Not All Pyramids are Built the Same

If a 12d takes you five days to send, and a 13b takes you five days to send, which one was more important for your development as a climber?

Coaches and trainers often talk about creating a grade pyramid to build experience. An important assumption behind pyramids that doesn’t get discussed often enough is that the further the grades get below your project level, the more variation you should be including in the climbs you do. This post explains why that’s important as well a method you can use to make sure you’re getting the most out of your pyramid building.

*The example below uses boulders, but this method can be used for routes as well.

Let's say you just climbed your first V9 last year. You’ve been climbing for several years now and, even though you feel like you’ve consistently improved each year, sending your first V9 feels like a milestone in your climbing.

What’s next? Do you pick out a V10 to try and send next season? Should you climb a lot of volume? You’re feeling pretty strong right now, maybe you can jump straight to V11 this year if you picked the right one?

Allow me to make a suggestion. 

For your next season, build a quality pyramid. For this example person who just sent their first V9, it would look something like this.

V9- Do another one or two - Shoot for low hanging fruit. Find a few that you’re excited for and that seem realistic.

V8- Send more of these!- Climb more of the classics that you haven’t done yet. If the few you have done before were all the same style, start branching out a bit and diversify your sends.

V7- Start cleaning up the ones you’ve left behind- These should be the climbs that you skipped over in the past because they were harder styles or slightly less classic. If you still have classic problems at this grade left to do then you should be doing those.

V6- ATB (All The Boulders)- Do every climb at this grade. You should be trying to take down a new one every day as part of your warm up. When you find ones that are either really hard styles or super strange, perfect, keep going. When you run out of climbs at this grade that you can do quickly you know that what you have left are the problems with the most to teach you. As long as there isn’t a dangerous landing or a move that will injure you then you should aim to do everything at this grade.

You might be thinking “But Nate, What if I waste a season doing this when I could have done a V10?”

 My response is:

1. If you do this, your season won’t be wasted. You’ll have climbed a lot of new boulders in more styles than you would have if you had only projected a few hard things. Even if you don’t send a new highest number, you’ll see a lot of growth.

2. Progress doesn’t always come with new numbers. A lot of people hit a hard plateau when they stop focusing on progressing their skills and make their sole goal climbing a harder number. Climbing your first V10 is a lot sexier than leveling up your crimp climbing from V5 to V8. It looks a lot cooler being the person who spends a whole season projecting a double digit climb rather than being the one answering the question, “Why are you falling on this V6 if you’ve already climbed V9?” You don’t get the instant gratification of trying big numbers, but this approach is often what separates being someone who occasionally climbs a V10 from being a V10 climber.

3. Using this method has the benefit of building and maintaining momentum through a climbing season. You can’t send your new hardest boulder every week. However, you can send “easier” climbs in harder styles and new second and third tier boulders with a high frequency. Momentum builds confidence, and confidence gets you on top of boulders.

4. The grades on this rubric don't have to be fixed in place all season. If you start doing V8’s and V9’s in a single session a month into the season then consider shifting this rubric up a grade and have “one or two V10’s” as your top-end goal and “climbing every V7” as your bottom-end goal.

All of the levels in this type of pyramid are valuable. If a V6 takes you as many tries as a V8 then the relative difficulty is the same for you. Improvement comes from challenges not from the number they are given. If you focus on being challenged and trying hard then the numbers will follow.

Climb everything and climb it well.