How Attorney Herman Watson Climbed His First 5.14

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

Abraham Lincoln

The lone attorney plunged his right foot into the snow. Then left. Then right. He marched on until he could set the line of rope he would spend his day on. He passed the hours working the moves in solitude. His only companion was the sound of his own cackle when he realized just how ridiculously small the holds were. Nevertheless, a project wasn’t a project unless a small part of you doubted whether you would ever do it.

This is the case study of Herman Watson and his first 5.14.

Photo by Ben Herndon www.benherndon.com

A True Weekend Warrior

Herman is a trial lawyer and runs a firm with his father out of Bozeman, Montana. Since he owns the firm, he has a substantial amount of responsibility, which translates to minimal free time outside of work.

When you picture a 5.14 climber, you probably think of a dirtbag van-lifer or a sponsored climber endlessly ticking routes in Spain. When you think of a 5.14 climber, a trial lawyer taking work calls on his drive to Idaho is not the first person that comes to mind.  

However, Herman is not your average climber, nor your average attorney. Naturally, his project wasn’t average either.

Choosing the Right Route

The mindset for training is different from the mindset for performance. In training, the goal is to attack weaknesses and improve them. It is ideal to expose ourselves to styles that challenge us and will make us better climbers.

However, this philosophy is flipped on its head when it comes to performance. When breaking into a new grade, it’s a wise idea to exploit your strengths. Herman did just that. With the help of his climbing partner, he chose a route similar in nature to his latest hard redpoint, but a couple of letter grades harder – Vesper.

“My previous redpoint was a local 5.13c, running 150 feet of only slightly overhanging limestone. Sound familiar? Vesper is 125 feet of the same.”

With the objective in mind, Herman began to train.

Time Well Spent

Since Herman has a full work schedule on the weekdays, time outside of work had to be utilized effectively. You may be surprised by the minimal training schedule that Herman followed when preparing for Vesper.

On Mondays and Thursdays he trained before and after work. Saturdays were also dedicated to training. The other days were for work and rest. The trope that all elite climbers train six days a week is false. If your training is effective, you can get away with doing a lot less.

Stronger or Better?

Since Herman had just sent a 5.13c of a very similar style, which Kris knew was Herman’s wheelhouse, they didn’t feel his training needed to be focused on improving that specific style. Instead, though Vesper-specific training was done near the end of the macrocycle, the initial blocks revolved around getting stronger instead of getting better.

Herman’s training was divided into three distinct phases:

Phase 1: A Base of Strength and Power

For many climbers, including Herman, winter is training season. Here are notes from Kris on how Herman’s training was constructed in the pre-season:

“Starting in mid-December 2018, shortly after Herman sent his previous hardest route, we began to put a big emphasis on strength and power, leading to a very small amount of short and specific power endurance at the end of February.”

You might wonder why Herman didn’t build a base of endurance during this phase, even though he was preparing for an arduously long 5.14. Instead, the winter training block was similar to what many trainers refer to as “general preparation.” Kris had Herman build a more sturdy base by putting time toward overall strength - through lifting, heavy hangs, and thuggy boulders.

Starting in March, the training priorities changed as climbing season approached.

Phase 2: Increasing Specificity

For five weeks starting March 1st, training became more specific in preparation for Vesper. Kris writes,

“All systems go. This phase you should be veering slightly toward more techy problems and routes… We're reducing the lifting by quite a bit, though there is still some.”

Herman’s training now became more focused on power endurance and endurance, while still maintaining the strength he had gained in the pre-season.

After this phase, Herman’s training volume and intensity decreased significantly for a two week deload period. He then moved on to the final phase of his training.

Photo by Ben Herndon www.benherndon.com

Phase 3: Preparing for the Project

From April through June, the training plan became more specific to the requirements of projecting. Kris notes,

“We went very minimal, in hopes of getting onto the route more. Focus was now on Power and Specific Intervals… We gradually ramped these up to make sure we were prepared for multiple days on in a row.”

Kris viewed the “Vesper Intervals” as particularly critical to Herman’s training. During these, Herman would climb a moderately hard, technical boulder similar in style to Vesper, shake out for thirty seconds on a crimp rail, then either climb the same boulder again or a different moderate boulder.

His training was tailored to prepare him for the route, but still left him with gas in the tank for when he did get to go outside.

Save it for the Project

Early in the projecting process, Herman would rest one day before climbing on the route. As he got closer to sending, weekends were maximized, and two rest days were taken prior to the weekend in preparation.

The Balance of Life, Work, and Training

Having a quality training program is only one step on the path to success; completing the sessions is another. Herman understood that in order to get his training done, he needed the support and understanding of those around him. He knew sacrifices would have to be made to achieve his goals.

 “I lived, albeit twice a week, for these workouts and held nothing back… Meanwhile, my work and personal commitments groaned under the added burden, but so it goes.”

In addition to a relatively minimalist training program, Herman found other ways to tip the scale in his favor.

Finding a Fighting Weight

Although a hotly debated subject among the climbing community, strength to weight ratio is a considerable performance metric – especially at the upper echelons of the sport. Herman’s weight was an intentionally manipulated variable in his campaign to send Vesper. Between April and July, Herman slowly trimmed down.

“I cut my weight down a pound a week, from 165 to 154, at the lowest.”

Herman’s Body Mass Index was 20.3 at his leanest. This is considered a normal, healthy weight. A BMI of less than 18.5 is considered underweight so at 154lbs, he was still about fifteen pounds above this metric.

In addition to weight management, Herman also employed good outdoor tactics.

Limited Time on a Fixed Line

In total, Herman spent nine days on Vesper, throughout April and June. Most of these sessions were spent alone on a fixed line. Herman was careful to work out clipping stances and practiced mock-leading throughout this process. That first snowy weekend, Herman wasn’t climbing so much as just looking for holds – an understandably frustrating process considering the solo eight-hour round trip drive it required.

After spending days alone throughout April and May, he was eager for a belay. By the time he got one, he was ready to begin making links. He had a three-day weekend to take care of business.

On his first day leading the route, Herman made great progress and two-hung it. Though his climbing partner had to leave early, he continued working it on the fixed line for the next two days. By the end of the long weekend, his beta was etched in careful detail.

“I found two major modifications that put the total number of moves for the 125-foot climb at around 200.”

He knew every last move.

No Perfect Time to Send

Herman returned to Bozeman knowing that he had one weekend left of spring before it got too hot. That week he tended to his life responsibilities, which included work, closing on a house, and moving the entirety of his apartment into a U-Haul alone the day before his last road trip to the Fins. Though usually adhering to the recommendation of multiple rest days before hard attempts, Herman was shoving his couch around just twenty-four hours before sending his first 5.14.

Send Day Tactics

The second weekend Herman had a belay, his warm-up was as dialed as his beta.

“I'd warm up with one lap on the lower half (≈12a), one lap up to 2/3 height (≈12c), one lap up to 3/4 height (≈13a/b), then ‘real’ tries to send.”

During one of the warm-up burns on the route, he felt really fresh. He had half a mind to keep going for the send. However, he stuck to the plan and came down to rest, aware that continuing could engender a dreaded flash pump.

After this, Herman tied in for his first real redpoint burn of the day. Though he did not send on this go, he proceeded to finish the route anyway, yielding his first one-hang on Vesper. On this attempt, he found additional rest positions – his need for rests became more apparent once he started really stringing the whole route together.

After a twenty minute rest, he roped up again.

Game Time Decisions

On the next go, our storied lawyer found himself one hundred and five feet up the route – a personal highpoint. Then, pumped out of his mind, he began to start the second crux. That is when game time decisions were made. He began using the rests he’d found on the previous attempt.

“I’d never tried them, but I had no other choice with the building pump and oncoming second crux… Necessity was the mother of invention and I cautiously began to ‘get it back'.”

Though a changing your beta in the middle of your best attempt seems like lunacy, sometimes a little crazy pays off. Herman plunked through the remaining moves without hesitation.

“I crossed my left foot onto the toe smear and stood tall into the first of a few very decent finger ledges that constitute the relief before a final clipping of the chains. I let out that primal, desperate call of someone falling out of the crux at the very last minute... but I didn’t.”

Herman hung there on the chains of Vesper, likening his euphoria to a “mid-festival nitrous rip.” Despite work crises and the stress of a major move, he had successfully redpointed his first 5.14. His climbing partner lowered him to the ground and a crew of friends from Bozeman greeted him with congratulations.

Photo by Ben Herndon www.benherndon.com

Motivation

Though the accolades were appreciated, this is not what drove Herman – he had a striking amount of intrinsic motivation to satisfy. A solo road trip is a lot to ask for many people. A solo road trip to belay yourself on a fixed line on the hardest route you have ever tried with no one there to motivate you is even more to ask. Herman was not inspired by some hollow need to climb 5.14 for social validation. This was something else.

“Ultimately, I’m noticing how little this means to anyone other than me. I mean, I’m really the only one who recognizes how much work went into it, and that’s the only reason I did it, anyway, [to prove] to myself that I could.”

Sometimes climbing may seem like a selfish endeavor, like no one cares and it is not important. It’s merely a niche outdoor sport that your parents and your work colleagues don’t understand. A sport about which someone outside of it might say, “Yeah, but eventually you’re going to need to stop eating PB&J’s in the desert and grow up, you know?”

However, it does matter. Herman’s redpoint had humble beginnings – a crazy guy searching for holds on a snowy day in Idaho. Then months after the fact, some girl in New York is poring over the story, riddled with excitement that someday some other weekend warrior is going to read this and believe they can do the same. Perhaps Herman doesn’t know it, but this redpoint means a lot to someone other than himself. Here is a story of someone with a somewhat ordinary life doing extraordinary things.

Consider this Exhibit A in the case for weekend warriors crushing 5.14. If Herman can do it, maybe you can, too.