The Making of a 5.14 Climber

March 27th, 2000 / Week 7
We've had time to do a couple of interviews with other climbers in the industry to see what they thought was the true key to unlocking the 5.14 door. Tanya Faw from Rock and Ice gave us some valuable insight as someone who is involved in the industry and who once did nothing but climb. Tanya feels that there are two keys to reaching 5.14, an incredible mental drive and being able to train constantly. "You must have goals and a drive to reach those goals. You must be driven to train even when you have strep-throat." She feels that this intense determination isn't something that you everyone has and that you won't be able to reach 5.14 on natural ability alone. Her other key point was that "you must be able, financially, to do nothing but climb." For most of us, that just isn't possible, but we here at MW feel that they may not be necessarily true. Granted, we have little to base it on, but going on our past month and a half's progress, we feel we may be on to something. However, Tanya quickly pointed out that the level Chuck has reached is only the beginning. "From 5.2 to 5.11, the grades move quickly, but from 5.11a to 5.14d, there is more like 12 grades than 3," Tanya believes. If this is the case, 5.14d is actually more like 5.23! Assuming this is true, not only does it appear that we're way further from our goal than we first thought, but it will take someone who is extremely mentally tough to stick with hard-core training long enough to reach 5.19 (5.19 in our "new" scale would be the same as 5.14a--good enough for us!).
We still feel we have a good shot, seeing how Chuck has built 4 successful companies almost completely on his own. That earns our vote for mental toughness. He also seems to move across the rock fairly naturally and smoothly and with little hesitancy in making the moves. In order to demonstrate the validity of our test and our guinea pig, we are going to be putting together some streaming video of him climbing at Paradise Rock Gym in order to show you that he is nothing more than your average joe. Below are the results for week 7.

Week 7 Climbing Update

3/27/00-Lifting weights today, climbing tomorrow. We'll also be videotaping and taking pictures to let you watch the action as it unfolds. Tomorrow holds to be a big day as Chuck goes for his first greenpoint 5.11-. We'll have it on video so you can see what happens on Wednesday.

3/28/00-5.11- successfully greenpointed! We have it on video and progress continues to do well. To watch the video, click here and then choose your modem speed.

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The Making of a 5.14 Climber