
That being said, getting a tick past new grade ‘barrier’ still felt pretty good. I managed to get my second 6c on Monday too, as well as a realtively quick send on a tricky 6b+ that people that I think are better climbers than me were having a a hard time with.

This really added to the feeling of success for the evening.

So, what changed? What did I do differently to get past this point? Nothing major is the short answer, but a few minor things probably made a difference.
This first thing was that in this session I had planned to working on a 6c problem. I had the start pretty much dialled in, but was struggling with the final 2 moves.
Rather than just throwing myself at it from the bottom as usual I climbed to the top on some easy holds and practiced the last section. I know this is a good thing to do, but for some reason I never usually do it.
That night though, I was fed up getting to the same point and falling off so I tried out of desperation more than expectation.
Two tries later after rehearsing the top, I started from the bottom, and what do you know? Managed to get to the top, with effort, but still realitively comfortably.

That led to a lot of confidence, and when some people I know suggested I try the newly set 6b+ green, the fact it was on a steep part of the wall and sloper type holds where I felt it would suit me, I thought I’d give it a try.
I also had a slighty irritated finger, so I was trying to avoid anything crimpy. The fact that my goal for the night had been met by getting the previous climb sent, meant I went into it with no expectation and the mindset of ‘Have a go and have fun.
I made more progress on the first try than I expected, and this just built more confidence.

The final achievement of the night was breaking that grade boundary. I climb with my son, and our play had been to finish the night with some easy slab problems, practicing footwork by climbing ‘no-hands’.
Right next to the problem we had in mind was a ‘doable’ looking pink slab problem. (Pink’s in our gym are usually 6c and above).
Someone was already climbing it, and didn’t finish it, but from the ground I was pretty confident that their footwork was the issue, and I thought I could probably do the part that they were stuck at if I could get to it.
A few tries later, and copying the start beta from the guy that we’d originally spotted climbing it, I found myself with two hands on the last hold while my son did a loud three count from the ground.
Unfortunatley, I had accidentally touched a climb down hold briefly on getting my second had to the last hold while feeling really shaky on some terrible foot holds, so in order to really count the send, I had to go again.
This time the feet felt better, and it was a pretty straightforward send in the end.

So, what do I think made the difference?

1. Rehearsing sections of the climb. I don’t normally do this, and I’m 100% confident it made a difference.
2. Being relaxed, confident, and not getting frustrated.
3. Climbing slab when going past grade boundaries. I hadn’t realised this, but my first 6B+ was a slab, as was my first 6C, and now my first 6c+
   This makes sense as the free Lattice Assesment suggests that my fingers are much weaker than other boulderers that climb in my grade range, and as slab is less finger intensive.
   Also, getting the psychological boost of being ‘able to climb grade x’ means I’m more likely to try others with more confidence, which creates a little bit of a virtuous circle.

I’m going to try and keep this all in mind as the inevitable ups and downs, and backwards progress occurs, and hopefully this will help towards my long term goal of getting my first font 7x tick.