Journey to V8

It all started in a cave, it was dark and cold and the squeaking and cries of bats echoed in the cave walls. My body ached, as I looked up seeing the light above slowly being blocked as the fluttering of bats fills my vision.

Disturbed and frightened I knew I needed to-

Okay, no it wasn’t like that this isn’t an epic or the beginning of Batman... Well maybe, if it was I definitely wouldn’t tell you but this series is all going to be about why I started climbing, why I continued and my journey from V0 to V8.

Now before we start let me just make a few things clear before we begin.

You should read this for two reasons hopefully:

• To pick up helpful tips and tricks I learned

• Avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into

• Why not, I’m entertaining and can probably recommend an interesting thing or two even if nothing else is helpful…

What else…

Ah yes, what’s a V0 or V8? it's a grading scale in rock climbing specifically bouldering normally used in North America versus the Font Scale which would be 4 to 7B/7B+.

Alternatively, if you don’t know what bouldering is, you know the crazy guys that seemingly can hold onto air and dreams to climb up a wall?

The first step to becoming those guys is V8. It’s also the standard grade that most indoor bouldering gyms go to before just slapping on a V8+ scale.

Last but not least I’ll explain my beginnings and want to clarify how everyone has a different starting point, strength base and life so this is my journey and hopefully you can read mine and get inspiration to continue on yours.

My Humble Beginnings

The Beginning of Everything

So it all started the day I was born…

No, but it did start out when I was a fifteen-year-old and really interested in climbing… at least this was the first start. I was a bit overweight and as someone who was when he was eight to eleven incredibly fit like… a ten-year-old with a defined six-pack that wasn’t just cause he was skinny?

But I wasn’t that kid anymore, I found the cursed but wonderful creation of distraction a computer and got lazy and stopped playing outside or partaking in sports thus I was getting fat. Though I felt it in my bones, ears, and eyes… Anyways I knew something needed to change.

At that point, I was around fifteen years old almost sixteen getting closer to his last years of high school and was around two hundred and twenty pounds standing around 5’10” and still pretty strong due to working out once in a while.

I was tired of just going to the Crossfit gym though and I had gone on and off for a while but felt it wasn’t working.

( I was dumb and it would have worked well if I was more consistent but you know…)

Now… here I was overweight and wanting to get into better shape and then I found it. An activity I enjoyed at birthday parties when I was young. Rock climbing, so I went on a diet, which my dad supported me with by also taking part in even if he didn’t need to.

The two protein shakes, light healthy snacks and one meal a day diet… god that one meal was good but the rest was horrible especially the first couple weeks but it did work well.

But that’s not important my questionable diet choices are a different matter rock climbing is what’s important.

I signed up for the youth camp at my nearby rock climbing gym where I learned how to belay, lead belay (scary at first) and bouldering. It was fun, the different routes the games, learning about how to train and all these different moves and for the next year I slowly progressed getting better and better losing more and more weight.

I went from two hundred and twenty pounds to one hundred and eighty, I started working out more at the Crossfit gym as well and I made steady progress from only being able to climb V0, V1s and the occasional V2, suddenly I could climb a V3 occasionally then near the end of the year I got a V4. It was exciting and I even started to work at the climbing gym and sometimes even climbed with my mom too when we had the time…

Then everything changed, I continued to climb and hit my first “wall” as my weight was no longer dropping and I no longer could progress any further. My frequent progress failed to teach me about these blocks. The stretches of time where I felt I was just hitting a wall doing nothing but falling over and over.

So time passed and then it happened, my mom got injured climbing twisting her ankle and ended up seriously injuring it to where it still has a sequel today. So after the summer when school came around, and I was busier I moved away from rock climbing, and more towards Crossfit as my mom owned a gym so it was both free and more convenient while also avoiding the awkward air of the rock climbing gym my mom got hurt at.

Eventually, I stopped going completely and focused on Crossfit. I actually got quite good at Crossfit competing and doing well in both local and a few larger competitions and got into some of the best shape of my life.

Sadly the good times didn’t last and for the third time in my life, I fell back out of shape not as bad as the first two times in my life but got back to two hundred pounds though muscular, but still overweight as I went on an almost eight-year hiatus from rock climbing before eventually just after Covid and as I was about to turn twenty-three.

A rock climbing gym opened up and the rules just recently dropped. I was feeling overweight and wanted something to do that was unique, I had experience in and would let me lose weight again so with my mom we headed to the gym to try out climbing once again.

My Journey’s Humble Beginnings

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading and learning a bit about where my journey began when I started this climbing journey to V8.

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