Six colours
Colour first,number later.
Every problem in the gym belongs to a coloured circuit. The circuit tells you whether it is for you; the numbers below exist so you can translate when you travel.
The circuits
- YellowV0 · Font 3–4 · first sessions, big holds, everything obvious
- GreenV1–V2 · Font 5–5+ · footwork starts to matter
- BlueV3–V4 · Font 6a–6b · the biggest circuit in the gym
- RedV5–V6 · Font 6c–7a · power, and a plan before you leave the ground
- PurpleV7–V8 · Font 7a+–7c · a handful at a time, set for the regulars
- BlackV9 and up · Font 7c+ · one or two, and they stay up until somebody does them
A grade is a range, not a verdict
The same blue problem can feel like V2 to somebody tall and V4 to somebody with short arms, and both readings are correct. Use the circuit to pick what to try and ignore the number entirely for your first few months — it will tell you nothing useful and it will make you miserable.
Reading the wall
Tags, not tape
Each problem has a tag at its start hold with the circuit colour, the setter's initials and the date it went up. Holds of the circuit colour are on; everything else is off.
Start and finish
Both hands on the tagged start hold, both feet off the ground. Finished means both hands matched on the top hold and controlled — if you fall as you touch it, that was not the top.
Volumes are always on
The big wooden shapes count for every circuit unless a tag says otherwise. Feet may use anything on the slab corner; everywhere else, feet follow the circuit.
The dual-tag problems
Occasionally a line carries two tags, one for each of two circuits, with a different start. Take the one that matches the colour you are climbing.
What is on the wall right now
| Circuit | Problems | Share | Where they are |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | 18 | 17% | Main field and slab corner |
| Green | 22 | 21% | Everywhere except the prow |
| Blue | 31 | 30% | Everywhere |
| Red | 20 | 19% | Main field, prow |
| Purple | 11 | 10% | Prow, steep main field |
| Black | 2 | 2% | Prow |
Getting better at this
Climb more, hang less
For the first year, time on the wall beats anything in the training room. Tendons take longer than muscle to adapt and the hangboard is where impatient people get injured.
Repeat what you have done
Climbing a green you already know, smoothly and silently, teaches you more than thrashing at a blue. Silent feet is a real drill and it is free.
Three sessions, not five
Two to three sessions a week with rest between them will take you further in six months than five will, because you will still be climbing in month six.
Ask somebody
Beta is not cheating and nobody here thinks it is. The person resting under the prow has watched twenty people do that problem and will happily tell you what they did.