. First V5 ascended . Jun 5, 2025 .

So I went back to that same gym to do that same route, again.

I’m not able to do all the moves of that same V5 that I’ve been struggling with. Chaining all the moves together, I get all the way up to two moves away from the top before it seems I get too tired to both be precise and hold the piece. I’ve tried just those last two moves in isolation but couldn’t do them. It’s quite tricky and angled (for me it is). Here’s where I stand on that route so far:

Not bad, but still not there yet.

I did however successfully ascended a different V5 route today! It feels good to ascend a new grade for the first time. Gives me hope for my yearly goal.

Here it is:

The gyms here often are lower grades and thus V5-V6 is usually the highest grades. There is one gym that has a moonboard however. This board allows you to climb much higher grades as they come in two flavours: a 25 or a 40 degrees angled wall that has nearly 200 holds. The magic of the moonboard is that, when paired to your phone via bluetooth, in conjuction with the moonboard app, gives you access to over 26500 routes that other climbers from all over the world have set using the same layout of holds. The moonboard at my gym is the 40 degrees angle model which is really steep. The lowest grade available on the app is V4. The reason that I’m talking about the moonboard is because I can see that after a certain grade, say V6, the moonboard becomes a better tool to train one than the routes in any of the gyms here. At least, for someone like me who wants to push himself.

. I returned to it . May 24, 2025 .

I returned to that gym and worked on that problem last night. I was able to land the next 3 moves. It looks like I’m 2 moves away from being able to land all the moves. However, the difficulty of climbing is to link all moves in one go. You have to be fresh, your fingers and forearms must not be “pumped” or tired to get the best chance to successfully ascend the boulder problem.

It was interesting climbing with other people closeby. Everybody encouraging everybody else when it’s their turn. Feels like a community effort.

I might need a bit more time to rest this time around as since my last log, I’ve climbed twice on already battered hands. I need a good reset so that I can try hard and not worry about ripping more skin off of my raw fingers.

. Working on a V5 problem . May 16, 2025 .

Went to this small climbing gym today. It’s outdoor so no AC, but it’s been fairly mild lately in Thai summer standard – lots of rain. They grade their routes with colours representing V grades. I did a V5 quite easily, third try, which was surprising as in other gyms, I sometimes struggle with V4 boulders. Anyways, after that one, I spent the remaining 1.5 hours of the session on a V5 crux move that I think I’ll be able to stick in the next session. I had to stop as I had pretty nasty flappers all over my hands.

How many times can a guy stop to tape yet another finger before it becomes ridiculous?

The crux move, or at least what I think is THE move (the beta, they call it), is a right hand undercling with a left hand jug which is already quite wide and into an even wider left hand side jug. At this point, I’m about 90% maximum span width and I need to then dynamically move my right hand into a higher undercling, which is kind of awkward. Before that dynamic move, however, I need to jump while holding myself up with my hands in order to put my left foot on the left side of the boulder to shift my center of gravity.

Apparently, that section of the gym won’t be reset for another 2-3 weeks so I should be able to fit in a few more sessions and be able to do that problem. I just have to try really hard.