Jumping The Grades from 5.10 to 5.11

Just curious to hear how long it took you to progress from "a solid 5.10 climber" to reliably onsight any 5.11a/b, no matter the venue or rock type. Granite, basalt, limestone, sandstone. Single pitch or multi-pitch. Whatever. After how many years did it take for you to elevate your game to be able to make that leap? Was it a gradual process or was it a distinct time threshold where all of a sudden, you found that you were finally able to synthesize your experience, physical strength and mental/emotional training to onsight at that grade?

I'm mainly talking trad climbing here since that's my main interest.

Thanks!

I found that the biggest thing holding me back from climbing hard was truly trying hard and trusting my great, that year I went from 5.9 to 5.12

If your not flying your not trying! But being efficient with gear (getting the gear right the first time, and it being solid) was a huge help. I started just climbing anything reasonable that would protect well, and I made significant progress.

Cool. I get that. I'm just interested in how long it took to go from 5.10 to a 5.11a/b onsight climber. Did you climb 5.10's for five years? 10 years? We 5.10 climbers can rehearse 5.11 pitches into submission and lead them, and onsight the odd pitch here or there. But I'm asking how long were you in the 5.10 realm until you could walk up to any 5.11 and onsight it in reasonable fluidity?

There is no such thing as a magic amount of time to take to get from grade A to grade B. It just won't happen. Person A could climb 5.11 after 40 hours of work and person B may never be able to climb a 5.11 even after 200 hours of work.

Maybe if you have 2 twins that are the same physically you could maybe get close to the same amount of hours but next to that we are all different.

I disagree with you on that one. I think there is a "magic time" where everything coalesces for you to make significant gains, at least what I've found in talking with a few climbers i know who onsight 5.11. Obviously, there are those blessed with the physical and mental talent who get there within a few years of touching rock. They're the outliers.

I would wager that for the average Joe/Jill, who has a full-time job but still takes climbing seriously and takes every opportunity to go climbing once or twice a week, will still have to have what? 10 years experience? 15? Before he/she can onsight any 5.11 they come across.

I've found that projecting well above my onsight ability has drastically improved my onsighting. As others have stated, being able to fire in the right piece the first time will also help increase your ability.

The magic " time" may never come for some, but really project a 12 and see how that goes.

I know strong climbers (5.13) who occasionally wouldn't onsight a certain 11, or fall on one they have done before.

In the latter case it's normally because they aren't trying as hard as they would on a 5.13 and maybe they got complacent, started climbing too quickly and pumped out.

No matter how strong you get I don't think it's realistic to expect to ALWAYS onsight such and such grade. Some climbs are highly beta intensive, others less so...

Progress is more about building your overall abilities so that you are more likely to do well, even when you aren't climbing at your best.

If you are solid in the mid 12s you'll probably almost always onsight most mid range 11s but if you go to a new area or do a funky route and fail to onsight it doesn't mean you're no longer a hardman/woman.

Regardless though when it happens it just happens, it's not something you can set your watch to.

I know people who work at gyms and have climbed every day for 5 years and can't touch a 5.11. I know tons of people who were topping out 5.11 after less than a year of climbing.

If I had to put a real number on it I would say 2 years average from never having climbed but in decent shape to on sighting 5.11 if you were to put training into climbing every week.

Given most people just climb for fun and don't train so that number is really meaningless. But you can't compare 2 people who aren't doing the same type of training regularly and compare how long it takes them to progress, because surprise it will be different.

Heck go to HP40 and there is V2 that will kick V6 climbers off the wall.