In late 2009, my friend Ben Schmitt bolted a typical-looking Shelf Road face climb at Cactus Cliff. The line climbs a beautiful white wall of limestone, featuring a brutally hard 5-or-so-move crux right in the middle of the wall. When Ben put the hardware in, I was just finishing off the last of Shelf’s (existing)…
Yesterday afternoon I set a new personal best on the Lazy H campus board. I did a max ladder of 1-8-15 (metolius spacing; 4″ o.c.). I realize this is not a super amazing feat, and has been bettered by countless climbers, but its a landmark for me because my board (and therefore my imagination) only has…
This is part 3 in a three-part series on Campus Training. If you haven’t read Part 1 and Part 2, please do. This training is for the thoroughly healthy. If you have any nagging injuries, particularly finger, elbow or shoulder injuries, DO NOT DO THIS! There are many different ways to use a campus board;…
This is part 2 in a three-part series on Campus Training. If you haven’t read Part 1, please do. Frequency & Rest The next order of business is to discuss frequency. Of all training activities, this one has the highest Gab-to-Grab ratio of them all. That is, far more time is spent talking about Campusing than…
I spent the latter half of October working a route in Clear Creek Canyon called “Primetime to Shine”. This is a linkup of two popular Peter Beal 14a’s, “Primeval” and “Shine”. I’m usually not a big fan of linkups but this one is a rare example of a linkup that actually improves on the piece…
It was a long, hot summer on the Colorado Front Range, so after a seemingly interminable climbing drought the family was fired up to head north and check out the latest rage that is Ten Sleep Canyon. We’ve had lousy luck when it comes to Ten Sleep. I first bought the guidebook in the Spring…
This is Part 1 of a 3 part mini-series on Campus Training. Check back for the rest of the story in the near future. The legend of the original Campus Board is well-known and often re-told, not unlike the Epic tales of the ancient Greeks. The incomparable Wolfgang Gullich installed the first board at a Nurnberg gym…
‘Contact Strength’, ‘Max Recruitment’ and ‘Power’ are terms used often by climbers in training, but their actual meanings and inter-relationships can be somewhat ambiguous. As the first in a mult-part series on the subjuect, this post will attempt to clarify these terms and explain precisely what they mean for Performance Climbers. Each muscle in the body is…
Tom brought up a couple of questions which I will start to address here: tom on July 25, 2012 at 2:35 pm said: “you brought up two very interesting areas i hope you will discuss in detail: a) being aggressive in climbing – what’s the mindset, how do you turn it on? how do you…
“ARC” is short for Aerobic Restoration & Capillarity training. This training method was first described in the legendary Performance Rock Climbing. If you are unfamiliar with ARC training, you can get the rundown here. Many climbing periodization plans call for massive amounts of this training; as much as 90+ minutes per workout, with several workouts…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 