Climbing shoes need to be fit for purpose. As an outdoor climbing company, we work with climbers on their first outdoor climbing trip as well as with climbers who have been climbing for decades. Whether a beginner or a seasoned pro, we often experience that climbers don’t know much about their climbing shoes. And as a consequence are often not wearing the right shoe. The climbing shoes they come on an outdoor climbing trip with might be fine for indoor climbing, where footholds are relatively big and stick out from the wall. But the same climbing shoes don’t necessarily allow for standing on small edges, or using cracks.
In this blog we will give a quick guideline of what to look for when buying a good pair of Outdoor Climbing Shoes.
Stiff soles
First of all it is important that the soles are stiff. This can be checked by squeezing the toe box of the shoe sideways. Use both hands in this squeeze test.
The stiffer the sole, the more support it gives the foot muscles when standing on small footholds. Wearing a shoe with a stiff sole allows the climber to place the toe area of the shoe on small edges without the foot rolling off the foothold – the toes being too weak to stand on the edge. A sloppy shoe will ‘roll off’ the foothold once it is weighted, unless the toe and foot muscles are strong enough to compensate for the softness of the shoe.
If you recognise the feeling of your toes ´getting pumped´ then that means your toes are having to work hard to compensate for the soft rubber and you need a stiffer pair of climbing shoes.
Besides the ‘squeeze test’, another guideline is the thickness of the sole. We recommend buying 4mm rubber. And when it is time to resole your shoes, replace them with 4mm or even 5mm. This has as another advantage that the shoe will last longer.
Another thing to take into account is the shape of the sole. For relative beginners, we recommend relatively flat soles, as opposed to the more arched shoes.
Toe box
A former version of the Scarpa Boostic
Then there’s the toe box. We recommend shoes with a rubber toe box. The rubber maintains its shape, whereas leather stretches over time, as a consequence of which there’ll be room for movement of the toes. When the toes move around in the shoe, this makes it harder to stand on smaller footholds, because the toes will ‘roll off’ the foothold. What you want is a shoe with your toes snugly tucked together.
Scarpa
In our opinion, which is shared by some of the best resole companies, Scarpa is the leading brand for climbing shoes at the moment. The shoes are well-designed with high quality materials and maintain their stiffness longer than other brands. In the shop, a shoe from another brand may also feel stiff, but these lose their stiffness after only a few months of use, whereas the Scarpa shoes, with their high-level plastic insole, remain their stiffness even after several times of resoling.
The best outdoor climbing shoe on the market at the moment (2024) is the Scarpa Generator. The Scarpa Generator comes in ´male´ and ´female´ lace-ups (for wider and narrower feet), in velcro, and in ´mids´ that are higher and provide ankle protection – especially useful when crack climbing. To see where Scarpa position their Generator model in relation to their other models, please check this Scarpa website. Click here for more information on the technical features of the Scarpa Generator, and other models.
Scarpa Generators: Mid – Men´s – Women´s
**Rock & Sun is not sponsored by Scarpa**
Other considerations
Heavy or light climber? It may be a taboo to ask about a climber´s weight, but it is relevant in the decision of what shoe to get. A heavier climber puts more weight through the foot. More weight makes the shoe bend more, and therefore the foot muscles have to work harder. A heavier climber would therefore benefit from a stiff shoe even more so than a lighter climber does. A lighter climber can get away with a less stiff shoe as the stiffness of the sole isn´t put under as much pressure.
Strong or weak feet? It takes years of regular climbing for your foot muscles to get strong. As a rule of thumb, if you have been climbing less than 5 years, let´s say your foot muscles are still considered weak. In which case you would want the shoe to do the work for you, hence you would benefit from a stiff sole. Climbers with decades of climbing experience may get away with a less stiff shoe because their foot and toe muscles have become stronger.
Velcro or laces? That is pretty much a personal preference. Velcro is obviously quicker. Laces allow for a more specific fit of the shoe around your foot.
Resole or bin? We recommend resoling your climbing shoes. Get this done before there is a hole in the front. By sending your shoes for resole on time, the resoler will be able to do a much better job, making your shoes as good as new.
One or more pairs? We recommend having at least two pairs of climbing shoes. That can be an older, more comfortable pair, and a newer pair that is tighter and stiffer. Having (at least) two pairs means you can send one pair off to be resoled while you continue climbing with the other pair. It may seems expensive to begin with but is cheaper in the long run.
Important Note: Your climbing shoes should not be painful. Look for a stiff and comfortable pair.
Tip: use baby powder. It keeps the climbing shoe free from dirt, smell, and it makes it easier to get them on when your feet are a bit sweaty.
Although there is much more to be said about climbing shoes we hope this provides enough information to help you find better climbing shoes for outdoor climbing. For those of you coming on a Climbing Holiday in the Costa Blanca, Rock & Sun has a large collection of rental shoes there for you try out, test and compare with your own shoes before making your decision on which climbing shoes to buy next.
The development of new routes in the Costa Blanca continues. Rock & Sun’s directors as well as main climbing instructors, Trevor and Desiree, share a passion for route development, so when they have a few days off, it is likely that they will be putting new routes up somewhere in the Jalon valley. They both love the creative process of spotting a new line of unclimbed rock. Often hidden behind trees and bushes – which Desiree takes care of. Then Trevor will set up a trad anchor from which they will toprope the newly exposed rock to see if there are any worthwhile climbs to be put up. If there are, then we have several trial runs on where best to place the bolts, after which Trevor gets the drill out to bolt the route. For more info on this process, read our earlier blog.
So far in 2023 this has led to 6 more sport climbing routes. So there are more and more climbs for you to have a go at, and there is something new every time you come back to the Costa Blanca for another climbing holiday.
We have kept the new route development quiet for a while, allowing us the time to climb these new lines with our clients, to get a better idea of the grades. But now we are ready to share with you the list of new climbs at Pena Roja in LLiber:
Route 1. and 2. are at the furthest left side of the ‘old side’ of the crag, in the guidebook called Lliber, Pena Roja ‘Antiguo’. The routes are immediately left of the existing route ‘Problema Izquierda’. Shade from 15.30pm onwards. They each have their own anchor. From left to right:
1. The Demands of Thor, F4, donated and named by Hannah and Ben Morgan-Gray
2. El Regalo, F4+, donated and named by Marta Kodin
The other 4 new routes are in ‘the tree sector’ at Pena Roja, in the guidebook called Alejandria-Izquierda. All 4 routes are left of Barney Rubble F6C. These climbs are in the shade until 12, and again after 16pm. From left to right:
3. La Jirafa, F4. Named by Rock & Sun (look around to see why we named it as such).
4. Rebecca, F5+, donated and named by Stuart Jamieson
5. Roger, F6A, donated and named by Daniel Graham
6. Bogota 2600, F6B+, donated and named by Mark Weenink
(all bolted by Rock & Sun: Trevor Massiah and Desiree Verbeek-Massiah)
Bogota 2600, 6B+
We have our eyes on a few other lines in the Jalon Valley and nearer the coast. So when we have another gap in our calendar, we will get started on those. Keep an eye out for more news. And get in touch if you would like to donate into the Rock & Sun bolt fund. If you donate £75 or more, you can name the route!
Strategy and a little bit of discipline are key ingredients to a successful day of climbing.
Far too often we see climbers arrive at the crag, full of enthusiasm and energy, with their goal for the day in mind. So keen to climb hard that day, that they don’t bother warming up. You can see them thinking (or sometimes we are lucky enough to overhear them say): “I think I can warm up on the route I finished on yesterday”, or “I don’t want to waste energy warming up and then be too tired to get the red point of my project”. So they start on something that is too hard for them to warm up on, which may lead to getting pumped, frustrated, or both.
Over the years we have realised that most climbers don’t think much about how to structure their climbing day. Some don’t realise how important warming up is. Some don’t know how to plan the day in such a way that they climb to the best of their ability by the end of it. And how are they supposed to know if nobody has given them advice on this?
This blog is all about how to structure your climbing day to get the best out of your body and mind.
Warm up.
Get your body and mind ready for the climbing day ahead. Climb a route that is very easy for you. A route that is well within your grade and don’t expect to fall off of or even get pumped. So you can just let the body move, not getting physically or mentally stressed. Climb it in your comfort zone the whole way up. Should things for some reason not feel easy for you during your first route: let go and sit on the rope.
Ego.
Our ego can get in the way of ourselves at this point. You don’t want to let go. You don’t want to ‘lose face’. You may even let the other climbers know “I climbed this without problems last time I did it”. You hold on and struggle on, your arms getting more and more pumped. You could of course have misread the guidebook and be on something harder than you intended.
Avoid Flash-Pump.
It’s called a flash-pump and it is very difficult to recover from. It may well stay with you all day. A warm up is what it is, a warm up. Get the blood pumping around your body with gentle movement like jogging or jumping. Lubricate the joints, activate the muscles. Don’t let your performance on the first or second climb affect your confidence. Don’t come to any conclusions about how you are going to climb that day based on how you climb the first few routes. If you felt clumsy, unfocused, tired, distracted or any other negative sensation, that is normal: you’re warming/waking yourself up. This is exactly why we warm up. To get that out of the way.
Fall.
We recommend to include some deliberate falls in your warm up routine. Letting go and practicing getting the landing right, releases the tension in the body and mind. Once we have experienced the apprehension before letting go and then the sensation of falling, we have reminded ourselves that we know how to fall and how to land. It relaxes you into the climbing. It stops you from over-gripping the handholds. It slows down your breathing. All of which help to increase the enjoyment (and performance) of your climbing. When doing fall practice on a regular basis, it has proven to be sufficient to do 2 or 3 Clip-and-Let-Go falls every time you go climbing. That hardly takes any time, and is extremely beneficial. Please read our blog “A fresh look at Fall Practice”.
Mileage.
Now we are ready for the main part of our climbing day.
As a rule of thumb, we aim to climb 6 routes in a day: 2 easy, 3 mid, 1 hard. And we rest at least 10 minutes in between every climb. This is increased to a 20 to 30 minute rest when we climbed to our max.
This rule of thumb can vary based on the aim for the day. If it is a day to do some climbing drills to improve your movement, then you would increase the volume. You would climb 10 routes, 8 of which easy where you can apply the drills, 1 mid where you incorporate the drills in the way you climb the route, and then 1 hard route where you can let the drills go out of the window and just try to climb the route as best you can but not worrying too much if you can’t hold your form.
If it’s a day of redpointing your project, then you may do 1 easy warm up route, 1 mid warm up route which includes some fall practice, and then move on to your chosen project. You could continue your warm up by bolt-to-bolting that route, or by stick-clipping your way up. Otherwise do something close to the grade of your project and if possible a similar style of climbing. Depending on how close you are to sending the route, the angle of the rock and how easy it is to bolt-to-bolt the route without falling into space and struggling to get back on: once you’ve reached the top, you could choose to toprope the route. And ego comes into play here again. Do no try to climb your project clean on toprope so you can say you’ve done it, or so you build confidence in your abilty to do it. It is smarter to hang or fall and repeat certain sections. Figure out the best sequences. Memorise the crux(es) of the route. And then your body is properly warmed up and you have all the knowledge in your head so you would then have a lead attempt.
Golden Standard.
Whether you are planning a day of ‘just going climbing’, onsighting, doing drills, or redpointing, we recommend that your climbing day meets the Golden Standard of 80:20. Where 80% of the session is practice and 20% is performance.
We wish you good luck in staying patient and in choosing discipline over ego, and hope you’ll experience the benefits of adding some structure to your climbing days. And don’t forget to have fun even when you fail.
Climbing is becoming ever more popular. Nowadays most climbers start indoors, in a bouldering gym or indoor climbing wall. And then at some point they will venture outside to do ‘the real thing’, climb on real rock. Sometimes we have seen this lead to friction between the behaviours of indoor and outdoor climbers. But how would they know about the unwritten rules of how to behave at a crag if nobody told them? In the old days most climbers were introduced to outdoor climbing by a friend who (knowingly or unknowingly) would have introduced them to the crag etiquette. As this is no longer the case for most climbers, we see it as our task as outdoor climbing instructors to do so.
There are some things that are good to know if you are making your first trip outdoors or if you are just unsure what is acceptable behaviour at the crag.
So let’s write down those ‘unwritten’ rules:
1. If your quickdraws are on a route but you’re resting, let someone else climb the route on your equipment.
2. Likewise, if you would like to climb a route that has someone else’s quickdraws on, ask if/when you could climb it. While climbing it, always check what you are clipping and that it is safe. I.e. are the draws in good condition, have they clipped the right bolts (this is especially important in Thailand when old bolts are next to new titanium glue-in bolts which should be the ones that are clipped).
3. If you are climbing in a large group, then offer another climber, who wants to climb a route your gear is on, a go when there is a gap in your group.
4. BUT, if you are the one to take up that offer, you are expected to be able to climb the route fairly quickly/efficiently. Not to hang all over it. Not to start bolt to bolting and red-pointing the route. It is also not considered ok to offer the route to others as this is not your call. You should ‘give’ the route back to the climbers who allowed you to climb it.
5. Be polite when asking for routes and when moving around each other at the crag. Remember that you are all there to enjoy the outdoors and the climbing. Don’t be afraid to ask others questions but do so nicely and possibly even start a conversation.
6. Don’t shout beta (guidance) without having asked if someone wants it. Most climbers want to figure out the moves themselves and would rather go the wrong way on a route, or use the wrong sequence instead of someone on the ground giving the beta. It is like someone telling you the plot of a movie before or while you’re watching it. Even when a climber has fallen off, and you know which holds they should use, you would still first ask whether they would like that bit of information or whether they want to figure it out for themselves.
7. Keep your stuff off the paths and try to avoid stepping on other people’s ropes, rope bags or mats.
8. Walk far away if you need the toilet and do not leave toilet paper behind, take it with you. Always carry a biodegradable plastic bag that you can put it in, which you can bin when you get back home. Further, leave no rubbish behind.
9. When you want to do something that will affect other climbers experience such as playing music or flying a drone, ask the other climbers if they are ok with that.
10. Last but not least, do not become the ‘crag police’ by telling people that certain holds are ‘out’. As long as people are being safe, having fun and being honest about what they did or didn’t manage to climb, there is no need to tell anyone that a certain hold does not belong to a route and therefore it is not the grade. Climbing outdoors does not have to be about climbing the route one specific way, with specific holds, as long as you are safe and having fun, that’s all that matters!
Climbing grades are source of much debate. Who decides what the grade of a route is? What makes a route a certain grade? In this blog we will answer the frequently asked questions about sport climbing grades.
When climbers come down off a route, very often the first thing they say is something about the grade. “It is definitely not a 5+, at least a 6A”. Which happens a lot in the Costa Blanca. Or “I would love to ‘take the grade’ but that clearly it is not a 7A, more like an easy 6C, maybe even 6B+”, which is more common on Kalymnos.
In an attempt to not get sucked into a discussion on numbers and talk about the route itself, we ask the climber: Ok, but did you enjoy it? Was it a nice route? Did you climb it well? Were there some good moves on it? Because what’s in a grade? Are you climbing to ‘achieve’ or ‘chase’ a number? Or are you climbing because you enjoy climbing, want to solve the puzzle the rock presents to you, and climb a route in a way that feels right or nice to you?
Who decides what the grade is?
The grade is given to a route by the person who climbs the route first, its first ascensionist. In most but not all cases, this is the person (or: are the people) who bolted the route.
Routesetters with a larger frame of reference are more likely going to be ‘correct’ with their grading. How many years have they been climbing outdoors themselves? How many routes have they bolted before? Do they set the grade after their own ascent, or do they wait giving it a grade until they have seen other people climb it? Not all route setters have this opportunity but for us that is an important element of grading. We often get asked (or overhear other climbers having conversations about lower graded routes) “how can they tell the difference between a 5, 5+ and 6A, when they climb 7s all the time”? Well, because of years of climbing experience, and years of working with clients climbing those grades.
A team of climbers from the indoor climbing gym in Switzerland, called Griffig, have recently developed a new crag on Kalymnos, equally named Griffig. Everyone we spoke with who climbed at this crag says that the routes there are overgraded by at least 1, sometimes even 2 or 3 grades. This may be in line with what we have noticed on other occasions, when outdoor routes are set and graded by people who mainly climb indoors, it feels harder to them and as a result the routes are likely to be overgraded. Climbing rock not being their main surface to climb on, their footwork and routefinding skills may therefore not be as developed as amongst people who climb outdoors a lot. The ‘outdoor climber’ may find an easier way, resulting in the downgrading of the route. The overgrading of Griffig may also be explained by possibly them being in a rush to finish this crag before the masses of climbers would turn up leading them to give estimated grades on some of the routes. Or, another explanation could be – and this is something we were informed of recently by people who have been on a ‘Route Development Course’ – they are advised to inflate the grade so the route becomes popular. Well, that definitely did the trick for Griffig!
That brings us to the second part of the answer to “who decides what the grade is?”. After the routesetters or first ascensionists have graded a route, the vote goes to the outdoor climbing community. On websites such as UKClimbing climbers log the routes they have climbed, and leave their feedback on the grade they think it is. For a route graded 7B+ in the guidebook, you would get for instance 5 votes for “mid 7B+”, 11 votes “low 7B+”, 20 votes “high 7B”, 32 votes “mid 7B”, and 18 votes “low 7B”, then there would be a reasonable amount of doubt cast on the original grade and a route may get downgraded to 7B.
You can assume that for established routes that have been developed a few years ago and climbed by many people since that the grade is settled.
Which factors influence the grade?
The grade of a route serves as an indication of what difficulty to expect. It is not an exact science with a formula that can be applied to any route, in which case everyone applying that formula would get to the same grade as a result. However, there are of course objective things that route developers and climbers take into account when grading a route (not necessarily in order of importance):
1. The hardest move on the route. If you have a 32m route that is 5 all the way except for one 6B move, then it has to be graded 6B, otherwise a ‘5-climber’ would be deceived into thinking they would be able to climb the route. So a route has to be graded for its hardest move.
2. How many hard moves. The next thing to take into account is how many hard moves there are, more specifically, how many hard moves in a row. A route can be a ‘one move’ crux, or it can be very sustained, with many moves of a certain difficulty in a row, or it could have several cruxes instead of one, but with good rests in between. If a route has a one 6B move crux, it would be a 6B. Does it have a longer sequence of multiple 6B moves in a row, then the overall grade is likely going to be 6B+. Does a route have multiple 6B cruxes but for instance the angle of rock allows the climber to have good rests in between, then 6B remains the fair grade.
3. Length of the route. Similar but slightly different, is the length of the route. Is stamina needed for a 40m pitch or is it all over in 12m? A 12m 6B most likely has a harder technical crux than a 40m 6B of which the hardest move may be 6A+ but the extra grade is given to reflect that one has to be focused and on one’s feet for much longer.
4. The equation of the size of the holds, the spacing of the holds, the angle of the rock, and the friction of the rock. (read more below – Anecdote: size of holds)
5. The area where the route is. Every climbing area has its own history. Routes are graded in relation to existing routes. This means that within a climbing area, the grade gives an indication of how hard a route is compared to its neighbour. But often it does not work to compare one-on-one for routes in different areas. Some areas even become less popular because grades there are hard, and people allow themselves to be disappointed that they are not able to climb the grade they would climb elsewhere, and have to drop down a grade or two in this area. Climbers do like the ego-boost of climbing in areas where the grades are ‘softer’.
Anecdote: Size of holds.“The footholds are too small to call this a 5”. One of our clients said exactly this about Awesome (Pena Roja, Lliber) and it opened an interesting discussion, leading to a better understanding of the debate around grades. If what the client said is true, then how small can footholds be to give a route a certain grade? If there is one section on the route where the footholds are 1cm2, does that make the route a 7A? Just because you aren’t usually ‘forced’ to use small footholds on a 5? And if we were to grade routes for the size of the footholds, would there be a standard like in clothing where different cm’s equal different sizes XS/S/M? For instance foothold size >5cm2 = F3, 4-5 cm2 = F4, 3-4cm2 = F5, 2-3cm2 = F6, 1-2cm2 = F7, etc? We don’t think a system like that would hold up, as the difficulty of the move is an equation of the size of the holds, the spacing of the holds, the angle of the rock (A small foothold on a slab can be a great foothold), and the friction of the rock. Think of a crux sequence of a route, with a certain set of holds and the distance these are from each other, but then tilt the angle of rock a little bit, or reduce the friction, and it’s easy to understand that size alone doesn’t matter. It really is the overall technical difficulty of a move. And to come back to the route this client commented on, many of our clients who can climb F5 but can’t climb F6A, are able to stand on these small footholds, on this angle of rock, with its friction and the availability of handholds, and complete the climb.
Anecdote: Guidebook. Sometimes a route description in the guidebook will say “…, harder for short people”. This makes us laugh. Are we moving to a situation where a route is 6C for the strong, 6B for those with good technique, 6C+ for short people? Where does it end? The grade should refer to the route, not to the skills or physical characteristics of those who climb it. Which moves us onto..
Make the route the grade
Route reading and route finding are crucial as the grade refers to the easiest way to climb this route. Some routes are harder to read than others. Did you not climb it the easiest way, then you may have turned a 6C into a 6C+ or 7A. That’s why climbers shouldn’t really say much about the grade of a route when they have climbed it once. They should say something like “the way I climbed it, it felt like a … to me”. That way the climber acknowledges that they may not have gone the exact easiest way, may not have found all the hand- and footholds, may not have climbed it with the most efficient hand- and feet sequences.
Anecdote: New Beta. While bolt-to-bolting La Bella 7B at our local crag (Pena Roja, Lliber), having failed to execute the several ways I had seen other climbers do the crux moves, I hung on the rope – again. I thought I was never going to be able to do it this way. I looked around to see where the rock from this to the next bolt is less steep for my feet and then I noticed a line of feet going out left. And there are some handholds out left as well. I reckoned: It is less steep, the fall is clean, and this crux sequence ends on the same hold as the more common crux sequences. But later, while I was sending the route going left at the crux instead of going over the bulge, the locals sitting at the bottom of the crag said – loud enough for me to hear – “she’s going off route, it’s not 7B that way”. I am fine with that. I am happy to have found a nice and easier way to climb this route and if ‘my way’ is 7A+ then that’s great.
We will soon publish an article about Routefinding on our website or in a climbing magazine.
Grade for the onsight or for the redpoint?
Although that seems a simple either-or question, in reality the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Is it a route where the routefinding is obvious, a route that is easy to read? It is likely that people will find the crux hand- and footholds? Then a route is not much harder to onsight than it is to redpoint. But is it a route with several sequences that are difficult to see or figure out while onsighting, then it seems fair to us to grade for how hard the route feels without previous knowledge. It is commonly accepted that a redpoint is easier than an onsight. We think it is fair to grade for the onsight for routes that are within climbers’ onsighting capabilities. Within the climbing community, many climbers can onsight up to about F8A/+. When you go beyond that, it makes sense to grade for the redpoint as there aren’t many climbers attempting to onsight those routes.
Anecdote: Grace. There’s a route called Grace (7A) at Chong Phli in Thailand. The local climbers for years have been saying that it is actually only a 6C+. But we agree with its original grade, having climbed the route with many of our clients and therefore having been able to use them as our frame of reference. Grace is a rather sustained route with multiple cruxes. If you don’t find the best holds, or don’t climb the best sequence in either of these sections, it certainly feels harder (less stable on the feet, more relying on the arms) than it does to the local climbers who spend no time looking for holds or working out sequences. Once a climber has bolt-to-bolted and redpointed Grace, and quite literally is able to climb it Grace-fully, it could feel like a 6C+. But to get to that stage, a lot of effort needs to be put in, which we would argue justifies it being graded 7A. Onsight Grace feels more like 7A+. As a redpoint it could be a 6C+.
Final remarks
A grade in a guidebook is quite literally a guidance. The purpose of grading routes is to give the climber an idea of what is available to them from one crag to the next, and to choose the climbing experience they would like to have. Climbers roughly know their warm up grade, their onsight grade, and their redpoint grade. When going to a new area, jump on a couple of easy route first to see how the grading fits with other climbing areas you have been to, so you can pick the right challenge for yourself on that given climbing day.
Of course, talk about and discuss grades as much you like but our advice is: do not let it become your main focus point or main aim. Don’t allow yourself to be disappointed by a grade or it being the only thing you have to say about a climb. Don’t reduce a climb to its number. Enjoy the route. Enjoy solving the puzzle it presents you. Enjoy the moves. Enjoy your climbing.
*For reference to those who climb in areas that don’t use the French grading of sport routes, please see below the Climbing Grade Conversion Table made by Rockfax*
Well-known and respected within the climbing and coaching community, Trevor Massiah has been a stalwart of the sport since he was ‘thrown in’ at the deep end as part of a then YTS programme in the mid-80s. Having travelled and climbed widely, Trevor’s CV includes trad E6s, sport F8as as well as developing numerous new routes around the world. As a co-director of Rock & Sun, he now shares his love and knowledge of climbing with others as they find their own path in the sport.
Early Years
Arriving in Britain as part of ‘Windrush generation’, your parents met and settled in Bristol; your birth followed in 1965. What was it like for you growing up in Bristol at that time?
I grew up on, as it turns out, a not so typical working class housing estate in south Bristol called Hartcliffe. It has a reputation of being a very tough place to live. Mum and dad, by choosing to live near where they worked rather than commute from the more ethnically diverse inner-city areas, were brave and smart enough to jump into the deep end of integration. We were the first black family to move into this area in the early 60’s so you can imagine this came with some obvious challenges. Dealing with regular racial abuse was commonplace for immigrants at that time.
As a family we dealt very well with any hardship that come our way. Usually with a good amount of humour. When you grow up in a working-class environment you learn not to moan too much. Because in general everyone’s got a hard life.
We were fortunate enough with where we lived in Hartcliffe. The fields behind our house ran onto the Mendip hills. We could literally hop over our garden fence and walk for miles in open countryside. We would regularly have bonfires, camp out in the woods in the summer, go hunting for rabbits and wood pigeons. It was a challenging but varied, enjoyable and almost countryside way of growing up.
I definitely feel that I benefited from growing up in a white as opposed to a multicultural neighbourhood. I felt much more comfortable surrounded by white people than those who grew up in inner-city areas. Especially when I discovered climbing and went to Wales to train as an outdoor activity instructor, although I might have been a bit of an oddity to the people in the towns and villages, I felt very comfortable in that environment. If I had grown up in a multicultural area I would have found going off to Pembrokeshire a lot more intimidating.
Leaving school in 1983 you spent some time on a Government training programme building and maintaining kayaks before starting on an outdoor industry work experience placement in Pembroke in 1984. It was on this course that you had your first taste of climbing when you were thrown in, almost literally, at the deep-end on a HVS at Porthclais. Was that the life-changing experience that it sounds like?
It definitely was. I had very few aspirations when I left school and was more than a little underwhelmed at the prospect of working on a building site or something similar which was the norm if further education wasn’t your thing. At the start of this YTS in Pembroke I had my first climbing experience. To be honest I didn’t really think much of it other than that it was a bit scary, cold and unpleasant in the rain, with a big swell and waves crashing on the rocks below. It didn’t take too long though to fall in love with climbing. Things changed as soon as I was introduced to leading, sea-level traversing, cliff jumping and DWS (which wasn’t called that then though). I can still remember when it finally dawned on me that it was possible to get paid to play for a living.
You quickly went on to develop your climbing concentrating mainly on trad routes. What was it that appealed to you in climbing and trad climbing in particular? Was any one route particularly demanding that you recall?
There is that geekish attraction to trad climbing with all this fiddly gear to play with, but mostly I think it’s the adventure of it all. Getting off route, getting scared when you’ve realised all your kit has come out and slid down the rope to the belayer. Eventually feeling like you’d figured the gear out well enough to start leading things harder than VS, and then waking up on a Saturday morning after too many beers wishing that you hadn’t said you were going to lead your first HVS. I had too much of an 18-year-old ego to bottle out. Everything just seemed like one great adventure after another.
Probably the most memorable routes for me is: The land that time forgot. It’s in range West on a crag called Mount Zion Central. It’s a 200m 5 pitch route that I did with Ian Parnell in ’98. We thought it deserved E6 at the time but I think the grade may have settled down to E5 6a. It’s a traverse along an obvious central break below an impending steep wall above. It starts up an E3 (Red Zawn) then continues with 4 long pitches traversing the crag in it’s entirety. The route was, as usual, attempted ground up swinging leads. I randomly got what turned out to be the crux pitch. This pitch, as did a few others, involved cleaning out a horizontal crack of a damp clayish red mud as you climbed. On the crux section of pitch 4, where the break thinned to around first joint tips, the crack would remain damp after cleaning enough space for gear and fingers with a nut tool. On the first attempt I fell, ripped a small wire and took a huge maybe 40ft or more pendulum fall onto a small blue Alien. The crag is so steep at this point that there’s no chance at all of avoiding a lower into the sea. As it was getting close to sunset I asked Ian to lower me to sea level where, much to the amusement of several other parties, I attempt to paddle with my hands just above sea level trying to create enough swing to avoid getting completely wet, that predictably failed and the swim was taken. We returned the next day and jugged up the ropes to the start of the pitch, the cracks were still damp and I fell again but this time prusiked back up and climbed through. Those few years climbing and exploring with friends on the Pembrokeshire cliffs were definitely some of the best climbing experiences I’ve ever had.
Travelling, New-Routing and the Great Outdoors
Pretty soon you started traveling widely climbing in numerous countries including Australia, South East Asia, China, New Zealand and the US. What are your stand-out memories from that time?
In ‘92 I bought a round the world ticket and headed off with a backpack for a big adventure. It was amazing to fly into Delhi and experience being in Asia for the first time. I hooked up with a bunch of local Indian climbers and got taken out to some of the new places being developed in India like Bangalore and Hampi.
Thailand also stands out of course. I travelled through Thailand on my way to Australia and had unfortunately left my climbing gear in Malaysia – which I immediately regretted. I was very impressed with the beautiful multi-coloured limestone crags with stalactite systems hanging off them. And with the karsts, the weird limestone lumps of rock sticking out of the sea. After spending close to a year in Australia I therefore decided to head back to Thailand. This time wíth climbing gear ánd with more experience. Because during my time in Australia one of the top South/Western Australian climbers (Shane Richardson) had introduced me to the idea of putting up sport routes. We teamed up and did a lot of new routing in Western Australia. After that experience I was pretty sold on the idea of going back to Thailand to get involved with developing sport routes there. I have been back to Thailand almost every winter since then, to climb, to run climbing holidays with Rock & Sun, and to develop new routes and climbing areas.
What, if any, variances did you see in climbing and the sport ethos across the places you visited at that time?
In Australia it was the first time I came across trad and sport routes coexisting next to each other, and routes that were a mix of sport and trad. You could be climbing trad and if there was a runout there could be a carrot bolt and then it might be trad again. It would otherwise be an E6 or E7, excluding the masses from being able to climb. That mix of sport and trad seemed to work really well in Australia.
Up until this summer, rebolting on the Orm, I had never actually placed a bolt in the UK. I have only ever put sport routes up in other countries. The trad climbing in the UK is so amazing that when I am in the UK I just want to go trad climbing.
Another observation is that redpointing wasn’t a thing. I hadn’t redpointed a route until I started bolting routes in the early 90s. When I would go sport climbing, in the Verdon or the Costa Blanca, I may fall off a move and try again, but certainly wouldn’t do repeated attempts until I could do it clean. But when I started developing sport routes it meant that I then actually had to climb them. Because when you put the bolts in you don’t want to walk away not having climbed the route. So that led me into redpointing.
Where was your favourite place to climb and why and is that still the case today?
My favourite place without a doubt would still be trad climbing in the UK. The Pembrokeshire sea cliffs are definitely one of my all time favourite places to climb. My Top other destinations would be Thailand, El Cap/Yosemite, Taipan Wall, and the Needles in California.
Along the way you got hooked on developing new routes on your travels – something which you still do to this day. Of the hundreds of new routes you’ve developed are there some which were particularly memorable and if so why?
Humanality is a 6 pitch route in Thailand, above Ton Sai beach. It’s not particular hard, but the whole experience of putting it up with Greg Collum, over a period of 10 days or so was incredible. I think it may have been my first multipitch trad lead in Thailand. Starting on the beach, zigzagging through these massive tufa/stalactite systems, we got all the way to the top of the route without placing a single bolt. Back then it was hard to know how the tufa would hold up to nuts and cams as tufas tend to be so much softer than actual rock. We placed as many slings/threads as possible and placed jammed knots if the rock felt or looked particularly soft. The route turned out to be a mega classic. One of the most popular multipitch routes in Thailand. The 5th pitch goes up a gradually steepening wall on good holds until it blanks out completely. Exactly at this point there’s this huge stalactite at shoulder level behind you, you look across thinking maybe it’s possible to lean across and reach it. It takes a little bit of convincing but it goes. You transfer onto it, do a few meters of climbing on the tufa then step back onto the wall where the holds reappear.
I really enjoy the whole process of finding a crag or line getting to the top ideally via a trad lead then creating a fun sport route. The grade is not important to me at all. It’s definitely about the process and creating something that’s fun and safe to climb.
Coaching, Health and Safety Advisor and TV Work
You’ve worked in the outdoor industry since the 1980’s; much of that time as a full member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors. What are the main changes have you seen whilst working in the industry?
The standard of instruction and especially coaching has come a long way since then. Mountain training and AMI have done amazing work to put an award system in place, achieving high quality and consistent instruction. Running Rock & Sun we travel a lot around Europe and further afield and recognise that in general the quality of British instructors is so much higher.
In 2012 you met Desirée Verbeek whilst climbing in Thailand; then, in 2013, you joined Rock and Sun – a company which specialises in delivering rock climbing holidays and coaching for outdoor climbing – as a director. Desirée, joined as a director the year after. How satisfying do you find it working alongside your partner whilst running your own business and introducing others to climbing?
We feel it is a real privilege to make a living out of living your dream and having the freedom to design things the way we want them to be. Running Rock and Sun allows us to travel and climb all over Europe but also Africa and south East Asia. We are very lucky that we can work together so well at the crag as well as in the office, and then also enjoy climbing together when we’re not working. We simply love what we do – probably because we designed it the way we wanted it to be.
Do you find coaching others has impacted your own climbing at all? Do you, for example, apply some of the development techniques you show to others to your own climbing?
Coaching has definitely impacted my own climbing in a positive way. I regularly say when I am coaching that my technique was pretty rubbish before I started coaching but I was a lot stronger. Coaching allows you to identify inefficiencies in others people’s climbing and come up with ways of practicing climbing in a way that creates a more efficient movement pattern. It’s almost impossible then not to apply the same approach to your own climbing.
Black Lives Matter
Following the conviction for George Floyd’s murder and the continuing growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement you’ve joined the debate talking about your experience as a person of colour. You’re on-the-record as saying “Racism within climbing isn’t something I’ve experienced”. That is a great endorsement for the sport – right?
It’s true that climbing is not particularly ethnically diverse. Of course this is something that is changing quickly and has been doing so from the early 90’s when climbing walls began to spring up in the major cities around the country. Having climbed and travelled a huge amount during the past four decades I have never directly experienced any racism within or from anyone within the climbing community. I’m not saying that there aren’t racist climbers, racism exists in all walks of life and in all communities but in my experience the climbing community stands out as being an open minded, and welcoming community full of odd, weird and wonderful characters.
Most climbers are open-minded; do you think that is fuelling the increase in diversity in the climbing community which is evident today?
Through our work with Rock & Sun we notice that a lot of people only really went into the gym to climb because they thought it was just more fun than going to the mainstream gym, pushing weights, rowing machine or running on the tread mill. As more climbing/bouldering facilities are built in inner-city areas it is naturally going to attract a greater diversity of individuals.
Is there anything else you would like to add to the conversation about equality and representation within the sport?
Future
Is there anything specific within the sport and or coaching you still want to achieve?
I very much feel that I’m improving as a coach year by year. Both Dees and I enjoy figuring out new ways to explain, teach and practice techniques. We also hope to create more time for our own climbing which the pandemic has made incredibly challenging. I have so far managed to improve my climbing grade in each decade and still have 3 or 4 years to try and climb harder in my 50s than I climbed in my 40s. Climbing harder in my 60’s may be more of a challenge but I do enjoy setting myself random targets as a way of motivating myself.
This is a follow up article to “Watch your rope – why are people being lowered off the end of their rope”? There we described several things you should be doing to avoid not noticing that your rope is too short, long before the knot in the end comes into play. This you can find in Professional Mountaineer issue 29.
This article will look at what our options might be when you choose to climb a route that you know your rope is not quite long enough for, as well as what to do if you realise, too late, that your rope is not long enough.
On more than one occasion I’ve had to leave a cold beer over sunset on Tonsai beach and head up to Cat Wall (a steep wall above a narrow ledge 40 to 50m above the beach). A few of the harder pitches are long and if the last party on the crag had a rope only just long enough to reach the ground, but not the 10 or 12m extra necessary to throw and pull the climber back in, they would resort to whistling or shouting for help. A very easy situation to resolve if someone is willing to head up the trail to the ledge with a spare rope to throw and pull the climber back in. It’s an easy mistake but one that wouldn’t happen with a little forward planning for the length and steepness of route verses length of rope.
A knot in the rope removes the possibility of lowering the climber off the end of the rope but does not solve the problem of not having enough rope to reach the stranded climber. Alternatively, the belayer can be tied into the end of the rope: this also comes in handy for a couple of solutions that we will describe later.
What are your options if you would rather not buy beers all night for being rescued? A simple solution would be back clipping while being lowered to stay close to the rock, and the last climber leaving a biner or a maillon on a bolt far enough down the route to deposit you on the ledge. This would take some thinking ahead, because once the climber is too far away to reach the wall, this is not an option.
The most obvious thing to do to prevent situations like these is to choose routes that are short enough for the rope you have. But, if you’re set on climbing even though your rope is too short (your rope may also have been damaged limiting your options), bear these things in mind:
When threading anchors: tie back into the end of your rope to maximise length. Threading with a bight of rope can easily use 2m of rope. If you prefer the extra security of threading a bight of rope through the anchors and being attached to the rope before untying, then do so. But when you would normally be done, tie back into the end and then remove the bight.
When climbing steeply overhanging routes from a ledge as opposed to from the ground it is fairly standard to back clip (unclip the belayer’s side of the rope and clip your rope in) to ensure you lower back to the ledge rather than hanging out in space. Another solution would be for the belayer to toss the end of the rope to the lowering climber and pull them back into the belay ledge.
When your rope is too short for these suggestions to work, there are at least 5 solutions.
Solution 1 – Thread another anchor
Check for mid-point double bolt lower offs. These are often in place for routes of 40m or longer (sometimes 35m+ routes). While being lowered off the top anchor, stop at the mid-point anchor, clip in direct, and rethread the rope through this lower anchor to make it to the ground.
Essentially the same: Check for shorter routes nearby that you can swing across to and use as an intermediate anchor.
Solution 2 – Maillon(s) or leaver biner(s)
When there is no lower anchor to use, consider using a ‘leaver biner’ or maillon on a bolt lower down. Do consider the quality of the rock and condition of the bolt. Leaving gear on two consecutive bolts is an option if concerned. Please do not overtighten maillons, so they can be removed by a subsequent party – in some circumstances they can create leverage on the karabiner when clipping in front rather than behind the maillon. I’ve seen at least one karabiner failure due to this.
Solution 3 – Prusik up the rope
When you can’t make it to the ground and have lost contact with the wall, prusiking up the rope to a point where you can contact the rock is of course an option – although not many sport climbers carry prusik loops with them on single pitch routes.
I once witnessed Crispin Waddy (one of the UK’s most accomplished adventure trad climbers) abseiling, until reached the end of his rope 20m from the ground. A very angry and concerned Heinz Zac (the famous Austrian climbing photographer) raced up a route to throw a rope to a very bemused Crispin who was already happily prusiking up his abseil rope using his shoe laces! Luckily, he wasn’t wearing Velcros. Of course, Crispin accepted the rope. I’m certain neither knew who the other was which amused me no end.
Solution 4 – Belayer climbs up to lower climber
When you know beforehand or realise while lowering that your rope is not quite long enough, this solution can work on routes that are not overhanging, if the belayer intends to follow the pitch after lowering the leader. The belayer ties into the end of the rope – preferably beforehand but it can also be achieved after locking off the belay device. Once the climber and belayer are counterbalanced, the belayer starts climbing – thereby lowering the other climber to the ground. If necessary, the belay device can be removed once there is enough slack in the system; the climber may need to clip in direct to a bolt to do this. It is not necessary to do this if you have more than one belay device. The previous climber can simply put the new climber on belay when there is enough slack. Up to this point the climber is protected by the person on the ground staying tied in. I’ve used this solution on many occasions, and it is often possible to judge that once the draws are cleaned from the pitch and the rope is running in a straight line, the climber will make it back to the ground on rope stretch – therefore this technique is less effective if the rope is more than a few metres under-length.
Solution 5 – a spare rope (or slings)
What to do when none of the above solutions work, i.e. the climber is hanging in space so can not get to an intermediate anchor, nor re-thread a bolt by leaving a maillon, nor can he/she prusik up the rope?
I’ve used this on a couple of occasions when strangers at the crag have found themselves up to 5m plus off the ground and with a belayer who is unable to climb the route. The belayer steps backwards to retain the last metre or so and locks the belay device; the spare rope is attached to the end of the belay rope, and a belay device (or Italian Hitch) is fixed. Then, place a releasable prusik on the rope above the belay device and weight it to remove the belay device and transfer the tension to the added rope. The prusik can now be released and the climber lowered further – however, only until the knot hits the first runner – the limiting factor for this method. Alternatively, on occasion I’ve attached four 120cm slings and one 240cm linked together to the end of the rope, effectively lengthening the rope. The belayer clips into the end sling and the one closest to the rope. Once the prusik is removed the climber can be lowered using the belayer’s body as a counterweight, and unclipping from 1st to 2nd to the 3rd sling, until reaching the final sling and walking forwards until the climber is back on the ground. This is one to practice somewhere safe before trying in anger!
Summary: Preparation – Awareness – Carry
Preparation; how long is rope, how long is route, how steep is it? Knot both ends of the rope as standard practice.
Awareness; Keep an eye on the end of the rope. Look out for mid anchors, or lower stations on adjacent routes. When lowering off steep routes, stay in touch with the wall.
Carry maillons or leaver biners, slings and prusiks and know how to use them.
Last resort: call for help and buy the first round.
Words by: Trevor (MCI) and Desiree (RCI) Massiah are the Directors of Rock & Sun, who offer climbing courses and holidays in the UK, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco and Thailand, and bouldering trips to Fontainebleau and Albarracin. Rock & Sun provide high quality coaching courses for all levels.
Being comfortable with falling is crucial in order for people to be coached effectively. Being fully focused on the climbing itself without being overly fearful of falling leads to better quality practice and higher performance. Confidence in assessing the outcome of falling and knowing how to react also creates a safer climber. However, most climbers we work with either never practice falling, only practice indoors or do it so infrequently that it’s ineffective. Here we look at ways of making regular fall practice more accessible, fun even.
Why Fall Practice
Confidence in falling increases the chance of climbers trying what they consider to be low-percentage moves (see Figure 1 – orange arrows). Ultimately leading to them climbing closer to their potential.
Many climbers take an alternative route. By practicing moves, becoming technically proficient or fitter and stronger, climbers turn low-percentage moves into high-percentage ones (blue arrows), thereby reducing the likelihood of falling.
Staying within the comfort zone
Most of our clients have experienced fall practice at their local gym, only few have done so outside. The practice usually consists of taking a leader fall by jumping off with the feet above the last clip. Although intended to reduce the fear and to practice reacting correctly while falling and landing, for most people this is an unpleasant experience with few left feeling keen on repeating the experience regularly.
In recent years we have learned that it is possible to achieve the desired result without taking falls with the feet above the protection. It is important to work within the climber’s comfort zone, and gently push the edge of that a little further. Comfort zones differ from person to person, and can change on a daily basis. Explicitly aim to start with an exercise well inside the climber’s comfort zone and not push too far or too quickly as that is likely to result in an uncomfortable experience that they may then not want to repeat.
Some Practical Considerations
Of course it is not always safe to fall and falling is not simply a case of letting gravity take over. There are many things the climber and belayer can do to reduce the risk of injury. Safety when climbing involves dynamic or continual risk assessment. We all have different levels of spatial awareness and understanding of physics. For many it is important to experience falling regularly and in different situations to increase the ability to assess risk and act accordingly. Without this climbers may either be putting themselves at risk or be terrified when the consequences of a fall present little risk. With experience climbers are better able to assess how far they will fall and whether they are likely to come into contact with the ground, ledges, or other objects during the fall. Where it is not safe to fall, it may be appropriate not to commit to the moves, but reach for the clip stick, down climb or lower to the ground.
Executing a leader fall:
Look down at feet, land with soles of the feet.
For stability, keep feet shoulder width apart.
Cushion the landing by bending the knees as feet touch the rock
Grab the rope near the knot to avoid falling upside down
Climber doing “Clip and Let Go”-exercise to practice falling
How to do Fall Practice
There are several stages to start the process of fall practice. It is important not to move from each stage unless the climber has become comfortable with the exercise. Some climbers may not move beyond stage 1 – but can still experience huge benefits, some climbers may start at stage 5.
On toprope the climber simply practices bending the legs and pushing off, then bending the knees to cushion the landing as they swing back in with the soles of their feet. Increase the distance by pushing off harder and harder. When doing fall practice on toprope it is beneficial for the climber not to hold onto the rope but relax the arms.
The climber walks or runs sideways until they are comfortable with the inevitable pendulum this will create. Then move on to pushing out with their legs (as in the previous exercise) at the end of the pendulum creating a swing across the wall. This improves their skill of managing sideways falls and landings. We also aim to achieve a sense of fun and being more confident in their ability to manage a fall when sideways to the protection.
Toprope falls; on reaching each quickdraw, the climber touches it and jumps off immediately. The process is repeated at each quickdraw. The aim is to minimize the hesitation and assess how relaxed the climber is. The belayer needs to assess the appropriate amount of slack in the system from a safety perspective. As confidence increases the belayer can slowly increase the amount of slack in the system. Often simply announcing that there will be more slack, (even with the slack not actually there) will elicit a nervous response: a hesitation to let go upon touching the quickdraw, stiffening in the body, hands moving towards the rope, and/or an audible shriek while falling.
This stage is best done on lead and the climber should be at least 2 metres below the designated clipped quickdraw (with a safe fall-zone, ideally slightly overhanging and an appropriate distance up the route). Climber needs to choose a climbing position with 4 points of contact, and easy enough to hold so the exercise can be repeated a number of times. The climber should take three deep breaths, and on the 3rd breath out, push up from the legs, touch the rock as if going for a handhold and release. We are aiming for the climber to actively go for the move and then feel, look and even sound relaxed on the fall. The first falls should be with the minimum amount of slack. Once the climber is comfortable with that fall, increase the length of the fall by introducing more slack or dynamic belaying. This process can be repeated with the climber’s chin being above the quickdraw. Not having the rope in view is usually enough to elicit a greater stress response. This exercise could finish with the climber taking lead falls with the feet above the quickdraw. We find this to be rarely necessary. This exercise is particularly useful for breaking the cycle of freezing and eventually letting go which leader fall practice often promotes.
On lead, the climber clips each quickdraw, and then lets go. Variations in the fall are achieved by the belayer having more or less slack in the system – providing a soft catch where appropriate – and by the fact that naturally some clipping positions will be sideways to the protection. For this exercise it is obviously far more important that the belayer is skilled. This process carries a greater degree of risk. It is necessary to designate a starting clip from where to start the exercise, which may be the second or third quickdraw. From a safety perspective it is useful in this exercise for the climber to pause a second before letting go to check the clip has been made.
As mentioned, fall practice can start at any of these stages. Before moving to the next stage, ask the climber to give feedback and assess their body language. Some signs of fear or nerves: hesitation in letting go, stiffness or tension in the body especially the arms, or audible shriek while falling. In this form of ‘immersion therapy’ it is important to recognise when the climber is reaching their limit. The aim is to keep the sessions positive, even fun! Only move on to the next stage when both climber and coach agree that the climber is ready.
Climber doing “Clip and Let Go”-exercise to practice falling
Final Words
Our experience is that most climbers don’t even want to think about falling, let alone practice it. Others say they are not frightened of falling and therefore don’t need fall practice, despite displaying the obvious signs of fear. Without regularly experiencing or practicing falling, any original fear or apprehension tends to creep back in.
There is more to falling than just letting go.
With this fresh approach to fall practice, falling becomes something to be incorporated into every session, rather than being a stand-alone session. It also provides the climber with safe non-intimidating options that they are likely to continually practice. We have been genuinely surprised at having some of our most fearful clients actually requesting some form of fall practice at the start of a days climbing.
Published in Professional Mountaineer, Summer 2021. Words and photos by Trevor & Desiree Massiah
If you follow Rock & Sun on Facebook, Instagram or via our Newsletter, you would have seen a few posts this year about the new routes we developed in the Costa Blanca during the Corona pandemic. Here we will describe what it entails to make them, what we love about new-routing, plus we’ll give the overview of all the new routes as most of them were developed just after the new Costa Blanca guidebook by Roberto Lopez was published. We also aim to answer the questions you’ve been asking us about developing new routes. If you have more questions after reading this blog, please send us a message and we will add it to this blog.
New-routing during Covid-19
International borders being closed for tourists for most of the time between March 2020 and May 2021 meant that we had a lot of time on our hands in the last year or so. Once the initial and very strict lockdown in Spain ended and we were slowly gaining more freedom again, we at first felt it could be considered too ‘frivolent’ to start climbing for fun again. But we considered going to the crag to create new climbs a justified reason to go to the crag. The first routes we started to work on were the 4 routes ‘in the trees’ in sector Alejandria of Pena Roja (see the full overview of new routes at the bottom of this blog). Trev had his eye on this sector mainly because of the easy angled rock and the fact that it is protected from the sun by the trees. If we could create some routes here, that would allow us to climb at Pena Roja all day; starting in Alejandria-riverbed in the morning, then move into the trees, and finish the day at the original wall of Pena Roja.
What is your motivation for developing routes?
A question we get asked quite regularly, as most climbers ‘just’ climb and never put up a route in their whole life. Routesetters can be quite invisible, and unless you get to see someone developing a route, you may never really think about how and why those bolts got there.
There are several reasons why we like to get involved in bolting routes. One is because we are well aware of the fact that as Rock & Sun we use the Costa Blanca for our Sport Climbing Holidays and Performance Coaching Courses. We climb routes that have been equipped by others, we bring more climbers to this area. We therefore find it important to do something back. Not only by maintaining existing routes or sectors (we for instance replaced 10 anchors at Sierra de Toix Oeste with titanium glue in anchors), but also by creating more routes. This will give the locals something new to climb, and it will give climbers from other areas something to come back to the Costa Blanca for, and it means that on busy days at popular crags, people can spread over a greater number of routes without having to wait for one another.
Another important reason to develop new routes is so that when we are working with our groups, we can organise our climbing days in a different way and thereby offer our clients better climbing experiences. By for instance creating routes that are in the shade around midday, it means that when it’s hot we can climb in the shade all day, moving from one sector to the next, instead of having to go back to the villa for a two or three hour break before heading out to the crag again. And it also means our regular clients will have something new to try on their next trip. Finally, the routes we set tend to lend themselves really well for climbing coaching; they are good routes to practice route-finding and/or work on technical movement patterns.
The whole creative process from spotting to bolting new lines is our third motivation. We all have a different creative outlet; some of us sing, make music, love cooking, painting or making furniture. For us, it is new routing that ‘ticks us’. Trevor is naturally looking for new route potential at any crag we go to, even at any crag or piece of rock we drive past. He is always spotting natural lines or striking features that would be amazing to climb. Those of which that are on shady crags, with a potential grade range from 4s to 6s are the top of our list to have a closer look at and decide to start working on. What Desiree loves most about this creative process, are first, the uniqueness of climbing an unclimbed piece of rock and the freedom to decide where it climbs best, and second, the removing of loose rock, vegetation and mud, behind which you often find beautiful handholds.
These cleaning activities naturally lead us to our final motivation of new-routing: it is a great way to get fit. After 2,5 months in total lockdown, having drunk and eaten more than we could burn off, we had some kilos to lose and muscles to regain. Hanging in the harness all day, jumarring up the fixed line, using a crow-bar to get body-size blocks of rock off, hammering other loose rock off, drilling and brushing provides a quite intense full-body workout.
The rock scars as well as rocks at base of the crag show the amount of rock we removed (sector Estado de Alarma, Cuarentena, Corona)
Do you need permission or a qualification to make new routes?
There is no qualification for route-setting. It is a skill that is often passed on from an experienced route-setter to an ‘assistant’ to learn all the ins and outs involved with doing a good job at it.
Whether permission is needed completely depends on where we want to develop new routes. If the land is privately owned then of course we’d need permission from the land owner. As it happens though, on more than once occasion it has been the other way around, and Trevor has been asked if he would please come to have a look at a limestone wall and develop routes there. These instances were in Thailand, where the owners see the potential of building bungalows and a restaurant to accommodate the climbers, once the routes have been developed. A win-win situation.
If the crag is on public land, we ask around among local climbers to see if permission would be needed from the forestry commission and/or from the municipality. For the past year we have wanted to start developing this untouched, north-facing crag, not far from where we live. We explored it on a few occasions and see great potential, but after talking to some local climbers we decided that now is not the right time to ask permission from the local government. So we will save that crag for another time in the future.
On existing crags, we use the following logic. If it is an established crag where there haven’t been new additions for a while, then we assume that the original route developers have finished the lines that they want to put up. And that they would not be against us developing more routes. Most local developers are, A: not interested in removing tons of loose rock or vegetation, and are B: not interested in bolting low 6s, 5s or 4s. Whereas those grades are of great interest to us. The routes at the Alejandria sector in the trees for example, from Estado de Alarma till Distanciamiento Social, took a lot of effort to get cleaned. We spent multiple days up there with a crowbar and lump hammer to make this area safe for climbing. And possibly more surprisingly, the sector at Alcalali from Artmosphere till The Baker was never developed before because the rock was invisible behind the trees and bushes that were growing on its ledges. Once we cut those down, a beautiful compact slab appeared with four striking lines. We opened this sector in November 2020, and with Alcalali being the perfect winter crag in the Costa Blanca, these routes were popular right from the start.
Finally, if the crag we have spotted a line on is still in development, which was the case for Murlali, we ask the people who are bolting there whether they are planning to bolt the line that we have seen. For “Cuando termine el cierre” we were given permission to go ahead and develop that route. The last thing you want of course when you are aiming to contribute to a climbing area is to upset the other developers and climbers in that area.
Selfies (5) was donated and named by Ross and Ness Self
How much does a route cost?
This depends on the materials used. Titanium bolts that need to be glued in with a special waterproof glue (Hilti RE500, see our blog on placing titanium bolts) are more expensive than 12mm expansion bolts, which are more expensive than 10mm expansion bolts. And expansion bolts come in different alloys that vary in cost and durability. It also depends on the length of the route, or more precisely, how many bolts are needed to protect the route. Besides the material going into the route itself, there are the associated costs of the tools and protective equipment: a cordless battery-powered hammer drill (we use the Hilti Te4-A22), drill bits, ropes, saws, brushes, etc.
We estimate that on average a route costs £75.
Is there a bolt fund? How can I contribute?
In the Costa Blanca there is no bolt fund. We feel it is our obligation to contribute to the maintenance and development of this area and have been investing in it using our own funds. We do of course welcome contributions and have set up a donation page in the Rock & Sun Shop. For a £75 donation you get to name the route. Climbers visiting us in the Costa Blanca can contribute by buying a Rock & Sun t-shirt or renting our climbing shoes, harnesses, or helmets; all this income goes towards route development and route maintenance in the Costa Blanca.
How many days does it take to make a route?
On average it takes 2 days to develop a route. This however completely depends on whether it is the first route on a sector and we need to get access to the top of the crag, or whether we are creating a new route next to an existing one, in which case we can simply traverse across from the existing anchor. Besides the ease or difficulty of getting access to the top, the time it takes to make a new line also depends on the amount of vegetation and loose rock that needs to be removed.
Trevor on the first ascent of Tiger Balm (6A+)
What is the process of making a new route?
First we need access to the top of the crag. Sometimes it is possible to walk to the top of crag and set up a temporary anchor there, using trees and or trad gear. When that is not possible and it is also not possible to traverse across from an existing anchor, then Trevor will trad climb up a route from the ground and make a trad anchor at the top. This anchor is not necessarily in the spot where the final anchor will be but can be used during the routesetting process. Once a line is fixed, we can haul the drill up and drill 12mm holes to place Petzl removable bolts and take out the trad gear.
Using the temporary anchor, we set up a toprope. Both of us climb the ‘line’ at least twice. Do we choose similar ways to climb this unclimbed piece of rock? Does it go where we thought it would when we were looking at it from the ground? Is it a worthwhile route that we can make safe and fun to climb?
Once agreed on where the route goes (more or less) we climb it again to mark where the bolts go. This is a very interactive process between climber and belayer, and a lot of thought goes into it. Ultimately we want the bolts to 1) be in solid rock, 2) protect the climbing, 3) be in comfortable clipping positions for short and tall people, 4) allow the rope to run more or less in a straight line. Other considerations are that the bolt should not interfere with hand-or footholds, that the quickdraw should be hanging ‘free’ in the bolt (not pressed against or over the rock below the bolt). We both climb it several times, marking, erasing and re-marking bolts until we are happy that the bolts are marked where we would like them to be.
Depending on the amount of vegetation and loose rock, the route is either being cleaned before marking the bolts – if there is a lot of cleaning to be done, or afterwards – if the cleaning is more or less ‘cosmetic’. Desiree usually does the cleaning jumarring up a fixed line, instead of a toprope, so we can both work at the same time. Trevor can for instance be on a fixed line next to it and drill the bolts on the next route.
Trevor sometimes starts with the first bolt from the ground, working his way up to the anchor. Other times he starts at the top and works his way down. Before drilling the hole, the quality of the rock is assessed once again with the hammer to make sure it is in good quality rock. It is not always possible to put the bolt exactly where you would like it to be.
Once the bolts have been placed, we do a final clean of the route: blow off the drill dust, brushing the holds. Sometimes we reinforce holds with glue, to make the route safer (we did this for Cuarentena and Corona), or to make sure that the crux hold won’t break off (we did this on Tiger Balm).
Then one of us gets the privilege of the official “first ascent”. Climbing the route on lead for the first time, helps us to get a better idea of what the grade might be.
Trevor on the first ascent of Golden Jugs (6A)
Final Words
The good thing the Pandemic has brought us, is time. It has been great to invest in the climbing in the Costa Blanca by developing new lines. We love the process from spotting a line on the rock, to cleaning the vegetation and loose rock, to deciding where the bolts should be, and having the first ascent.
That is when the next bit of the fun starts – introducing the route to other climbers and watching them climb it. Do they go ‘the right’ way? Do they more or less get the difficulty they were expecting based on the grade we gave it? And most of all, are they enjoying it?
As the Pandemic is nearing its end, and international travel being allowed again, we are very much looking forward to our clients returning and allowing them to have a variety of new climbing experiences.
Full Overview of routes bolted by Trevor and Desiree during the Covid-19 Pandemic[i]
Crag
Route Name
Grade
Donated and named by (if applicable)
Finished around
1
Alejandria (in the trees) – Pena Roja, LLiber
Barney Rubble
6c
Aug 2020
2
Yabba Dabba Doo !!!
6c
April 2021
3
The Flintstones
6c
Aug 2020
4
Estado de Alarma
6b
June 2020
5
Cuarentena
4-5+
June 2020
6
Corona
4+
June 2020
7
Distanciamiento Social
6a+
June 2020
8
Alejandria (riverbed) – Pena Roja, LLiber
Denise Denise
4
June 2020
9
Awesome
5+
June 2020
10
Rainbow Feet
6b+
Feb 2021
11
Golden Jugs
6a
Alan Britton
Feb 2021
12
Voltarol
6c
March 2021
13
Tiger Balm
6a+
Feb 2021
14
Selfies
5
Ross and Vanessa Self
Feb 2021
15
Take is not a safe word
6b+
Blanka Nori
March 2021
16
Alcalali
Epidemiology
5
Paul Cooke
Jan 2021
17
Viva Colombia
5+
Mark Weenink
Jan 2021
18
Artmosphere
6a+
Rianne Verbeek
Nov 2020
19
Rocky
6a
Steve Cox
Nov 2020
20
Gene
6b+
Nov 2020
21
The Baker
6a+
Nov 2020
22
Murlali
Ben & Jerry’s
6c
Mark Haworth
Feb 2021
23
Cuando Termine el Cierre
6c/+
Stewart Robertson
Feb 2021
[i] Multiple routes at the same crag are described from left to right when facing the crag
*Alcalali and Murlali are temporarily closed for climbing due to a discovery of ancient cave paintings. Once these have been analysed and protected by the researchers of Alicante University we expect these crags to be opened up to climbers again.*
