Failure on projects has been the most important training tool I’ve had. But as with any tool. It’s all about how you wield it.

I thought this for many years.

A video about adventures on hard projects over the dark months of the winter, with thoughts on why I’ve succeeded or failed on them.

My annoying tennis elbow improved enough to start bouldering regularly again a month ago. Since then I feel like its stronger every session. A good feeling. In this session I keep on with working through the established problems on my board, building up to starting on the projects. At the end I’m getting close to my Pjs on the fingerboard, which is kind of surprising to me, but great! I also go through some of your questions about training from my last full session vlog episode. If you have more, leave a comment here on my YouTube.

BTW Did you subscribe to my YouTube channel yet? Lots more videos sharing climbing, training, nutrition and nice routes and mountains coming in 2022.

A video about the first ascent of Zero, 8B at Rooftown near Inverness. I’d been trying this line intermittently across two winters, lockdowns permitting (mostly not permitting).

Video of two great first ascents in Glen Nevis over the the lockdown period. Both I’d cleaned and briefly tried some years ago and I did enjoy going back and completing them. Both were way better than I’d remembered!

The first ascent of Lithium 8B+ (V14) and the hardest boulder I've climbed so far. Some more about the story of this ascent and many others in the movie Undisovered https://vimeo.com/ondemand/undiscovered

A decent discussion of the principles I apply to structure my bouldering sessions, both during lockdown and at any other time.

I’ve been visiting this great boulder on and off over the past few weeks. Yesterday I put up a really nice new 8A, despite struggling a bit to get it in climbable condition recently. Well, that, and I couldn’t actually climb it. I’ve been trying a much harder project going straight up from the same start. Its a really good line and worth persisting with. At present I cannot do one move even after about four sessions on it. But I am getting closer. One thing is for sure, I’ll not get closer to unlocking it if I don’t show up and try. That is the subject of the vlog episode above (Vlog #42).

My blogging frequency has dropped a bit of late since I have been back at university studying lately. Although actually the main sink on my time has been a he task I’ve been putting off for over two years. I’ve been gathering scientific papers related to nutrition for four years now. There are nearly 2000 in my library at this point. I’ve avoided the hard labour of sorting them into buckets so I can easily make sense of them. But I’m attacking that task now. It will take me ages! But there is no short cutting it, and it will be worth it in the end.

I have spent a long time perfecting how to send hard projects which are above my level. Here are five of the most significant top level factors that I use constantly, either consciously or otherwise to make the send happen.

Many people ask me how to get started climbing outdoors. This is what I did, what my climbing heroes did and why it worked.

Here is a short clip of me climbing Paradise Lost 8B/+ in Switzerland. I’m a real fan of this type of boulder - long, intricate roofs with some opportunities to find good rests and gymnastic movement generally. I spotted a Marmot dotting about in the talus around the boulder when I was there. So a few days later I came back with my daughter (we were staying down in the valley for a month last summer) and bivvied under the boulder to see if we could spot it. When we woke up in the morning, it was sitting right beside the boulder. Too easy!

This boulder was put up by Japanese climber Dai Koyamada, a climber I have always admired for his technique and focus. It was on one of his videos that I first saw it. I have a couple of things to go back for in Sustenpass, but not this autumn. So many other, harder things to do in Scotland right now.

I thought it would be nice to take an overview of the priorities and common mistakes for training for bouldering generally. I’ve pitched this video at climbers who’ve been climbing from a few months to a few years. But I also think it may an idea for much more experienced boulderers to watch it, since the challenge for this group tends to be spotting and unlearning bad habits they’ve developed over time. I go through how to use a bouldering facility to train strength and technique, how to choose good goals and manage your resources to train well.