Climbing in Seasons: Shaping our Bouldering Seasons

The seasons, just like our climbing, are constantly changing. We are moving  between hot and cold periods in our climbing as summer moves into autumn.  Sometimes everything is going well and we are rested and firing on all cylinders; other times we feel slow, sluggish and overtrained. But that’s part of life, and part of the cycle. Our task as climbers is to read ourselves and these ‘seasons’ and know when to pivot into the next! 

Rhythm 

Knowing yourself is the first thing to optimize when it comes to seasonal rhythms. Do you operate well in the cold, or better when it’s warmer? How does your brain and body function at different times of year? Are you motivated to get out in the cold with all your layers and sit under a project. Or are you more psyched when the sun is shining and you can sunbathe between attempts on your project? Optimising for these seasons is the first part of your thought process. But it’s not just about you, it’s also about your environment. Is your local rock type conducive to summer sending? Or does friction on the rock type mean colder months are better? Or are you simply traveling abroad and prioritising those big rock trips? 

Yes we’re talking about periodisation in some sense, but it’s a little more than that. It’s finding and understanding a rhythm that works for you. For me, winter is about trips outside of the UK, so I try to bulk up my summer with a lot of training and building a base. I like to optimize for those winter months, but also spring when the conditions stay cold but become that little more manageable. Sometimes however, your rhythm shifts, and a summer trip will throw things off. Knowing how to plan and look forward far enough is vital to not wasting those opportunities! But looking closer to home, if my projects were coastal limestone around the UK, I might choose to do my heavy base work mid winter to avoid cold days out.  

Find Patterns 

Finding your own seasonal rhythm can be tricky, so logging your ascents, any  training or days out can be useful. See when you were performing well, and what led up to it. Maybe you tend to perform better at certain times of year? How often have you sent hard in June? Or December? Maybe your successful trips coincide with certain timeframes after training or volume on rock. Try and find the patterns, and that will help you start to optimise your climbing year.  

Tactics 

Thinking about what your big goals are, and how this might align or conflict with your seasonal rhythm is important and will better allow you to optimize for those goals, or simply choose different ones! For example, it would be a risky move to plan a winter projecting trip abroad, when you have minimal time off and autumn is a notoriously busy time for you in life. You’d be better off risking trying that boulder in worse conditions with more time and energy, or picking a different project you find equally motivating. A good reason to not have all your eggs in one projecting basket, so it were! Once you have this rhythm sussed, it’s knowing how to train and plan for it. Plan to build a base of outdoor climbing months before a trip, then start to taper into some harder boulders closer in style to your destination. If it’s optimising for local rock, analyse its intricacies and use periods you can’t access it to train in those areas with a view to improving your strength and skills in this area.  

Finally however, don’t get too stuck in the belief that “I only operate well when it’s 5 degrees and windy”, or some such limiting belief. Try and open yourself up to performing year round, but seek out those sweet spots when things line up and you’re firing well. Those are the ones to take advantage of….  

Roll with the punches!

Eliot