UKC

Lucy Creamer has recently redpointed Kalea Borroka (F8b+). This is her hardest route to date and the hardest sport route climbed by a British woman.

In this interview, with superb photos, UKC Editor Jack Geldard speaks direct to Lucy to find out the whole story. What does it take to succeed on a route this tough?

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=47015

In reply to UKC News:

Great effort. Inspiring stuff. Weather has really been shoddy in Spain this year.

In reply to UKC News:

This picture gives a better overall view of the route.

http://dave.scottishclimbs.com/2006/11/

In reply to Simon Lee: awesome!!!

In reply to UKC News:

shikading

In reply to UKC News:

Very interesting. And top tip from Lucy

"going climbing is one of the best ways [to improve your sport climbing]; using what you've already got to its best advantage. It's probably easier to push your redpoint grade by training your weaknesses indoors but improving onsighting comes down to mileage on rock, thinking quick and clever and being fit. These aren't so easy to train in the gym, as they are time consuming and are gained through experience. Redpointing can be a very effective way to move through the grades, especially for people who have limited time for training."

In reply to Eric Herring: I totally agree with Lucy, mileage is key. But is also unfortunately sometimes hard to get.

But mileage on rock, be it bouldering, sport or trad is the way to go.

Awesome effort by Lucy on this route. Looks amazing.

Jack

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC:

Good effort Lucy.

You've hit the nail on the head about mileage. For some like me, the local wall or training kit (rock rings, fingerboards etc.) is really the only option when the outdoor stuff is far away.

Interesting to combine Lucy's comment with this from Dave MacLeod's blog from 30 Sept 07:

"It comes down to the most basic training principle of ‘specificity’ – what you do you become. If the training is significantly different from the activity being trained for, there will be a problem in translating those gains. Here are some solutions to the problem, which are not rocket science but the only options available:
· The problem most often arises when you train indoors a lot but ultimately want the fitness for outdoor climbs.
· Ideally you would dump the indoor climbing and just train outdoors! But often its not possible due to weather or work schedules. If so you can either plan to make sure you give yourself a period of integration where you do lots of volume of routes outdoors to get used to your new strength and offset the loss of ‘outdoor specific’ technical ability from the indoor work.
· Or, you can limit the strength work to basic strength exercises such as fingerboard/campus board, while still doing all your actual climbing on real rock (or whatever you are training for). This option only works if your schedule allows you not to drop the volume of moves climbed in a given time period.
· Try to maintain regular sessions on your goal rock surface even while you are doing hard training, so your body does not forget how to climb so much!
My solution to this has been to do all my climbing outdoors and never go to a climbing wall (all my climbing goals are on real rock). But I am lucky that my work schedule is often flexible enough to climb when its dry and work when it rains. I supplement my climbing with basic strength work on the fingerboard which does not have a negative impact on my technique.

The negative effect of too much strength work on overall climbing ability is not to be underestimated! You don’t have to look very far to see climbers with fingers strong enough to climb several grades harder if they decided to pay attention to their technique an tactics training."


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