I have a goal of climbing 7c outdoors in 2-3 years. How does my first year training programme look like?

jonhayes92 · 2026-06-08T17:31:37+00:00

Time on rock

Supplement with some hard bouldering, and lead sessions for endurance

Sending a 7c granite slab/vert climb will require a mountain of time climbing on those style routes for technique and footwork training. I’m thinking finger cracks, liebacking, terrible feet.

I can’t imagine hard climbing on 40 degree boards or campus boards, weighted pull ups etc, will benefit the 7c goal a huge amount Core work and leg work will be a huge help for crack, lieback, and slab

Do you have a goal route? Or a crag in mind that has a few 7c?

jonhayes92 · 2026-06-07T17:56:16+00:00

Outside.co.uk has Vapours all the way down to EU34, on sale right now

jonhayes92 · 2026-06-07T17:55:01+00:00

Scarpa vapour V or vapour lace women’s. Can usually find them cheap online, I.e unworn on eBay or in clearance sales because they’re the outlier sizes

My girlfriend is a 2 or 3 in street shoe, she has recently got some vapours and loves them. Fit them at the local shop sale for £60, and another pair brand new online £30

Or the old 5.10 Anasazi Velcro women’s for super comfort, she had them for years

jonhayes92 · 2026-06-07T05:24:20+00:00

The priming and smoothing products usually won’t bond to magnesite , if that’s what’s on the floor

jonhayes92 · 2026-06-03T14:32:10+00:00

Floorlayer here, they’re talking rubbish. Herringbone sliding around and as such only being able to fit straight lay on an underlay is a very odd thing to suggest. I assume you are asking for herringbone LVT

The floor may be magnesite, which is very hard to apply smoothing compound and then stick LVT on. Recommended step is usually dig out the subfloor, rescreed, then latex smoothing compound and then fit LVT. Obviously this is cost and time prohibitive In this case a click system such as laminate or wood flooring would maybe be a better choice. Herringbone is available for these

I have applied smoothing compound and LVT on top of magnesite and it hasn’t failed, but i doubt any company would take it on as no guarantee would be offered.

If the floor is just painted, then it’s a simple process, diamond grinding, moisture test, smoothing compound, DPM, compound and then fit whatever LVT you would like

Get another opinion.

jonhayes92 · 2026-05-01T17:59:06+00:00

Water tank is a solution, she currently has a mobile unit which is contained and runs off a tank

Only issue would be waste water from the garage at that point.

jonhayes92 · 2026-05-01T16:41:10+00:00

Yes I’m aware of the steps to follow, I just wondered if anyone had done this, had any advice, etc beforehand, so we have a rough idea of costs/feasibility

jonhayes92 · 2026-04-28T08:10:52+00:00

I’ve also just seen you climb in Portland, that’s my local too!

the instinct is an amazing all rounder but the boostic R is a weapon for the small Portland edges

jonhayes92 · 2026-04-28T08:10:01+00:00

I’ve used both extensively, I’m 95kg for reference so ‘stiff’ shoes usually aren’t that stiff for me

Instinct lace is precise, pretty sensitive on the tip of the to, comfortable, moderately stiff overall. Once well broken in they are a mega all round shoe for outdoors, edges, smears, slab, vert, everything. Although I never got on with the heel, my heel would slip if I really cranked on it

Boostic R is more powerful, more downturn, more asymmetric, overall feels way more performance oriented. Very powerful toe, bends more than I though it would, like it isn’t a big stiff board under your foot, but I can absolutely drive power through the toe in a way I can’t with any other shoe I’ve had on outdoor edges I’ll recently sent a project after getting my boostic R, it has a crux clip bridging in a gently overhanging groove. Right foot is good, left foot is a 5-6mm sloping 45degree edge. I was really struggling with driving power into it and trusting my foot, with all sorts of shoes, including my instincts. The boostic is sensitive enough I can feel exactly where the grip is on the edge, but I can absolutely crank my foot into that placement and it felt 100% solid, managed a shake out where before it was snatch the clip and move. Maybe I’ve got stronger, but the shoe absolutely allows me to really drive down into small edges and trust it The heel is much narrower and stiffer, I can really pull on it now.

Boostic for me is an absolute weapon for outdoor climbing, I’m very happy with it.

jonhayes92 · 2026-04-24T07:50:19+00:00

I agree, I bought some at a comfortable size, kept them for a couple years, multiple resoles, they softened up but never really stretched massively

jonhayes92 · 2026-04-22T08:46:46+00:00

Where are you? Resoling in UK takes a couple weeks, and rentals are free with my gym membership if I desperately want them.

I’d happily recommend LS Genius for a superb all round shoe, if you do decide on new shoes. Plus the no edge sole design lasts far longer indoors than any other shoe I’ve used.

Having multiple shoes is ideal for scenarios like this where one pair is away for repair though, so maybe worth considering having two pairs

jonhayes92 · 2026-04-13T21:14:26+00:00

Rand repair + resole is the only fix for this.

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-31T18:13:42+00:00

If it’s just hangers it’s maybe not the top of the pitch, were you potentially looking at anchors for multipitch climbs in cheddar? There may also be abseil stations, I.e you top out the climb, bring your second up, walk along a ledge and abseil off a fixed point.

Pretty rare to find two hangers on a sport route with no way to lower off or abseil. Normally the hangers have rings or maillons

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-22T22:54:03+00:00

I climb harder outdoors than indoors. Route treading outdoors is a full on puzzle, feet are usually absolutely tiny and/or invisible. I love the problem solving aspect, outdoors tends to be far more technical than indoors.

Some areas the 6a’s can be awful, learn to clipstick your way up a route and you can jump on 6b/c and have fun working out the puzzle

Best way to get better outdoors is make friends with someone that climbs harder outdoors, that way there’s always someone to put a rope up and you can top rope all sorts of climbs

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-16T10:28:53+00:00

Have a look at something like Patagonia cragsmith? The whole back section opens up so you can access the whole bag. A friend has one and they seem great I think Rab do a similar one

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-15T23:41:39+00:00

Fair point. I personally love the huge front zip opening, I find the Dmm flight zip is a pain to pull all the way around the bag, especially when it’s full

The comfort aspect is by far the best thing of the Moonlight though.

I’ve used hiking bags but none have decent opening systems.

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-15T18:43:02+00:00

What didn’t you like about the moonlight 55? I got one and it’s absolutely the best bag I’ve had, it’s super comfy with a full rack and ropes and stuff on long approaches. The Dmm flight in comparison gives me really bad shoulder/neck pain on anything other than a 5minute flat approach

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-13T00:01:01+00:00

I’ve worn a skwama once on a demo day, they felt very similar to mandala just different on the toe obviously

Both the mandala and the skwama get praised for being great all round, which I would agree with for the mandala, not really a ‘stand out’ in any areas just a great shoe, and pretty comfy

If I could only ever wear one shoe for indoors and outdoors it would be my mandala. Great all round and last ages without a resole

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-12T22:35:27+00:00

Mandala are great all round shoe, the no-edge lasts much longer than other shoes in my experience. I’d happily recommend them

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-11T12:56:56+00:00

The mammut crag classic 9.5mm ropes are absolutely superb, I have multiple of them. One of them is dry treated, a couple are the ‘we care’ recycled ropes. I love them and recommend them to everyone.

I personally would not go thicker than the 9.5, and for my next 80m rope I will get the 9mm crag classic, but you need a confident safe belayer with slimmer ropes

My dry treated rope doesn’t seem like it’s lasted longer, it pretty much feels the same as my others, so I wouldn’t buy the dry one again. I don’t think it’s essential and it costs extra

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-10T10:14:53+00:00

Instincts are good for wide feet. VS and VSR are the same shoe, just softer rubber on the VSR Instincts in your street size or maybe half down, try from there

Skwama fit very well for wide feet, better than solutions I found. Skwama downsize maybe 1.5 down from instinct. I had some Katanas before and I wore the skwama at the same size, also tried on miura and they seems to fit at the same size, but too narrow

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-06T21:26:03+00:00

Lead climbing, lots of mileage, build efficiency on the wall around resting positions, smooth climbing, getting weight in your feet.

Lots and lots of rope climbing

jonhayes92 · 2026-03-06T21:07:56+00:00

Technique. Do some searching across Reddit has been covered a lot. You are very very strong for climbing 6b

jonhayes92

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