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Route Reading - Improving Your Onsight
by Adrian Berry on 14 June 2002
“technique is no substitute for power” Ben Moon
“knowledge itself is power” Francis Bacon
“Look before you leap” Proverbial
Introduction
Here is a technique that will make you a better onsight climber. Practicing it doesn’t require an exhausting training programme, or any physical effort whatsoever. And nor will you need any equipment other than your own eyes – and maybe a note pad and pencil if you’re feeling keen. It applies equally to indoor climbing, sports climbing, trad, routes, and bouldering. Elite climbers practice it each time they climb, to an extent that they become no longer aware that they are doing it. It is of course route reading.
What is route reading?
Quite simply, route reading is having a good look at the route before you try it. It gives you the opportunity to work out which holds are best used with which hand, the best way to use those holds, where the climb finishes, where the rests are hidden, and on routes, which holds to clip or place gear from. All the sort of information you would gain by going on the route and working it.
Route reading is most obvious as a period during indoor leading competitions, where competitors are allowed to view their route. What follows is six minutes of jostling for position, and frantic arm waving as the competitors mime out the moves as a further aid to memorisation. Some competitors take a note pad and pencil and draw key sections of the route to study later, in isolation. What is obvious, is that the best competition climbers are able to glean a huge amount of information from just viewing the route, and are able to onsight much harder routes as a result.
Why route read?
Assuming you have the physical and technical capability to red-point a route, then the only thing distinguishing the red-point from the onsight, or flash, is information.
Jamie Veitch falling off on an onsight attempt
of Rose de Sables, 7a, Buoux
In the absence of route reading, the only information you have to help your onsight is that gained while you are attempting it. This costs time as you hang around working out the next move. It is also more difficult to work out moves while on the route itself because you might not have the best vantage point to see the moves ahead (such as being under a roof), and even if you can see the next section of the route, if you are getting pumped, the lactic acid will interfere with your brain’s functioning, making it more difficult to concentrate.
So if you regularly find yourself in an impossible situation with your hands committed to the wrong holds, or you routinely find yourself clipping or placing gear from a desperate contorted position – only to make the next move and find a jug which you could have clipped from, or if you can never find rests on on-sights because you’re too busy concentrating on the climbing, then improving your route reading will make a definite improvement to your on-sight climbing.
How do you do it?
First of all, be patient. Route reading is a skill that comes with much practice, and will mirror your technical capabilities – for example, you can’t read a drop-knee move on a route if you’ve never done one before. But once you get into the habit of making time to practice it, it will become second nature, and you will appreciate the added challenge of climbing a route with your mind, before using your body.
Starting off
To start off, you shouldn’t expect to be able to read every move on the route. Begin by looking for the top of the route, the finishing hold, belay, or chain that you’re heading for, after all this is the goal so set your sights on that first. Now work down the line and look for obvious positions you will need to get into. Holds to the left of the line will naturally be best used with the left side of your body, and the holds to the right, with your right side. Simple. Now look for rests, can you bridge out anywhere? Are any holds particularly chalky – sure sign someone has hung onto it for longer than the others. Can you spot the crux? This will be dependant on your own weaknesses, smaller holds, a steeper angle, or a long reach between holds will be worth remembering.
Aim to spend at least five minutes reading the route, involve your partner (so long as they haven’t tried it and tell you from first experience). It is useful to write down some notes at this point. Now climb it, and try and use the information you picked up. Afterwards analyse whether it helps, refer to your notes if you made them and note where – if anywhere, you might have gone wrong. Maybe you thought there would be a rest, or perhaps you misjudged a hold, have a good look at it now, and you might not make the same mistake again.
Intermediate
As you become more comfortable with route reading, you can start to fill in the sections between the key positions. Working down from the top again imagine yourself on the wall reversing from the top to the ground, many of the moves will be simple ‘left, right, left, right…’, but this won’t work all of the time, and you’re going to have to swap hands on a hold, make two moves with the same hand without moving the other (go again), or perform moves that might appear to be wrong-handed, but have to be done to avoid really messing things up later on. After mentally working through these technical sections, you will eventually find yourself at the ground.
Now read upwards, count the moves as you do so, you should be able to feel if it’s right, mime the moves with your body. If there is a counter-intuitive move, make an extra effort to burn that into your memory, use the ‘Post-It’ note technique (below) to attach an action to a hold such as ‘go-again’, or ‘swap hands’. Now polish off the mental map by looking for the least strenuous positions to clip from, and any rests of offer.
Again, try the route, did you read it right?
A common problem is that of scale, what looks like an impossibly long reach might be fine, and what may seem a reasonable move might be impossible. A good trick here is to stand next to the wall and measure your reach. With a panelled indoor wall you can judge your height in terms of panels, and project yourself onto the route. Bear in mind also that the most influential factor will be the holds, undercuts/ underclings are great for getting lots of height from, slopers are the exact opposite.
Advanced
Now that you’re a wizard at reading hand sequences, and can do the waving the arms around thing with complete confidence, it’s time to look at reading foot moves. Much of the time, the feet will just follow the hands, but look out for drop-knees, body cams, heel hooks, and in roofs, toe hooks. Indoor routes often have specific, small footholds, not only do you have to recognise these for your feet, but be sure not to read them as hand holds.
Pace is a much under-discussed aspect of climbing, and in reading a route it is possible to mark some sections as being of a faster pace than others. Clearly steep terrain is better passed more quickly, and less steep, but more subtly, technical terrain will require a slower, more considered pace. Again, mentally mark sections such as ‘when I get to the steep section make the clip and blast it until I reach the jug’.
So far we have looked at all route reading as though there was a definite answer that the well trained eye can unlock by reading the route. Of course, there are often different ways of performing a move, where, for example there are three holds in a traverse 1,2, and 3, if we are starting with our left hand on hold 1 and we need to get our right onto the hold 3, then we can either swap on hold 2, or reach to 2, and go again. If it’s not obvious which way to tackle it, then the wisest approach may be to have two possibilities in mind, and make a quick decision when you get to it. Similarly where there is a section that is too complex, don’t feel you have to decide what you are going to do unless you are reasonably sure that it is the right thing to do – better to work it out when you get there (you can decide the position on the route you are going to work it out from in your route reading on the ground).
Route Reading Exercises
‘Post Its’
This is a useful way of visualising a move, and ‘attaching’ that information to a particular hold on the route. We discussed earlier how to pay particular care to unusual moves, and to make a mental note of them. Pick a hold on the route that you have just read that requires a particular action (other than pull on it to get to the next one), lets say it’s the last good hold before a sequence of small holds and you would do well to make a clip. Take a really good long look at the shape and colour of the hold, now mentally (or physically if you happen to be a one of the Huber brothers), put a yellow post-it note onto that hold with ‘Clip!’ written on it. The physical nature of the visualisation makes it appeal far more readily to our memories than the best will in the world.
Literal reading
I heard of this technique being used by French competition climbers – for obvious reasons best used on an indoor wall route that you’re not particularly bothered about falling off. Read the route as you have learnt to do, and then climb it exactly as you read it. If you obviously got it wrong, then you will probably fall off, or at least make it obviously more difficult that it really is. The theory goes that this ‘punishment’ will encourage more attention to be given to the route reading.
Lastly
Much of this article has looked at competition climbing, as this is where route reading has its roots as a specific skill. But it applies equally well outside. Climbing outside, of course, there aren’t the strict rules, and so we can be far more creative in getting legitimate information without blowing the onsight: If there’s a route you really want to onsight, start off by doing the routes that are near it (assuming that they are easier), there’s nothing wrong with having a peek to the side whilst you’re climbing. Walk around to the top and peer over the edge, it often looks very different, check out the finishing holds if possible. And then there’s down-climbing: go up as far as you feel you can down-climb from, get the gear in, and climb come back down to a rest - all possible without blowing your onsight.
“technique is no substitute for power” Ben Moon
“knowledge itself is power” Francis Bacon
“Look before you leap” Proverbial
Introduction
Here is a technique that will make you a better onsight climber. Practicing it doesn’t require an exhausting training programme, or any physical effort whatsoever. And nor will you need any equipment other than your own eyes – and maybe a note pad and pencil if you’re feeling keen. It applies equally to indoor climbing, sports climbing, trad, routes, and bouldering. Elite climbers practice it each time they climb, to an extent that they become no longer aware that they are doing it. It is of course route reading.
What is route reading?
Quite simply, route reading is having a good look at the route before you try it. It gives you the opportunity to work out which holds are best used with which hand, the best way to use those holds, where the climb finishes, where the rests are hidden, and on routes, which holds to clip or place gear from. All the sort of information you would gain by going on the route and working it.
Route reading is most obvious as a period during indoor leading competitions, where competitors are allowed to view their route. What follows is six minutes of jostling for position, and frantic arm waving as the competitors mime out the moves as a further aid to memorisation. Some competitors take a note pad and pencil and draw key sections of the route to study later, in isolation. What is obvious, is that the best competition climbers are able to glean a huge amount of information from just viewing the route, and are able to onsight much harder routes as a result.
Why route read?
Assuming you have the physical and technical capability to red-point a route, then the only thing distinguishing the red-point from the onsight, or flash, is information.
Jamie Veitch falling off on an onsight attempt
of Rose de Sables, 7a, Buoux
In the absence of route reading, the only information you have to help your onsight is that gained while you are attempting it. This costs time as you hang around working out the next move. It is also more difficult to work out moves while on the route itself because you might not have the best vantage point to see the moves ahead (such as being under a roof), and even if you can see the next section of the route, if you are getting pumped, the lactic acid will interfere with your brain’s functioning, making it more difficult to concentrate.
So if you regularly find yourself in an impossible situation with your hands committed to the wrong holds, or you routinely find yourself clipping or placing gear from a desperate contorted position – only to make the next move and find a jug which you could have clipped from, or if you can never find rests on on-sights because you’re too busy concentrating on the climbing, then improving your route reading will make a definite improvement to your on-sight climbing.
How do you do it?
First of all, be patient. Route reading is a skill that comes with much practice, and will mirror your technical capabilities – for example, you can’t read a drop-knee move on a route if you’ve never done one before. But once you get into the habit of making time to practice it, it will become second nature, and you will appreciate the added challenge of climbing a route with your mind, before using your body.
Starting off
To start off, you shouldn’t expect to be able to read every move on the route. Begin by looking for the top of the route, the finishing hold, belay, or chain that you’re heading for, after all this is the goal so set your sights on that first. Now work down the line and look for obvious positions you will need to get into. Holds to the left of the line will naturally be best used with the left side of your body, and the holds to the right, with your right side. Simple. Now look for rests, can you bridge out anywhere? Are any holds particularly chalky – sure sign someone has hung onto it for longer than the others. Can you spot the crux? This will be dependant on your own weaknesses, smaller holds, a steeper angle, or a long reach between holds will be worth remembering.
Aim to spend at least five minutes reading the route, involve your partner (so long as they haven’t tried it and tell you from first experience). It is useful to write down some notes at this point. Now climb it, and try and use the information you picked up. Afterwards analyse whether it helps, refer to your notes if you made them and note where – if anywhere, you might have gone wrong. Maybe you thought there would be a rest, or perhaps you misjudged a hold, have a good look at it now, and you might not make the same mistake again.
Intermediate
As you become more comfortable with route reading, you can start to fill in the sections between the key positions. Working down from the top again imagine yourself on the wall reversing from the top to the ground, many of the moves will be simple ‘left, right, left, right…’, but this won’t work all of the time, and you’re going to have to swap hands on a hold, make two moves with the same hand without moving the other (go again), or perform moves that might appear to be wrong-handed, but have to be done to avoid really messing things up later on. After mentally working through these technical sections, you will eventually find yourself at the ground.
Now read upwards, count the moves as you do so, you should be able to feel if it’s right, mime the moves with your body. If there is a counter-intuitive move, make an extra effort to burn that into your memory, use the ‘Post-It’ note technique (below) to attach an action to a hold such as ‘go-again’, or ‘swap hands’. Now polish off the mental map by looking for the least strenuous positions to clip from, and any rests of offer.
Again, try the route, did you read it right?
A common problem is that of scale, what looks like an impossibly long reach might be fine, and what may seem a reasonable move might be impossible. A good trick here is to stand next to the wall and measure your reach. With a panelled indoor wall you can judge your height in terms of panels, and project yourself onto the route. Bear in mind also that the most influential factor will be the holds, undercuts/ underclings are great for getting lots of height from, slopers are the exact opposite.
Advanced
Now that you’re a wizard at reading hand sequences, and can do the waving the arms around thing with complete confidence, it’s time to look at reading foot moves. Much of the time, the feet will just follow the hands, but look out for drop-knees, body cams, heel hooks, and in roofs, toe hooks. Indoor routes often have specific, small footholds, not only do you have to recognise these for your feet, but be sure not to read them as hand holds.
Pace is a much under-discussed aspect of climbing, and in reading a route it is possible to mark some sections as being of a faster pace than others. Clearly steep terrain is better passed more quickly, and less steep, but more subtly, technical terrain will require a slower, more considered pace. Again, mentally mark sections such as ‘when I get to the steep section make the clip and blast it until I reach the jug’.
So far we have looked at all route reading as though there was a definite answer that the well trained eye can unlock by reading the route. Of course, there are often different ways of performing a move, where, for example there are three holds in a traverse 1,2, and 3, if we are starting with our left hand on hold 1 and we need to get our right onto the hold 3, then we can either swap on hold 2, or reach to 2, and go again. If it’s not obvious which way to tackle it, then the wisest approach may be to have two possibilities in mind, and make a quick decision when you get to it. Similarly where there is a section that is too complex, don’t feel you have to decide what you are going to do unless you are reasonably sure that it is the right thing to do – better to work it out when you get there (you can decide the position on the route you are going to work it out from in your route reading on the ground).
Route Reading Exercises
‘Post Its’
This is a useful way of visualising a move, and ‘attaching’ that information to a particular hold on the route. We discussed earlier how to pay particular care to unusual moves, and to make a mental note of them. Pick a hold on the route that you have just read that requires a particular action (other than pull on it to get to the next one), lets say it’s the last good hold before a sequence of small holds and you would do well to make a clip. Take a really good long look at the shape and colour of the hold, now mentally (or physically if you happen to be a one of the Huber brothers), put a yellow post-it note onto that hold with ‘Clip!’ written on it. The physical nature of the visualisation makes it appeal far more readily to our memories than the best will in the world.
Literal reading
I heard of this technique being used by French competition climbers – for obvious reasons best used on an indoor wall route that you’re not particularly bothered about falling off. Read the route as you have learnt to do, and then climb it exactly as you read it. If you obviously got it wrong, then you will probably fall off, or at least make it obviously more difficult that it really is. The theory goes that this ‘punishment’ will encourage more attention to be given to the route reading.
Lastly
Much of this article has looked at competition climbing, as this is where route reading has its roots as a specific skill. But it applies equally well outside. Climbing outside, of course, there aren’t the strict rules, and so we can be far more creative in getting legitimate information without blowing the onsight: If there’s a route you really want to onsight, start off by doing the routes that are near it (assuming that they are easier), there’s nothing wrong with having a peek to the side whilst you’re climbing. Walk around to the top and peer over the edge, it often looks very different, check out the finishing holds if possible. And then there’s down-climbing: go up as far as you feel you can down-climb from, get the gear in, and climb come back down to a rest - all possible without blowing your onsight.
