Welcome back,

Well…the good news is that your list of excuses for not sending this Fall is more robust than ever. Possibly the strongest season on record for the climbing community as a whole.

These last few months I’ve leaned into creating a consistent routine with my training. Rather than having specific routes, seasons, or trips in mind, my goal has been to become stronger and more robust for the future through consistent work.

With so many unknowns going on right now, having a set schedule to follow has brought a specific type of comfort to my week. I’ve spent years having a “what’s next” mindset where I’m always trying to prepare myself for the immediate future. Taking my foot off the gas, focusing on the fundamentals, and keeping trust in the program has turned into a really enjoyable process. The hangboard PR’s don’t suck either.

I’m not sure what the next goal will be, but I’ll be healthy, strong, and fit when the time comes to turn my focus to it.

From Kris Hampton-

We've long imagined our Proven Plan system as an eventual complete progression from novice to expert, and with the addition of two new Proven Plans, we've finally realized that vision. Geared toward the newer climber, the "Just Climb More" Proven Plans for both boulderers and route climbers are a tongue in cheek jab at the folks who give the cop out advice of "just climb more" when asked about improvement. We know better, and so should you. Available Monday, August 17th (Today)!

Walking The Walk

This month’s Walking The Walk goes to Kai Lightner. Kai is a twelve-time national champion (ten in youth, and two as an adult), five-time medalist in the world championships including a gold in 2014, and has climbed 5.14d.

At only 20 years old, Kai hasn’t shied away from talking about the things that he feels are important. Recently Kai openly discussed his struggle with an eating disorder, something that is incredibly common among male climbers but rarely discussed. He has also launched Climbing for Change, a non profit aimed at providing funding and opportunities for DEI initiatives across the climbing industry. Kai wrote that he wanted to be able to contribute to this movement without overshadowing the people already here and doing good work. That’s why he started this organization to help support those people and to help them create necessary business connections to be able to make a bigger impact. 

The bar for what is expected of professional climbers, outside of actual climbing, is incredibly low. For them, discussing a “serious topic” typically reaches as far as brushing tick marks, stashing crash pads, and how busy crags are getting. Some go beyond this, but it’s far from the standard. Because of this, it’s awesome seeing someone like Kai using his time and platform to make positive impacts in other people’s lives.

Walking the Walk, in the context of this series, can mean a lot of things. For me, someone who can climb hard and put in real work to better their community is someone who is doing it right. Thanks for being an example for the rest of us, Kai.

If you want to hear more from Kai, I highly recommend listening to the most recent episode (episode 19) of For the Love of Climbing. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation between Kai, his mother Connie, and the host of the podcast, Kathy Karlo.

If you want to support what Kai Climbers For Change,click here to go to the donation page.

Around The Internet

I enjoyed this interview with the head of British Cycling, Sir Dave Brailsford on his application of Kaizen and other methods of incremental improvement. There are a lot of similarities to this approach and one that tactical climber’s use when preparing for a season or a big project.

Brailsford’s team became very successful using this method. It’s for that reason that I appreciated him talking openly about the initial shortcomings that his team had applying this method.

“Interestingly, when I moved from the track to the Tour de France, we didn’t get it right at all; our first few races were well below expectation. We took an honest look and realized that we had focused on the peas not the steak. We tried so hard with all the bells and whistles of marginal gains that our focus was too much on the periphery and not on the core. You have to identify the critical success factors and ensure they are in place, and then focus your improvements around them. That was a harsh lesson.”- Brailsford

This is something that most of us will be guilty of at some point in our climbing training. Small details can make a huge difference in climbing! It might be an exercise that’s specific to the crux move of your project, making your training a little more complex, having the perfect shoe for that heel hook, or taking the extra time refining micro beta on the route you are trying. All of these things can go a long way to improve your performance, but if we chase these in place of the fundamentals, then we end up setting ourselves up for failure.

- In this video, Dave Macleod talks about how he went from 13d to 14d in 18 months after a Summer of training. He gives a breakdown of what his days and weeks look like over that summer. In it he includes running an hour a day, doing endurance work outdoors for 80 minutes a day, and hang boarding for 90 seconds worth of hangs, all for 6 days a week. One thing I found interesting about this is that he talks about improved finger strength and yet his time spent hanging only accounted for 0.6% of his total training time. While this video initially looks like a glorification of regular hangboarding, it would be shortsighted to look past the 8 hours a week of on-the-rock endurance work he was doing. In that one summer of training he got more time on rock than most people get in several years. Something that wasn’t mentioned in the video was that he lost a considerable amount of weight during this time as well. In his blog post from 2007 he attributes a large part of his jump from 14b to 14d to his weight loss.  

I think an important takeaway from this video and blog is that there are many factors that contribute to success in climbing. To boil this progression down to one or two ingredients would be missing the point entirely. Dave had an incredible amount of experience, immediate access to outdoor climbing, a schedule that allowed for this volume of climbing and training, the dedication to stick with this type of program, the time spent learning about training, the years prior making mistakes and learning from them, the weight lost, the miles ran, the sets of hangs, all of these things played a role in his progression. 

- Maybe the best bouldering video of the past year. Drew Ruana and Nathaniel Coleman attempting a project in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. Not only is this impressive climbing, but the work done by the crew who shot and put this video together really shows. 

- Ben Burkhalter bringing us what might be the second best bouldering video of the past year . This one is fifty minutes long. Grab a seat, put some quality headphones on, and enjoy a remarkable display of climbing on the best stone earth has to offer, Southern sandstone.

- This twelve minute video is from Albert Ok, and it’s on the incorporation of Parkour into climbing. Albert’s knowledge on Parkour history really shines through in this video and I thought it was an enjoyable watch. I’m a fan of incorporating more gymnastic and athletic styles into competition climbing. It might dampen the performance of the elite climbers currently at the top who aren’t able to adapt, but I believe it sets new standards for the future generations to rise to. 

-Here is a video of Allison Vest doing a 1 arm deadhang on a one pad edge with an extra FORTY FIVE POUNDS added. Seriously impressive. Also impressive is this video of her climbing a V13 in Squamish.

Final Thoughts

Try something new with your climbing. Many of our community are just getting back to climbing after a long break. If that’s you, use this as an opportunity to come back better. If you’re guilty of using your upper body to force your way up climbs, take this reintroduction time to practice creating tension through your legs. If you only climb crimps, grab some slopers and pinches. If you’re someone who stays away from the steepest walls because you climb a few grades worse there then go log some time on the 45!

Now is the perfect time to fall on the things you’ve always avoided. There are no expectations, just opportunity.

Until next time,

Nate Drolet and Team Power Company