Route reading. Heard of it? Probably. So what is it?

It’s one of things that we all know about but I dare say struggle to actually define successfully. Responses to ‘what is route reading?’ often range from “visualisation” and “sequencing” through to “well, it’s just looking at the route” right down to “erm, dunno”.

Even when we do know what we want to achieve, we’ve then got the question of how useful it actually is; in other words, what is the context we’re route reading for? What type of climbing are we going to be doing and does that affect how we practice route reading?

In this article, I look at a new model, developed by myself, that digs into route reading, looks at what we need to be looking for and adds a few extra elements into the equation.

Note: the original version of this article was published in Professional Mountaineer. The original was developed with Partick Hollingsworth and gratitude should be shown to Pat for his contribution to the development. Finally, please note that the theories discussed herein are not scientifically tested and are currently belief-based rather than evidence-based, and should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt

Existing Route Reading Information

For those with time on their hands and an internet connection, one could easily be lost in a sea of information on route-reading. There are many reputable sources too, including Neil Gresham, Friction Labs, the BMC and Epic TV, to name a few. There are some recurring themes that appear.

Identifying the holds

The first step is to identify all of the holds available; either outdoors or by colour indoors. This first stage is generally this simple. With children, they can often be prompted to simply count the numbers of holds on their given climb.

Hand Sequence

What people will generally do next is look at the hand sequence. Which holds are for the left hand, which ones for the right and they’ll tell you the really good route readers will be able to add in the foot sequence too.

Visualising and Miming

Again, this is often seen of climbers on the floor and involves people waving their arms around like some weird acid dance craze. The purpose of this is to picture the moves one is expecting to perform for each climb and to engrain it in your mind before setting off.

Practice

The trick, then, that we’re told is to practice this new ‘skill’. It seems this is what many coaches rely on for their climbers to improve. However, while this may well still hold true, any practice needs to be purposeful and with that in mind, needs to be transferable to the environment in which the climber will be operating.

Furthermore, no one would realistically suggest trying route-read a multi pitch or big wall climb. Apart from anything else, it’s impossible to see what is further up the route, let alone what the holds look like.

Some new theory:

One client of mine had set a goal of a big wall route in Yosemite and wanted to work on his route-reading. Suddenly, we had to change the way we thought about route-reading, as the typical practice of standing at the bottom of a boulder problem and wandering around to suss out the holds wasn’t going to be transferable. So together, we started to adapt and adjust the existing theory so we could utilise it in the right setting for him.

Context positioning

The first place to start is at the bottom; literally. On a sport or trad pitch, moving away from the bottom of the route is impossible – unless you take your drone with you – and so reading your route needs to be done from where you’re starting. This subtle change in perspective makes a huge difference and means not only do the holds now not look as obvious, some are now completely invisible.

However, context is important and for me as a boulderer, I am able not only to walk around and look at my climbs but often I’m able to go to the top and check out the holds before I even start. I’ve even been known to brush higher holds to see where the bristles dig in and get a better idea of where the ‘good bit’ of the hold is.

Context here is key and it is worthwhile knowing which disciplines you intend to participate in before launching headlong into route-reading.

Sections

What we quickly learned was that we can break our routes down into smaller sections, to be dealt with in turn. These come in four classifications:

1. Sequence-specific section. These are hard sequences that must be performed in a particular way to achieve success. Think a really hard boulder problem.
2. Variable section. These sections have multiple solutions that need to be decided once the climber arrives. This may depend on strength levels at the time, conditions, or simply an uncertainty about the sequence leading to that point. 
3. Unseen section. As mentioned, these sections – especially outside or with beginners – will involve holds that we simply can’t see or anticipate; think on a trad climb for example. These need to be tackled with more caution and the climber shouldn’t be throwing themselves blind at the holds on these sections.
4. Cruise section. Some sections of a climb are obviously significantly easier than the overall grade of the climb, for example an easy top-out. There is little need to worry ourselves too much about these sections (although they should still be read briefly to discover they are indeed cruise sections in the first place) and these sections allow us to concentrate on the more complex areas.

There are two factors of these sections that suddenly become really interesting: the difficulty compared to the climber’s max grade and the cognitive load (or thought process) required of the climber during the section.

As you can see, the difficulty compared to one’s maximum grade drops with each type of section:

• sequence-specific needs to be at max to justify the extra effort of carefully learning a sequence
• variable sections need to be a bit easier to accommodate the added decision making
• unseen sections need to be easier still as they venture into the unknown
• and cruising sections by definition will be well below max

What is interesting is what happens to the cognitive load – or thought processing – that happens in each sequence. The load is high during variable and unseen sections, due to the decision making happening on the route. However for the cruise section and, interestingly the sequence specific sections, the load is much lower. It is during the sequence specific sections that this is a surprise; the best analogy being a musician with a complicated riff or lick, whereby they have a high load learning the music beforehand but at the point of the performance, have engrained the sequence so that it actually takes less thought process and becomes instinctive. There is much more going on at this point, including potential Flow State (see Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999, Flow in sports).

Known and unknown sections

These sections break down once more into two categories: known and unknown. Put simply, sequence specific and cruise sections both include moves or sequences that are known, whereas variable and unseen have an element of the unknown about them.

Where this becomes important is where our attention should be. Most route-reading focuses on the known and we can utilise the existing literature to help us. The unknown sections will require a change in tactic and for us to work on decision making in action.

Differentiating sections

These sections are split by the holds on the climb and there are many ways to do this. Clips and gear placements are obvious start/end points for a sequence, as are any obvious rests. Other points, popular with boulder problems, are points where this is a change in direction of a route – think the tips of a zig-zagging route – or particularly good holds, like a jug in the middle of a crimpy route.

Instead of starting the sequence at the start or the end of the climb, the first point of identifying these points on any given climb breaks it down into more manageable chunks and allows us to develop the next stage.

Reactionary route-reading

This is the next concept developed during our sessions and stems from that first point about Context Positioning. From each of those differentiating points, our climber now needs to look to the next stopping point and read the route to there. This will keep the climber on the wall for longer, granted, but in doing so will increase their efficiency and thus make up for any extra energy used hanging around. Plus these points should theoretically be reasonable resting positions.

Reset points

One final point steps into the realm of the psychological. Many times, climbers become anxious on climbs or lose form as they continue through a route. Breaking the route into smaller, more manageable chunks allows them to reset their mind, forget about mistakes lower on the climb and regain any lost concentration.

This can be done in many ways, including mantras or breathing exercises. However you choose to do this, in my experience, this is time very much well spent.

Summary

Route-reading is certainly an important aspect of coaching in climbing but needs more thought than it is often given. Reading routes out of the context of the routes you will be attempting renders it almost useless and Context Positioning is a useful method of alleviating this and adding transferable skills.

Meanwhile differentiating routes into different sections allows us to put our focus where we really need it; rather than trying to remember long and complicated sequences that we may not stick to in the end anyway. These sections are broken down by obvious Reset Points along the way, meaning our Context Positioning can be reapplied while actually on the wall, rather than only on the floor, resulting in development of Reactionary Route-Reading skills that you can continue to use on any route.