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Anthony Robbins believes that one of the steps on the road to success is to create your own magnificent obsession.  While on the road to climbing a 7A, I did just that…  I created an obsession out of rock climbing.  If you really want to nail that project route, here are some tips on how you can send it.

You have to walk, talk, eat, breathe, dream climbing in everything that you do.  That means climbing anything and everything possible.  Even the pedestrian crossing:

Any walls that look remotely climbable (read: as long as it has some sort of feature) you should attempt to climb it:

Never mind if it belongs to a Salsa Club - just as long as nobody comes out to chase you away, you’re good.  Don’t worry about the passerbys either.  A little performance pressure won’t hurt you.

Although it’s probably better if it isn’t and I’m sure you can find something at your local park’s obstacle course that you can practice on.

When it rains and you can’t climb, the beams in the shelter you’re taking cover under make an excellent project to practice your campus power. 

Although a more conventional approach would be to practice on some monkey bars at a park:

Or any weird structure hanging out of nowhere.  As long as you can create some rule that everyone has to follow, you’re good to go.

Climb anything that looks interesting, even if passengers on the train yell at you as if you’re crazy and they think you’re going to kill yourself.  Hey, you’re the climber - you know perfectly well what’s safe and what’s not.

Beach boulders are fantastic as long as you don’t fall and maul yourself on the rough edges.

In fact, any boulder you can find is fair game.

When there aren’t enough ropes or belayers to go around, practice climbing trees.  It’s unconventional, but I’m sure you’ll be learning something.

Climb even after dark.  You really have to squeeze every last climbable hour out of your weekend unless you can get a full time job climbing.

Climb even after a hang over from the night before.  That way, you’ll have a good excuse for your mates even if you can’t send an easy route.

Spend all your birthdays at the crag.  Your friends will think up all sorts of crazy schemes to make you climb just to get your present.

Like make you climb barefoot…

Practice balancing - it’s good for your climbing, really!  Poles like the one in the photo below are great.  The first one to fall off is a rotten egg.

If you don’t have those, a canopy walk’s about the next best thing you can try.

Or one of these lacky band thingos:

Practice your pinch power on a set of scales.

Practice dyno-ing across a chasm - using a rope of course! We’re crazy, yes, but not suicidal!

Travel all day by train,

van,

and boat to get to the climbing mecca in Asia - Krabi. 

Spend Christmas, New Year and every public holiday climbing.  Climb until you miss all your dinner dates, when nobody but your climbing buddies will ever want to plan dinner with you ever again.

And that’s how you get good enough to climb a 7A…

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