The Positivity of a New Year

Seeing in the New Year on Ingleborough

So its a new year, where many climbers will begin to write their goals and aspirations for the coming year. Suddenly a new year seems to kick start peoples brains. It gets them thinking about what they want to achieve. Climbing isn't just year on year, it is a continuous journey where we should continue to develop through the winter months and into the following year in one smooth transition. It is hard to continue training through the dark, wet autumnal months and I'm sure many folks performance drops during these months as the number of climbing days is significantly reduced. Mine certainly does. However I have tried to up the ante during the Autumn by getting myself a membership at Inglesport, my local wall, and I feel that I am already making gains through more regular visits. 

New Years Day training at Inglesport

However since the 'new' year, even I am taking a fresh perspective on my climbing. I am becoming more goal orientated and am going to stack the odds in my favour come the new season. After seeing in the new year on the top of Ingleborough, I was straight down to Inglesport on new years day, blasting out the tunes and getting in a boulder session. My awesome christmas present, a Beastmaker, has mounted and coupled with the brilliant Beastmaker app is providing structured training to supplement my other climbing. 

Will this be the year of the Beast? Only time and motivation will tell...

The new year also means new rubber. I was lucky enough to find some dry rock over the christmas period, catching up with my good friends Ben and Kirsty, we managed to get a boulder session at Brimham Rock. It was great to be out on rock again rather than plastic, and this one session has reignited my enthusiasm to get out on the rock as much as possible in the new year. There were a couple of problems at Brimham that I struggled on, not because I wasn't strong enough, or my skin too worn, but because of my equipment. It was frustrating, my boots were too worn, no edges left which meant I had no chance of standing on the small pebbles which prevented topping out. So new boots for me then! 

Some dry rock at Brimham Rocks

New year, new rubber. Scarpa Vapor Lace.

The pile of guidebooks has appeared at my bedside table as I'm looking for routes to add to the list for this year. I have got to a stage in my climbing where I am not as focussed about aiming towards particular grades, my climbing is about exploring crags I have not visited before. There are still quite a few. I am already looking towards climbing trips for the year, as I am heading to Norway next week to climb at the ice hotspot of Rjukan, Claire and I are already looking at heading to Lofoten in the far north of Norway. 

Lofoten looks amazing, just google it!

The last new for me this year is the launch of my own business, Olly Roberts Climbing. I hope to have inspired anyone that reads my blog, but maybe I can be a part of the development of your climbing. My website is now live, but updating and developing it is a never ending process and constructive criticism is more than welcome. So contact me if you would like to try climbing or hillwalking, move outdoors onto rock, guided multi-pitch routes and much more. All courses are bespoke and structured around your aims and aspirations.