“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”

― Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and Beyond

Since September, when I started training again in the midst of COVID, I’ve made 20 multi-hour trips to speed walls here in Texas. Unfortunately, the closest 15-meter speed wall to where I live in Austin is 144 miles which takes just a little over two hours to reach. In addition to the athletic and mental challenges of speed climbing, this is another obstacle for me to overcome to be the best in the sport. 

Speed climbing is a newer sport that has risen in popularity over the past decade. It will be seen for the first time in Olympic history in Tokyo this summer. The 15-meter route has been standardized so the holds, hold placements, timers, and even the 5% inverse angle of the wall are nearly identical in every professional competition. With such precision required for an IFSC-certified wall and the significant cost to build a facility to hold such a wall, not many speed walls have been built in the United States.

While there are a couple large-scale climbing gyms in Austin, including Austin Bouldering Project, there are no 15-meter-tall gyms which could house a certified speed wall. The closest speed climbing wall to me is a two-hour drive to Momentum Climbing in Katy.

Challenges:

  • Because the nearest speed climbing wall is a four-hour roundtrip, it is not feasible for me to train on the speed wall daily or even weekly. I typically am on the wall four or five days a month. This is a major challenge because I am limited to perfecting my beta in multiple hour sessions every two or three weeks. Other climbers who live near a speed wall can climb daily for however long they want.
  • The long drive to and from Katy results in a lot of car time. I do my best to knock out as much homework and reading in the car as I can.
  • Another challenge of not being in close vicinity of a speed wall is that not all my speed climbing sessions are great when I am at a speed wall. For most climbers when they are having a bad session, they just go home without worries, but since I just spent two hours getting to the speed wall, I must continue climbing and make the best of it. Minor injuries, scrapes, aches, bruises, and strains do not ruin a session but can make it challenging to complete a full run and get the most out of my time in the gym.
  • On top of being separated from the 15m speed wall by two hours, my climbing coach and team live four hours away in Dallas, Texas. I rarely train with my team and coach and not at all during COVID. While I use video coaching technology with my coach in Dallas, I mainly train by myself. I also watch a lot of World Cup speed climbing competition videos to learn the techniques of the professional climbers. It has been fourteen months since I have seen my speed coach, but I have communicated with him through texting, Slack chat, and video lessons to improve my form on the wall.

Pros:

  • While having to drive hours just to practice climbing is not optimal, it does have some positives. For one, I do a lot more strength training than I would normally do if I lived near a speed wall. I have spent hundreds of hours in my garage gym during COVID squatting, box jumping, dead lifting, bench pressing, and pumping iron on a myriad of other exercises. I am now stronger than I have every been. After a certain point, your speed climbing beta will not improve much and building strength is the only way to improve. I have not completely perfected my beta yet, but at my current stage, strength training is much more valuable.

  • Additionally, since I do not climb the 15m wall daily, I have more motivation to work hard when I am on the 15m wall due to the limited time I have. I definitely enjoy and value my time much more when I am on the 15m wall than I would if I lived close to the wall.
  • It is unfortunate to have to drive hundreds of miles every time I want to climb, but I am fortunate to have a speed wall in my state. Since there are a limited number of speed walls in the United States, many climbers do not even have a speed wall within a reasonable driving distance. I am also lucky to have such a nice gym with friendly staff that maintain the wall. I have traveled to Momentum Katy for years, and the wall is still in great condition with working timers, auto belay, and holds. I am also for lucky to have a committed team and coach that frequently check in with me, even though I’m 220 miles away.

It is sometimes surprising how I am able to compete with other competitors given my circumstances. Many of my competitors live no further than half an hour from their climbing gym and train with their team multiple times each week. While this is far from the case for me, my hard work and dedication in the gym have been able to make up for the difficult situation. My love for speed climbing helps me overcome the obstacles of distance.

I am now a week away from summer break beginning when I will be able to spend multiple weeks near a speed wall and train hard for Nationals. I can’t wait.