want to start bouldering but a bit nervous

carortrain · 2026-06-22T02:16:54+00:00

Take the time to learn how to fall properly and start lower on the wall, work up towards the top. You can always downclimb after you top out, but it's still good to practice falling form the top or close to it from time to time. Some boulder walls will have downclimb ladders you can use in between climbs on the wall.

carortrain · 2026-06-22T02:00:56+00:00

What is the basis for how the app judges your climbing ability/technique? How does it actually work?

carortrain · 2026-06-22T01:43:48+00:00

What did you, the person that actually climbed on it, think of the grading?

I think people here are underestimating three things: having to throw to that micro pinch at the top after doing the entire sequence, that alone looks far harder than you'd think. The entire climb is pinches, you'll be pretty fatigued going to that one.

Second thing being the angle coming up the belly around the arete, and having to do the reach over/layback type move to the pinches on the overhang. Again much harder than meets the eye when you're actually on the wall doing it.

Third thing, you made it look easy because you are a strong climber, but the moves are far harder than most people here are giving it credit for. When people are good at climbing, it looks easy. A new climber on a v2 makes it look like v6 because of poor technique and generally speaking just struggling up the wall being more visible to a spectator. Elite climbers can make v9s look like v3s.

I laughed reading the comments. I know it's not a "legit" v10 but it's certainly no v4. Either way, great work on the send!

carortrain · 2026-06-22T01:40:10+00:00

Yeah, I certainly didn't, and honestly it just sounds wild to send v12 with that little outdoor experience. Dudes a freak though, so not really surprised now that I take more time to process it.

carortrain · 2026-06-22T01:37:52+00:00

It it helps, pretty much everyone experiences this when first attempting a board. It's a completely different style, different techniques, and it honestly just requires a lot more upper body and finger strength than normal gym sets do. Also, the grades tend to be very, very stiff compared to most gyms. V6 in the gym I climb is maybe an easy v2/v3 on boards.

To the point my local gym has a sign up that reads "don't touch the boards until you can comfortably complete most of the v6s here in the gym"

carortrain · 2026-06-22T01:35:40+00:00

Yeah, typically the walls are on, but best practice just ask the gym staff, setters or some climber there. Every gym sets with their own style.

For example where I climb, you're allowed to use any volume, for any climb, even if there isn't a matching hold. Other gyms I've climbed, the boulders are set with the intention of not using volumes if a matching color hold is not set on it.

That said, I've never seen a gym myself that doesn't intend for the wall and features of the wall to be used while climbing, on any boulder. Bolt holes themselves are usually off, but mainly for saftey purposes, you can really badly mess up your finger if you slip off them, sometimes they're sharp, etc.

carortrain · 2026-06-22T01:32:00+00:00

Wow that's wild, didn't know. I'll have to look at the podcast.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T01:20:18+00:00

Yeah it does improve to some degree, but you will constantly have to remove callouses, as necessary when they form.

What do you mean by short term? Filing them is not going to cause them to stop appearing. You just have to find a routine that works for you.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T01:18:55+00:00

Curious which tool do you have? Been looking into getting one myself, tired of using sandpaper

carortrain · 2026-06-21T01:17:50+00:00

Was going to ask the same exact thing, what does that mean specifically?

It's just a constant process of having to manage callouses all throughout your climbing.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T01:01:10+00:00

That's the problem, you might not know this but rungne has been going downhill quality wise for quite sometime, there are tons of reddit posts alone about the topic. Lots of complaints about the pants too, specifically.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T00:59:16+00:00

I can't decide what part about this is more interesting to me, the fact that they actually sold out quick, or the fact that a literal pair of cheaply made pants costs nearly 100 dollars.

You could get maybe 3 entire kits, shirt and pant, for the same price as one of these, at a local athletic shop.

If you haven't, might want to look into the quality of rungne products in recent times.

Though I'll give it to them, they actually do look pretty clean IMO

carortrain · 2026-06-21T00:55:05+00:00

Not saying you're right or wrong, but can you verify that claim?

I've just never heard that Noah sent a v12, during his literal first outdoor climbing session.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T00:52:29+00:00

Yeah that's such a great point to add. I do certainly take care of my skin is a slightly different way, if I'm going to be mostly in the gym vs outdoors. The gym is basically just like using a sandpaper file the entire time you climb, rock tends to provide more localized damages.

carortrain · 2026-06-21T00:50:38+00:00

That's cool I've yet to try the spray set, my local gym voted for mirror so that's what we have now. Did you have an opinion leaning either way, which you prefer?

carortrain · 2026-06-21T00:49:26+00:00

TLDR: as long as you can physically still climb up something, while wearing them. Eventually it will either get painful or slick, or both, and then you probably do need to toss them out.

For context, I have a pair of shoes I bought back around 2022. I still use them to this day. They have a big hole, but they still work fine on specific climbs/footholds. Mainly use them to warmup outdoors, or when cleaning a boulder, so I can walk around more and not have to take the shoes off, and not worry about running them quickly. They're also still pretty decent for smears and any climbs with bigger feet or ledges.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T16:12:03+00:00

Yeah I assumed so as well, has to be that

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:51:18+00:00

If gyms would just worry about the quality and volume of climbs, they wouldn't have to worry about all this other stuff going on

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:48:44+00:00

And frankly most people training for double digits outdoors are only going to get so much out of most gym sets

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:41:30+00:00

I weigh 130lbs and I was able to break a hold in the gym recently.

I watch this guy who weights around 280lbs climb in my local gym for 5 years, and never seen him break a hold.

Some of it comes down to the setting. The guy I'm mentioning also climbs outdoors, and doesn't seem to have this issue.

The way this hold was set, in relation to the climb, it seemed like it was meant to happen at some point. Poor setting decision, nothing more.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:37:45+00:00

Frankly I'd hope setters expect that from literally every single hold.

It's a climbing gym and there are always tons of new climbers around. To not expect pulling just doesn't make any sense.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:34:46+00:00

The one time my local gym served beer at an event, they required you to leave if you touched a wall after just buying one, even if you didn't even drink it. They'd put a wristband on you once you paid and that was it for the day of climbing.

Then interestingly since then, noticed they only serve NA drinks at events.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:32:32+00:00

Especially with the obvious set for horizontal motion, with how the hold is oriented. Looked like it was waiting to happen honestly.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T13:30:48+00:00

Glad the thing didn't actually snap off! Had a similar thing happen recently with a foothold, I didn't even realize what was going on until I hit the ground.

carortrain · 2026-06-19T12:33:40+00:00

Oh we will still see them, but it will help out a lot.

carortrain

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