Today marked the first day since I joined Sportrock that there were 100% new bouldering routes available to climb, as a result of the Friction Bouldering Series Finale on Saturday the 13th. I’d been looking forward to today for the last couple of weeks, and especially this last week since the entire bouldering section was roped off for the staff to set new routes and to keep people off the new routes prior to the competition.
Being somewhat new to professionally marked climbing routes, I was a little thrown off when I first arrived, as nothing was marked with the traditional “V” rating (V1, V2, etc). Everything had a problem number and an associated amount of points, obviously for the competition. I overheard a staff member say that the points more or less represented the “V” level of the problem (a problem worth 350 pts was considered a V3), but I was a little skeptical. I mainly kept to 200 and 300 point problems, but there were a few of those that were more difficult than expected. There were a couple of really cool 300 level routes that were fun, but then there were a couple of 200 level routes that I simply could not figure out. It was strange. Having a climbing partner probably would have helped, as we could have bounced ideas back and forth and fed off each other’s enthusiasm.
I’m getting kind of tired of soloing problems at Sportrock. My climbing schedule is so sporadic that it can be difficult for me to find people to climb with in advance, and I’m not very good at jumping in with groups of people at the gym. Something I probably need to work on, as everyone climbs better with a friend.
I had a similar experience at Planet Granite, San Francisco a few months back. Many of the routes weren’t graded, so it felt like a crap shoot. I think they had a similar point structure to a rating system.
Of course, you need to consider that two problems rated the same will be the same difficulty to you to send. Every person has different strengths and techniques, so they will be successful at different types of settings.
As far as soloing goes, I hear you. All I can offer is support and say just keep at it. Eventually you’ll start to see the same people and you’ll get to know them and perhaps you’ll start to work on problems together. Heck, even strangers can serve this purpose. I’ve spotted and worked on problems with people I didn’t even know, and it was certainly good time for us both.
Yeah, that’s exactly what it felt like: a crap shoot. Fortunately, when I was back at the wall a couple days later someone had gone through and put the V markings on all the routes, which certainly made finding doable routes much easier!
The only big disadvantage to the gym I am a member of is there is a large number of younger children that are there on a regular basis (both the Junior team as well as other kids). As you probably know, middle school and high school climbers don’t always have the best etiquette when sharing the wall with others. I think because of this, most of the young adults wait until 8 or 9 PM before heading to the gym, and climb until close at 11. I’m usually there from 6 to 8, so maybe I need to swap my schedule around to give myself the opportunity to meet more climbers my age.