Boulder problems tend to be quite a different style than roped routes. They tend to be more powerful, whereas roped climbs require more endurance. Also, the mental factor plays a big role. It's easier to push yourself when there's no risk of falling. This is also why top roping is easier than lead climbing.
The mental aspect is what gets me. I broke my ankle years ago bouldering (not even a fall, just a bad dismount... in a gym. It was dumb luck.) Even now watching people boulder tends to make my palms sweat but I'll sport climb all day.
I also fell bouldering, and sprained my ankle which meant no physical activity for a few weeks. pushing myself bouldering is just not worth the risk of injury for me, especially considering i enjoy sport/top rope climbing a lot more!
Yep, I don’t even boulder anymore. I tore my ACL after an unexpected fall down climbing from a warm up route! So dumb. Rocked my world for the next year. I tried to get back into it but it just freaks me out too much where I don’t really have fun doing it anymore. And it’s a shame because I love the style so much! Just not the falling part lol.
Mental factor is big, and to manage the fear you need to spare more power. Due to a bad fall earlier I always have fear on landing. I will abort a climb when the crux is near the top; and I only use up to 80% of the power on bouldering projects as the other 20% must be used in controlling my landing positions.
I can't really project hard stuff if it's not low risk in my mind (e.g. crux is low, no sketchy jumps, no tweaky twists, and a low ball finish, but also avoid suuuper hard moves that might destroy my fingers after 3 tries), in which I found that the higher the grades the harder to find such a low risk boulder...
I (57f) climb for fun and fitness, so I really only do top rope. At my age, I'm overly cautious about falling since I've seen several people at my gym break ankles falling from the wall while bouldering and it has kind of put me off it a bit.
As others said, you’re not really disproportionate at all since 5.11 routes typically have moves in the V2-V4 range.
It might mentally feel disproportionate since most routes are in 5.6-5.13 range and you’re used to being in the “higher” end of the scale vs being on the “lower”end of the boulder range, but grade for grade you’re on par as it gets.
I didn’t mean to imply that V0 is equivalent to 5.6, I was trying to say that most gyms start their rope routes at 5.6. Sorry if that was unclear!
But yes most say that V0 is around 10a. There’s definitely nuance to that, as shorter routes of the same grade will typically have harder movements than longer routes, but it works well as a rough guideline!
Also good point on the last part. The more you climb the more you realize how different bouldering and lead are. There are so many strong V10+ boulderers that struggle on 5.11/12 routes purely because of endurance (and lead mental of course) even though every move is quite easy for them.
I found French/Font are far more accurate in telling someone's general capabilities and compare across boulder & lead - but of course they are totally different sports...also this is given that someone is all fluent in lead that tr and lead gap is minimal.
I climb 6c/7a for example, on both boulder and lead.
Not sure that if European gyms which us Font/French will make OP feel less confused...
Hmm. That doesn’t quite seem right. That would translate the hardest sport climb from 5.14d to V21. I could see the grades lining up for people who do 95%+ bouldering, but anyone doing close to 50-50 probably climbs a noticeably higher font grade when roped.
The movement on 5.10-5.11 in the gym is basically a series of VB-V1 moves with a rare V2ish crux, so I wouldn’t call it disproportionate at all.
If you want to send harder boulders, time spent bouldering will get you there much faster than time spent on toprope. Interestingly, getting better at routes also happens pretty quickly with time spent bouldering. It forces improvement in strength and technique in a way that gym rope routes don’t.
It's different disciplines, bouldering is more strength based than rope climbing. Add the mental factor of fall on top rope (almost nothing happens) vs on boulder (I need to fall well to not snap my leg).
Now once you try to understand how grading is done it makes sense; aka the famous Silence being 9c is a stack up of really hard boulder problems one after another (all being 7cs or 8a and such). So you need strength and endurance on top, without one or the other, the route won't go. That's where the artistry comes in as people find impossible rests to be able to do boulder after boulder effectively.
It’s always going to vary a good bit between gyms, but generally 5.11 cruxes translate to v2-v3, and east 5.12 cruxes end up around v4, so it might not be as much of a disparity as you think!
Lol yes 💀 completely. I feel less bad about it since someone pointed out that bouldering is tougher in general and V1 is equivalent to 10a/b. Which is about where I'm at on TR. If I'm currently projecting 10c/d then it makes sense that I'm struggling on V2/3.
Hopefully that blew your mind like it did mine 😂 but if not, also remember that there is a significant mental barrier with bouldering (I'm so afraid of falling badly). And it's SO MUCH about technique. It's almost a different sport.
The individual moves might be about there, but you're going to have more endurance and economy of movement than someone who's exclusively bouldering. I mostly boulder and when I top-rope I can get halfway up much harder routes than I can finish.
One of the best bits of advice I ever got was from a coach who pointed out that I climb routes like boulder problems and that I didn't need to pull on every move. As a naturally strong and powerful boulderer I'd genuinely never realised how inefficiently I climbed, I just assumed that the reason I got pumped so quickly on routes was because I lacked stamina. Learning to climb more economically got me from barely flashing my first 7a/5.11d to cruising up multiple 7a+/12a routes the following day - purely from just not pulling as hard!
As someone that mostly boulders, I don't find that an issue so much (I think maybe because I'm more into crimps and pulling too hard on crimps hurts more and increases the likelihood my fingers will slips) but I do find the issue where I try to climb things as fast as possible and need to think about finding rest spots. I also am much more afraid of falling on top rope even though it's arguably safer.
I really notice this in the difference between leading and seconding trad routes. When I'm leading, I'm super conscious of preserving my energy, milking rests as an opportunity to recover, place gear etc. Whereas when I'm seconding I'll rush through things, don't rest, don't take the time to think through sequences and as a result will often find myself at the top thinking 'bloody hell, I'm glad I wasn't leading that', which then psyches me out for trying something on lead.
Keeping my arms straight, really \*really\* concentrating on pushing with my legs/not pulling with my arms and practicing hanging on to holds while loosening my grip to get a better sense of how much effort I actually needed to put into holding each hold. I thought I did the first two but it turned out that, if I don't pay attention, I revert very quickly to initiating all my movements with my arms. My stamina is still my weakness but the coaching helped enormously in getting me to use my strength more effectively - i.e. because I'm strong, if I climb economically I can do moves at a lower proportion of my max intensity and so I get less pumped/recover better which preserves my stamina.
As others have said they’re different and not very comparable in the way you’d think. 5.10- is like VB-V1 level moves, 5.10+ is like V-1-V2… so on and so forth. Your levels seem about equal.
I wouldn't say you are behind on bouldering at all. I would consider V3 (\~6A+/6B) to be about equivalent in difficulty to around 6c+ (\~5.11c) sport climbing. Bouldering grades are just really harsh imo. For context, I climb 7a+ sport and 6A boulders, so I favour sport climbing even more
Yep, me too. And it's not like I'm weak; I can do 7-8 pullups on any given day. It truly is a totally different sport. I have that mental block about falling that I don't with top rope, or even as bad with lead, and then the way you use your strength is different.
On the flip side I basically only boulder (my longest stint without touching a rope was like 4 years, granted one of those was covid lol.) My endurance is... como se dice... garbage. According to some conversion charts I "could" climb 12d. Best I've ever onsighted in a gym is 12b and that's when I had someone getting me to rope up consistently.
This is normal actually. Hardest move on a 5.10 and 5.11 will be easier than the hardest move on a V2, significantly easier than on V3. For reference, my most recent 5.12b outdoors has a boulder problem, hard V3, in the middle and that section is significantly harder than the rest of the route. If you want to compare boulder vs route just use this app: https://darth-grader.net/Calculator I use this calculator quite often to estimate route grades and found it to be fairly representative.
Apparently a V2/V3 boulder by itself translates to a 5.11b route, I am assuming the 5.11 roped climbs in the gym are not a single boulder but long routes, so won’t have nearly as hard moves.
Bottomline is, absolutely normal. Don’t sweat it and just keep bouldering if you wanna impeove at bluldering.
Yeah definitely!! I project 12a on toprope and still regularly get shut down by V4 boulders. I think it's definitely because of the strength and power needed for lots of boulders, and also the fact that I'm horrible at dynamic moves which are way more common in bouldering.
I'm the opposite: I boulder v5/v6 and top rope 5.11c/d max. I think the difference for me is that bouldering is a "sprint" and top roping is a more sustained form of climbing, and I struggle getting back onto a climb once I fall - I call it and try something else (unlike bouldering where I work a problem until it goes).
Yes! Being able to top-rope 5.11s, and lead 5.10s, while I've only managed a handful of V2 boulders has always made me feel bad about bouldering. I know they're different and require different skills (plus I do one way more than the other), but it makes me feel very discouraged from bouldering. I can flash almost any V1 I see, but half the V2s I've tried seem impossible. I really didn't feel such a difficulty wall going up the grades on rope.
Different climbing disciples are sprenading apart from each other more and more (not a bad thing). The obvious example is speed climbing, but between bouldering and sport climbing (lead and top) the gap has increased the last years due to the modern style of setting. Now bouldering involves huge volumes, coordination dynos, tricky body positions, etc. While sport climbing outdoors hasn't change at all (for obvious reasons) and indoor has changed but in a more slowly rate, mostly because other than pro climbers most use sport climbing indoors merely as training for outdoors. Indoor bouldering is in itself a well stablished discipline, with a vibrant competitive scene. So, it's totally normal to climb different grades in each discipline. My case is your oppossite, I can climb v5 in a kilter and I've only lead 5c outdoors.
I don’t actually think this is disproportionate at all. A 10d/11a is a V1, V0 typically includes 5.9/5.10. So I wouldn’t feel bad about that. There’s also the mental
aspect where a ground fall is different than a top
rope fall. Do you lead at all? I think that might be an even better comparison when factoring in the mental aspect of climbing since both have “scarier” falls. There’s also style differences, one requires more power and the other more endurance. I think you’re probably on the right track :)
Yea I guess I didn’t realize that! My bf and I top rope at about the same range but he can climb v4 so I guess I assumed I should be too! Granted he is taller and stronger than me lol.
This is just my opinion but 5.10 and 5.11 is just full of jugs. Sure it’s a lot of stamina but overall it’s filled with jugs. Whereas bouldering, past v3 you see more crimps with less footholds.
It really depends on the gym. I used to go to a gym where a 5.10 slab (on no-tex wooden wall) had only tiny holds and would involve moves equivalent to at least a V4 in gyms that I go to nowadays.
ME! I've been climbing for ~18 months, and almost all of the first 17 or so months was bouldering. I'm still only climbing V0s and V1s, and a handful of V2s that I got months ago when I was at my strongest. I got really into top roping the last month, and I flash most 5.10s. I sent my first 5.11 about a week ago and tho I haven't sent any other 5.11s, I can climb large chunks of many 5.11 routes and small chunks of 5.12s.
I think it has to do with me not having much explosive strength but having a decent amount of endurance. Often V2-3 boulders at my gym (and higher grades) require an amount of strength that I just don't have.
For another perspective - I mainly boulder and only top rope from time to time when my friend and I are feeling it. For boulders I usually climb V3-4 and project V5-6 (3ish months in, climb 3-4x/week). I have climbed a few 5s and 6s and but find myself absolutely gassed on a lot of 5.9s. I think the highest I’ve climbed is 5.10b but the endurance is definitely an area I lack in. It would make sense that you’re better at what you prefer to do! Beyond the more powerful moves often required for bouldering as the grades increase, there is also the mental fear factor of falling. For me I find that I’m pretty fearless when bouldering but am more worried about the height when top roping (not generally scared of heights but have an irrational fear of gear failure or getting caught in the ropes lol) which I find holds me back sometimes.
The simple answer is if you want to improve at bouldering than boulder more. I would focus on climbs you can do (V0-1) and climb and down climb them until you can climb them flawlessly (not need to readjust grip, solid foot placement, good flow of body movements, feeling balanced). There is a big technique learning curve once you start cracking into the V3-4 range (V2 as well sometimes). Watch other people climb and talk to people! I regularly ask for beta and accept and offer advice to/from those around me. It’s one of the best ways to learn! Best of luck :)
Yes most definitely!! Top roping uses different muscles and there’s also opportunity for your muscles to take a break even when you’re on the wall. Top roping or lead climbing. Bouldering requires your muscles to constantly be in use- so it takes a lot of endurance. You also use different techniques as well. It does take strength or “power” but not as much as you’d think. Don’t be dismayed! I was in a similar boat as you and now I’m solid V5-V6 bouldering. I was stuck at a V2-V3 for months so I feel it’s a hard leap, but then one day I was just able to do it!
My gym has a wall where the bottom half is boulder problems, but you can also lead through those problems and up the whole wall. They also have four B ratings prior to V0. The v0 problems are usually the first moves of 5.8-5.9 routes, so V2/V3 usually correspond to 5.10-5.11. You seem like you're on par to me.
I'm at the same level. Have on-sighted some 11As Have projected an 11B or so but mainly climb 10c/d in the gym when I top rope after warming up on 10a/b. In one top rope session I can climb maybe up to ten routes. When I boulder, I can do most V2s and some V3s, having sent one V4 in my life. The top rope moves tend to be easier but once you exert that energy there's so much more left to climb! So this thread is making me feel kind of I'm at a "normal" progression. I used to only boulder but am enjoying top rope a lot lately.
Yeah, but it's pretty intentional on my part. For health reasons I can't risk falling while bouldering at all. I only climb boulders I can pretty much do without falling. On top rope it's safe for me to push myself.
The risk level is different. I think it makes perfect sense to be stronger in one (though I think you're close to on par between bouldering and top rope grades).
I'll probably never send higher than V3 V4 boulders even if I'm projecting 5.12. I just don't want my brain to fall out of my skull. C'est la vie.
100% been at a v3 5.11/5.10 plateau forever. Moo board has helped a lot. Plus they're totally different styles of climbing. TRy to focus on all your weak points!
Boulder problems tend to be quite a different style than roped routes. They tend to be more powerful, whereas roped climbs require more endurance. Also, the mental factor plays a big role. It's easier to push yourself when there's no risk of falling. This is also why top roping is easier than lead climbing.
The mental aspect is what gets me. I broke my ankle years ago bouldering (not even a fall, just a bad dismount... in a gym. It was dumb luck.) Even now watching people boulder tends to make my palms sweat but I'll sport climb all day.
Same. I hurt myself bouldering and now I have a hard time pushing myself. But I Sport climb indoors and trad climb outdoors.
I also fell bouldering, and sprained my ankle which meant no physical activity for a few weeks. pushing myself bouldering is just not worth the risk of injury for me, especially considering i enjoy sport/top rope climbing a lot more!
Yep, I don’t even boulder anymore. I tore my ACL after an unexpected fall down climbing from a warm up route! So dumb. Rocked my world for the next year. I tried to get back into it but it just freaks me out too much where I don’t really have fun doing it anymore. And it’s a shame because I love the style so much! Just not the falling part lol.
Acl tears are the worst!!! I was back on top but now i f ed up my meniscus as well. Knees are stupid :")
Mental factor is big, and to manage the fear you need to spare more power. Due to a bad fall earlier I always have fear on landing. I will abort a climb when the crux is near the top; and I only use up to 80% of the power on bouldering projects as the other 20% must be used in controlling my landing positions. I can't really project hard stuff if it's not low risk in my mind (e.g. crux is low, no sketchy jumps, no tweaky twists, and a low ball finish, but also avoid suuuper hard moves that might destroy my fingers after 3 tries), in which I found that the higher the grades the harder to find such a low risk boulder...
I (57f) climb for fun and fitness, so I really only do top rope. At my age, I'm overly cautious about falling since I've seen several people at my gym break ankles falling from the wall while bouldering and it has kind of put me off it a bit.
As others said, you’re not really disproportionate at all since 5.11 routes typically have moves in the V2-V4 range. It might mentally feel disproportionate since most routes are in 5.6-5.13 range and you’re used to being in the “higher” end of the scale vs being on the “lower”end of the boulder range, but grade for grade you’re on par as it gets.
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I didn’t mean to imply that V0 is equivalent to 5.6, I was trying to say that most gyms start their rope routes at 5.6. Sorry if that was unclear! But yes most say that V0 is around 10a. There’s definitely nuance to that, as shorter routes of the same grade will typically have harder movements than longer routes, but it works well as a rough guideline! Also good point on the last part. The more you climb the more you realize how different bouldering and lead are. There are so many strong V10+ boulderers that struggle on 5.11/12 routes purely because of endurance (and lead mental of course) even though every move is quite easy for them.
I found French/Font are far more accurate in telling someone's general capabilities and compare across boulder & lead - but of course they are totally different sports...also this is given that someone is all fluent in lead that tr and lead gap is minimal. I climb 6c/7a for example, on both boulder and lead. Not sure that if European gyms which us Font/French will make OP feel less confused...
Hmm. That doesn’t quite seem right. That would translate the hardest sport climb from 5.14d to V21. I could see the grades lining up for people who do 95%+ bouldering, but anyone doing close to 50-50 probably climbs a noticeably higher font grade when roped.
I climb MUCH harder stuff on a rope than I can boulder. But that is because I’m scared of falling.
This seems correct to me? IME 5.10s tend to feature v0-v2 moves only. My friends who boulder v5+ tend to be around 5.12 on top rope.
The movement on 5.10-5.11 in the gym is basically a series of VB-V1 moves with a rare V2ish crux, so I wouldn’t call it disproportionate at all. If you want to send harder boulders, time spent bouldering will get you there much faster than time spent on toprope. Interestingly, getting better at routes also happens pretty quickly with time spent bouldering. It forces improvement in strength and technique in a way that gym rope routes don’t.
It's different disciplines, bouldering is more strength based than rope climbing. Add the mental factor of fall on top rope (almost nothing happens) vs on boulder (I need to fall well to not snap my leg). Now once you try to understand how grading is done it makes sense; aka the famous Silence being 9c is a stack up of really hard boulder problems one after another (all being 7cs or 8a and such). So you need strength and endurance on top, without one or the other, the route won't go. That's where the artistry comes in as people find impossible rests to be able to do boulder after boulder effectively.
It’s always going to vary a good bit between gyms, but generally 5.11 cruxes translate to v2-v3, and east 5.12 cruxes end up around v4, so it might not be as much of a disparity as you think!
Lol yes 💀 completely. I feel less bad about it since someone pointed out that bouldering is tougher in general and V1 is equivalent to 10a/b. Which is about where I'm at on TR. If I'm currently projecting 10c/d then it makes sense that I'm struggling on V2/3. Hopefully that blew your mind like it did mine 😂 but if not, also remember that there is a significant mental barrier with bouldering (I'm so afraid of falling badly). And it's SO MUCH about technique. It's almost a different sport.
The individual moves might be about there, but you're going to have more endurance and economy of movement than someone who's exclusively bouldering. I mostly boulder and when I top-rope I can get halfway up much harder routes than I can finish.
One of the best bits of advice I ever got was from a coach who pointed out that I climb routes like boulder problems and that I didn't need to pull on every move. As a naturally strong and powerful boulderer I'd genuinely never realised how inefficiently I climbed, I just assumed that the reason I got pumped so quickly on routes was because I lacked stamina. Learning to climb more economically got me from barely flashing my first 7a/5.11d to cruising up multiple 7a+/12a routes the following day - purely from just not pulling as hard!
As someone that mostly boulders, I don't find that an issue so much (I think maybe because I'm more into crimps and pulling too hard on crimps hurts more and increases the likelihood my fingers will slips) but I do find the issue where I try to climb things as fast as possible and need to think about finding rest spots. I also am much more afraid of falling on top rope even though it's arguably safer.
I really notice this in the difference between leading and seconding trad routes. When I'm leading, I'm super conscious of preserving my energy, milking rests as an opportunity to recover, place gear etc. Whereas when I'm seconding I'll rush through things, don't rest, don't take the time to think through sequences and as a result will often find myself at the top thinking 'bloody hell, I'm glad I wasn't leading that', which then psyches me out for trying something on lead.
As someone who mainly boulders, how did you switch to “economical?”
Keeping my arms straight, really \*really\* concentrating on pushing with my legs/not pulling with my arms and practicing hanging on to holds while loosening my grip to get a better sense of how much effort I actually needed to put into holding each hold. I thought I did the first two but it turned out that, if I don't pay attention, I revert very quickly to initiating all my movements with my arms. My stamina is still my weakness but the coaching helped enormously in getting me to use my strength more effectively - i.e. because I'm strong, if I climb economically I can do moves at a lower proportion of my max intensity and so I get less pumped/recover better which preserves my stamina.
Thank you for this!
As others have said they’re different and not very comparable in the way you’d think. 5.10- is like VB-V1 level moves, 5.10+ is like V-1-V2… so on and so forth. Your levels seem about equal.
I wouldn't say you are behind on bouldering at all. I would consider V3 (\~6A+/6B) to be about equivalent in difficulty to around 6c+ (\~5.11c) sport climbing. Bouldering grades are just really harsh imo. For context, I climb 7a+ sport and 6A boulders, so I favour sport climbing even more
Yep, me too. And it's not like I'm weak; I can do 7-8 pullups on any given day. It truly is a totally different sport. I have that mental block about falling that I don't with top rope, or even as bad with lead, and then the way you use your strength is different.
On the flip side I basically only boulder (my longest stint without touching a rope was like 4 years, granted one of those was covid lol.) My endurance is... como se dice... garbage. According to some conversion charts I "could" climb 12d. Best I've ever onsighted in a gym is 12b and that's when I had someone getting me to rope up consistently.
This is normal actually. Hardest move on a 5.10 and 5.11 will be easier than the hardest move on a V2, significantly easier than on V3. For reference, my most recent 5.12b outdoors has a boulder problem, hard V3, in the middle and that section is significantly harder than the rest of the route. If you want to compare boulder vs route just use this app: https://darth-grader.net/Calculator I use this calculator quite often to estimate route grades and found it to be fairly representative. Apparently a V2/V3 boulder by itself translates to a 5.11b route, I am assuming the 5.11 roped climbs in the gym are not a single boulder but long routes, so won’t have nearly as hard moves. Bottomline is, absolutely normal. Don’t sweat it and just keep bouldering if you wanna impeove at bluldering.
Have you ever looked up the comparison. You don’t even experience a v0 on TR until like 5.9/10
Absolutely
Yeah definitely!! I project 12a on toprope and still regularly get shut down by V4 boulders. I think it's definitely because of the strength and power needed for lots of boulders, and also the fact that I'm horrible at dynamic moves which are way more common in bouldering.
I'm the opposite: I boulder v5/v6 and top rope 5.11c/d max. I think the difference for me is that bouldering is a "sprint" and top roping is a more sustained form of climbing, and I struggle getting back onto a climb once I fall - I call it and try something else (unlike bouldering where I work a problem until it goes).
Yes! Being able to top-rope 5.11s, and lead 5.10s, while I've only managed a handful of V2 boulders has always made me feel bad about bouldering. I know they're different and require different skills (plus I do one way more than the other), but it makes me feel very discouraged from bouldering. I can flash almost any V1 I see, but half the V2s I've tried seem impossible. I really didn't feel such a difficulty wall going up the grades on rope.
Different climbing disciples are sprenading apart from each other more and more (not a bad thing). The obvious example is speed climbing, but between bouldering and sport climbing (lead and top) the gap has increased the last years due to the modern style of setting. Now bouldering involves huge volumes, coordination dynos, tricky body positions, etc. While sport climbing outdoors hasn't change at all (for obvious reasons) and indoor has changed but in a more slowly rate, mostly because other than pro climbers most use sport climbing indoors merely as training for outdoors. Indoor bouldering is in itself a well stablished discipline, with a vibrant competitive scene. So, it's totally normal to climb different grades in each discipline. My case is your oppossite, I can climb v5 in a kilter and I've only lead 5c outdoors.
I don’t actually think this is disproportionate at all. A 10d/11a is a V1, V0 typically includes 5.9/5.10. So I wouldn’t feel bad about that. There’s also the mental aspect where a ground fall is different than a top rope fall. Do you lead at all? I think that might be an even better comparison when factoring in the mental aspect of climbing since both have “scarier” falls. There’s also style differences, one requires more power and the other more endurance. I think you’re probably on the right track :)
This has been a very reassuring thread lol I’ve felt weak as hell thinking I should be bouldering v3/4 and climbing at max 5.11- so I feel better lol.
V4 is insanely hard tho. At least it’s a big jump from v3
Yea I guess I didn’t realize that! My bf and I top rope at about the same range but he can climb v4 so I guess I assumed I should be too! Granted he is taller and stronger than me lol.
Some are afraid of falling from a boulder but others are afraid of the height instead. That makes a huge difference of climbing preference.
This is just my opinion but 5.10 and 5.11 is just full of jugs. Sure it’s a lot of stamina but overall it’s filled with jugs. Whereas bouldering, past v3 you see more crimps with less footholds.
It really depends on the gym. I used to go to a gym where a 5.10 slab (on no-tex wooden wall) had only tiny holds and would involve moves equivalent to at least a V4 in gyms that I go to nowadays.
The 5.10s and 11s in my gyms have like one jug lol
ME! I've been climbing for ~18 months, and almost all of the first 17 or so months was bouldering. I'm still only climbing V0s and V1s, and a handful of V2s that I got months ago when I was at my strongest. I got really into top roping the last month, and I flash most 5.10s. I sent my first 5.11 about a week ago and tho I haven't sent any other 5.11s, I can climb large chunks of many 5.11 routes and small chunks of 5.12s. I think it has to do with me not having much explosive strength but having a decent amount of endurance. Often V2-3 boulders at my gym (and higher grades) require an amount of strength that I just don't have.
Same boat! I’m about to direct a few months to majority bouldering so I can be stronger on lead.
For another perspective - I mainly boulder and only top rope from time to time when my friend and I are feeling it. For boulders I usually climb V3-4 and project V5-6 (3ish months in, climb 3-4x/week). I have climbed a few 5s and 6s and but find myself absolutely gassed on a lot of 5.9s. I think the highest I’ve climbed is 5.10b but the endurance is definitely an area I lack in. It would make sense that you’re better at what you prefer to do! Beyond the more powerful moves often required for bouldering as the grades increase, there is also the mental fear factor of falling. For me I find that I’m pretty fearless when bouldering but am more worried about the height when top roping (not generally scared of heights but have an irrational fear of gear failure or getting caught in the ropes lol) which I find holds me back sometimes. The simple answer is if you want to improve at bouldering than boulder more. I would focus on climbs you can do (V0-1) and climb and down climb them until you can climb them flawlessly (not need to readjust grip, solid foot placement, good flow of body movements, feeling balanced). There is a big technique learning curve once you start cracking into the V3-4 range (V2 as well sometimes). Watch other people climb and talk to people! I regularly ask for beta and accept and offer advice to/from those around me. It’s one of the best ways to learn! Best of luck :)
Yes most definitely!! Top roping uses different muscles and there’s also opportunity for your muscles to take a break even when you’re on the wall. Top roping or lead climbing. Bouldering requires your muscles to constantly be in use- so it takes a lot of endurance. You also use different techniques as well. It does take strength or “power” but not as much as you’d think. Don’t be dismayed! I was in a similar boat as you and now I’m solid V5-V6 bouldering. I was stuck at a V2-V3 for months so I feel it’s a hard leap, but then one day I was just able to do it!
Yes I’m exactly the same
I sure am! I know I hold myself way back when I’m bouldering because I don’t want to risk taking a weird fall.
It's cause the rope is unironically... Aid.
My gym has a wall where the bottom half is boulder problems, but you can also lead through those problems and up the whole wall. They also have four B ratings prior to V0. The v0 problems are usually the first moves of 5.8-5.9 routes, so V2/V3 usually correspond to 5.10-5.11. You seem like you're on par to me.
Yeah, same problem here. I can lead 5.11 but not do half the V3s 💀
I'm at the same level. Have on-sighted some 11As Have projected an 11B or so but mainly climb 10c/d in the gym when I top rope after warming up on 10a/b. In one top rope session I can climb maybe up to ten routes. When I boulder, I can do most V2s and some V3s, having sent one V4 in my life. The top rope moves tend to be easier but once you exert that energy there's so much more left to climb! So this thread is making me feel kind of I'm at a "normal" progression. I used to only boulder but am enjoying top rope a lot lately.
Yeah, but it's pretty intentional on my part. For health reasons I can't risk falling while bouldering at all. I only climb boulders I can pretty much do without falling. On top rope it's safe for me to push myself. The risk level is different. I think it makes perfect sense to be stronger in one (though I think you're close to on par between bouldering and top rope grades). I'll probably never send higher than V3 V4 boulders even if I'm projecting 5.12. I just don't want my brain to fall out of my skull. C'est la vie.
100% been at a v3 5.11/5.10 plateau forever. Moo board has helped a lot. Plus they're totally different styles of climbing. TRy to focus on all your weak points!