making the most of outdoor climbing opportunities

The final common answer I got about barriers to climbing progress was inconsistent access to the outdoors:

When you're unable to get outside consistently, it can feel like there's added pressure to each outing. You may hold high expectations for yourself and if you don't send something, you feel like you're walking away without "getting anything" from the trip.

Here are some tips for making the most of your outdoor climbing opportunities while trying to balance expectations:

1. Have a long-term plan in mind

Often, our tendency is to have tunnel vision on what exactly we want to accomplish on a weekend trip. However if we focus too much on the exact outcomes from an outdoor day, it makes our success black or white and it's easy to walk away feeling disappointed.

Instead if you have a bigger picture in mind, it can help orient the trip towards more process-based goals. For example if your long-term goal is to send V8, a good outing goal could be something like, "I want to get on at least 3 different V8s this weekend." 

This gives you a realistic goal you can accomplish while also helping you work towards your long-term goal.

2. Use your outdoor goals to guide your indoor practice

Indoor and outdoor climbing are certainly different and each requires it's own skill set. However, you can still align your indoor practice to build towards your outdoor goals.

For example, if your outdoor project is a 45 degree tension crimp boulder, you can seek out similar boulders in the gym or focus on board climbing. Similarly, if you're working on a sustained endurance route, you can train your endurance on a spray wall or make fun link ups in the gym. 

Having the confidence that you're physically prepared can help you focus on learning the specifics of the outdoor climbs you're trying once you're outside.

3. Meet yourself where you're at

Sometimes our ego blocks us from realistically evaluating where we are currently at. It's important to take an honest look and adjust expectations accordingly.

For example, let's say there's a climb you put a lot of work into last season and were very close to sending. Ultimately, you weren't able to finish it and are getting ready to go back to it this season. You might have expectations that you "should" be able to start where you left off and "should" be able to send it quickly.

While it would be great if that was the case (and very well might be!), it's important to remember it took a lot of effort in the past. It might a good amount of effort to get back to where you were previously and this is ok and normal! Hard things are hard.

It doesn't help to beat yourself up if you don't perform the way you initially expected. Take things as they are and adapt your tactics accordingly.