Hi!
My name is Johan Svensson and Im 31 years old and I recently started climbing. The reason for writing this blog is mainly to log my progress and to get an alternative outlet for my passion for climbing. The reason for writing in english and not my native language is because I have a lot of non Swedish speaking friends. I started climbing 2011 but only once in a while and enjoyed the times I did. It wasnt until October 2012 that I really started focusing on it. The reason was splitting up an 8 year relationship and I really needed something to take my mind of things and climbing became the perfect instrument. Ever since then I've been climbing four times a week and it has become my soul focus. Besides climbing the only thing I've ever been this dedicated to would have to be snowboarding. I love snowboarding but it's also a sport you need a whole mountain of snow relatively close and sadly it's something I only get to once a year.
Climbing has been great. Not only have I found a use for my ugly big toe that runs in the family but I've also managed to break my weight limit that has constantly been between 78-80kg. Now Im between 84-85kg and it's all muscles I've gained through climbing.
I started out doing a lot of top-roping but with moving from Canada to Sweden and not having anyone to top-rope with I've been doing mostly bouldering. I've gotten my brother to start climbing with me and we recently took our green card (top-rope licence) so hopefully I'll get on with more top-rope and endurance building. I've had tremendous progress with my bouldering. When I left Canada in late february I just started doing V4's now Im doing 6c+ (french). It's really hard to do the conversion and have it be accurate. I've done some searches online to get a good conversion scale but I find the 6c+ being V5-V6 which feels grossly inaccurate.
I have been noticing a tremendous difference though. I've been sick twice in March with one of the worst colds I've ever had so training has suffered as a result. I'll have to admit it's been very hard to stay away from the gym and as soon as I got rid of my cold my performance got a big boost and last week I finished all of the problems I had been working on.
It has forced me to raise the bar a little. My short term goals has all been finished and my long term goal is to do a 5.12 by october next year. A 5.12 being a 7a+ which doesnt feel that far off at all.
I just started pushing for doing 7a's and I've had good progress. One problem I started working on friday went really well and I managed to finish it in two sequences. I was having problems sticking on the last hold (a sloper) but after a lot of analysing I figured out how to shift my body weight and how to position without falling off. I pretty much spent the whole friday at the gym trying to do it and I was so close but couldn't quite get it. So today I was sure I was going to be able to do it. I decided not to spend all my time at the problem since they just redid all of the bouldering problems at the gym and I wanted to try new stuff out. But before I went home I made sure I was somewhat rested and went for it. After falling off a couple of times and brushing off the holds I managed to get to the second last hold. I positioned as planned and managed to stick on the last hold, however it wasn't over yet. I still had to reach the top edge of the wall to finish the problem. Because of the way I advance the problem Im quite tired from moving up my feet hanging on two crimps and after celebreating a bit early going "Yess" just as I stick the last hold and hanging there for a couple of seconds geting some heavy breaths to get some well needed oxygen I bump up for the edge but Im too weak to stick it and I fall off. I was so bummed after getting so far but I learned a well needed lesson, never to spend oxygen going "yes!" before the proplem is solved ;)
My fingers took quite a beating friday on this problem. When grabing a corner of the wall where theres sandpaper to stick I managed to slip off more then twice and sanding the tip of my fingers down until it was bleeding. It's really hard to motivate to try again after that so today I taped my finger tips but that also makes it really hard to stick on certain holds as the tape can roll up and make you fall off.
Im really excited to go outside and try some bouldering. Theres some great places pretty close to where I am and I've been exploring and checking some of them out. I still need to get a crash pad and find someone to bring along but it started snowing yesterday so it will have to wait until the snow is gone. Im also excited to take my lead course. Two of my coworkers climbs but at a different gym and they are looking to do their lead course in about two weeks. Im totaly taging along and im super stoked. I've been wanting to do lead climbing ever since I started with top-roping but I really need to start working on my endurance. Last time I top-roped I came halfway up and started feeling pumped. It's such a big difference when you boulder for too long. I might change gym so I can climb with my coworkers as the only person I know at where I am now doesn't climb that often and my brother wont care either way. I am somewhat hesitant though as after you climb for a while at the gym you get to know everyone and develop a liking for where you are. However I do need to practice my top-roping skills and that means climbing with someone and if that happens to be at a new gym I dont mind, as long as Im climbing!
