Easy how-to guides on getting to outdoor climbing crags, and
fun adventure stories from our team.
(And Why Sport Climbing Is Better Than Bouldering)
Contents
Life's Hurdles
Often, we daydream of things we want to do, experience, achieve. Oftentimes, it feels like there is too high a hurdle or we're unable to remove the barrier to entry to fulfil our dreams and desires.
What I want to start with is helping to remove the hurdles when it comes to outdoor sport climbing specifically.
With time, maybe this blog will grow into other areas where I can share stories of how I've removed barriers to other adventures or parts of life, and hopefully guide you to make more adventures more accessible for you.
Too often we don't fulfil our dreams and desires because there is a knowledge gap. I want to fill this gap and provide the key to unlock the gates to your adventures.
The Problem You Don't Realise You Have
I'm going to assume you're already a climber if you're here reading this. If not, head to your nearest climbing gym - any one, it doesn't matter where - and get your hands on the first VB/V-intro/V0* your eyes land on.
The staff at all climbing gyms I've ever visited have been extremely friendly and welcoming, especially to new climbers. They'll help you pick out the right size of your rental shoes (yes, they should be uncomfortably tight, but no, not so tight you can't feel your toes), give you a quick safety brief and off you pop.
Different gyms use different grading systems. Some gyms use colour-coding, so each colour corresponds to a specific level, other's rely on small tags at the start holds that have the grade written on them. In London, most gyms also have a special beginners grade, which comes even before the first V-grade (V0). They're often labelled as follows:
*VB = Very Beginner
V-intro = Very Introductory
V0 = V-grade 0
Okay, back to it. You climb. You likely boulder. Indoors. In a city. Your chalk dusted climbing shoes have never seen real rock, grass, or mud. They've only see plastic, chalk, other people's dead skin, and possibly someone else's dried blood too, see Exhibit A and B below. That was me. And I loved it, I loved the bouldering gym, the community, and doing something I love sheltered away from the wet rainy days in London.
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On the other hand, when I found myself rolling into the climbing gym without any windows when it's a beautiful sunny day outside, I was torn. Being outdoors in good weather instantly improves my mood. At the same time, all I wanted was the wall, the holds, the empowering feeling I get when climbing - my body is powerful, dynamic, and flexible. Hours later, after I'd fulfilled my climbing needs - like it's a drug - I'd exit the gym, squint my eyes at the sight of the bright blue sky, feel the warm breeze removing the dusting of chalk on my forearms, and breathe in the fresh, chalk-free air, and I realised I must be doing something wrong. It was a beautiful day outside and I'd just spent hours staring at a wooden wall with chalk and rubber coated plastic holds, fulfilling my climbing needs like a cavewoman in that artificially lit cave.
Upon writing this, I'm realising how similar these climbing gyms can be to casinos - you walk into a large room with all these islands filled with exciting games to play. There are no windows or tainted windows so you never know how long you've been in there for or so you don't miss the lovely sunny weather outside (yes, even the UK gets some sunny days in the year). There is even a bar at many climbing gyms, albeit coffee bars rather than alcohol bars. They key difference between casinos and climbing gyms is maybe that climbing gyms always seem to have clocks.
The Solution: Climb Outdoors 🌞
If you're from London, the easiest and most accessible way, aside from The Castle's outdoor boulder section, is Fairlop Waters - on the Central Line - near Epping Forest. Still artificial boulders, but at least you're outside.
Fairlop is cute, low commitment, and great for intro to outdoor bouldering, but don't expect a full on power, dynamic, flexibility session. FYI if you go to Fairlop, I'd recommend taking a crash pad. For outdoor bouldering, crash pads are always recommended.
Now, my knowledge is heavily focused on sport climbing (aka lead climbing), sorry boulderers, but let me tell you why sport climbing is better. Bouldering is like instant gratification, especially with the wealth of bouldering gyms in London, it's so easy to find new problems that you can top after one, two, maybe three attempts. Few boulderers actually embark on multi-session or multi-week projects. This also makes it more difficult to progress to the next V-grade.
Sport climbing isn't just about strength and power
The mental game is introduced. You may never have known you have a fear of heights until you're suspended (only) 10 metres up in the air and as you shake out your arms to get rid of the pump, you look down and realise you are terrified at how far off the ground you are. Then you may look around to try to take your mind of it and your eyes land on the equipment your life relies on. Slowly it dawns on you how many points of failure there are that could result in your .. death ☠️. The rope snapping is probably most often what people are afraid of when it comes to sport climbing, but there is also that little textile loop on your harness, the quickdraws, and the bolts in the wall that you have no idea how long they've been there for and can sometimes look a little rusty (that's if you're doing lead, otherwise it'll be the nuts/hexes/cams that are temporary fixtures; if you're doing trad climbing).
Yes, climbing is a dangerous sport. But don't let that deter you. All the certified equipment has been tested with (hopefully) large safety factors in mind, and you should always check the state of your gear and the end of and before the start of each climbing session. In my opinion though, I think it'll be pretty obvious when a piece of equipment becomes unsafe to use. After enough climbing (and falling), you learn to trust the equipment. I don't know what the statistics are, but I have personally been injured infinitely more times riding my bike than I have climbing.
Endurance becomes key to success, and the pump is like nothing you've experienced on a boulder. A sport climbing route may consist of several different types of bouldering moves - each of which you might be able to achieve easily on a bouldering route that's only three moves long. On a sport route, however, it can feel nearly impossible when you've already climbed 10 metres, which has already involved a campus start, a high heel hook, a sketchy foot swap, basically done the splits in the air, and scrambled so hard to find the tiniest sharpest crimp you've never seen on an artificial climbing wall.
The climb becomes a journey.
Sending a route isn't just topping it - it's topping it with zero rest breaks. The beta isn't just figuring out how to get to the next hold, it's trying to find a bit of protruding rock that you can use as a hand hold. It's when you learn the tiniest edge can be used as a foot hold, because there is nothing else. It's when you learn that smearing doesn't really work on smooth shiny rock. It's when you realise that you will probably never climb use the same hand hold and foot holds if you were to climb the same route twice. Unless you're Alex Honold and have memorised the entire sequence with so much rigour that you could probably perform the moves flawlessly in your sleep.
The challenge is multiplied, and the sense of achievement is maximised.
Convinced?
I hope so.
Superior Gold
So, now we've established sport climbing is superior, and outdoor climbing is gold, how do we fulfill our superior gold 🌟 experiences?
Grab your gear and let's go. Wait, what gear do you need?
Read next week's blog post to find out what you need and a checklist of my recommendations.
TL;DR
This blog series intends help fellow climbers get climbing outdoors without having to do the trial and error or research yourselves.
Sport climbing brings more satisfaction than bouldering.
Outdoor sport climbing is superior gold.
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