By Mark Anderson Lesson 5: Proper Practice for Climbers Part 2 If you’ve made it this far, pat yourself on the back! Few have the perseverance to suffer through my pedantic rambling for even one post, let alone 4! If this is your first lesson you can find Lesson 1 here. In Lesson 4, we…
By Mark Anderson Lesson 3: The First Expert Climber In Lesson 2, we discussed how Anders Ericsson’s findings in Peak apply to athletics in general. The next question is, to what extent does Ericsson’s work apply to climbing? As discussed in Lesson 2, the vast majority of Ericsson’s research concerns activities I described as “entirely…
By Mark Anderson Lesson 2: (Almost) Anyone Can Become an Expert Climber When we ended Lesson 1, we were pondering the main theme of Anders Ericsson’s excellent new book Peak: There are no limits*, it’s never too late to start*; You can be anything you want to be* (with the right kind of practice) Ericsson…
By Mark Anderson Lesson 1: Anyone Can Be An Expert in Anything* I recently finished reading Peak: Secrets From The New Science of Expertise, by renowned researcher Anders Ericsson (and Robert Pool). Those familiar with The Rock Climber’s Training Manual (RCTM) will recognize Ericsson’s name from our chapter on Skill Development. Ericsson is well-known as…
By Mark Anderson I just returned from an amazing and exhausting 2 weeks in Switzerland with my family. We experienced easily the most diverse set of adventures yet among our trips to Europe, which I will recount in detail over the coming months, but first, here is a quick, whirlwind photo preview of the highest…
By Mark Anderson The small town of Ouray, in southwest Colorado, is one of my family’s favorite places to visit. The town has everything we look for in a vacation spot—good climbing, endless rest-day activities, and a place for the kids to swim. With extra sweeteners like a great bakery, plentiful ice cream, the best…
By Mark Anderson Injuries suck. Last October I (partially) tore my forearm flexor muscle. At first the injury was relatively minor, but like a climber, I kept climbing and training hard on it for several weeks, and so it evolved into something more troublesome. I spent the next five months or so rehabbing the muscle,…
By Mark Anderson Last year I stumbled upon a rad little north-facing cliff I’m calling the Gaudi Wall (for famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi). In fact the wall is not exactly “little”, with pitches up to 38 meters. The rock is super high-quality Gneiss–I would argue some of the best in Colorado. I put in about 20 routes…
By Mark Anderson Now that I had figured out which characteristics to look for in Dolomite sport crags I was much more psyched for the upcoming crag days. One crag that piqued my interest is called “Rio Gere” and was merely 4 Km from our Condo in Cortina. Though the book raved about it, a quick…
By Mark Anderson Despite its staggering collection of world-class, bolted multi-pitch lines, the Dolomites aren’t known for sport climbing. In fact I’d argue the sport climbing in the Dolomites is pretty much completely unknown, evidenced by the heck of a time I had finding information about it when I first set out. But I…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 