Comfort Zone or Growth Zone? What Your Difficulty Progression Reveals About Your Mindset

Look at your last 12 months of climbing. Last spring, your chart might show bars that were 70% green—a clear sign of base-building. This fall, those same bars might be 60% red, showing a shift to projecting. This is the story of your climbing mindset, told month by month.

Every climber intuitively understands there are different modes of climbing, but it’s hard to see our own patterns. Are you spending enough time pushing your limits to improve, or so much time that you're risking burnout?

The Difficulty Progression Chart is designed to answer this question. It visualizes the story of your recent effort, revealing your focus and helping you align your sessions with your goals.

How to Read the Chart: A Quick Guide

By default, this chart shows your Recent Effort breakdown over the last 12 months using a stacked bar chart.

• The X-Axis (Position): Shows the last 12 months. Each bar represents one month.

• The Y-Axis (Height): Represents a percentage from 0% to 100%. Each monthly bar will always fill the full 100%.

• The Colored Stacks: This is the most important part. The size of each colored section shows the percentage of your pitches for that month that fell into a specific difficulty_category.

  • Red (Project): Percentage of pitches at or very near your max grade.

  • Orange (Tier 2 / Pushing It): Percentage of pitches in your hard-but-achievable range.

  • Yellow (Tier 3): Percentage of pitches in your moderate range.

  • Green (Base Volume): Percentage of pitches that feel like mileage or warm-ups.

(A quick note on data quality: This chart becomes most powerful when you log your attempts, not just your sends. Failed attempts on your project are crucial data and should show up in your red "Project" section.)

You can also use a toggle to switch to the Lifetime Volume view. This cumulative graph is less useful for recent planning but is excellent for seeing your all-time experience and long-term evolution as a climber.

What Your Chart Can Tell You: Identifying Your Phases

By looking at the composition of your monthly bars, you can identify distinct phases. Many climbers have natural seasonal cycles (e.g., an outdoor projecting season in the fall, an indoor base-building season in the summer).

The Projecting Phase

• What it looks like: The red "Project" section consistently makes up over 30-40% of the bars for one or more months.

• What it means: You are deep in a performance mindset. As a general benchmark, most climbers spend 10-30% of their time projecting; a higher percentage indicates a very focused effort to push your grade.

The Mileage Builder Phase

• What it looks like: The green "Base Volume" section consistently makes up over 70% of your monthly activity for several months. For example, Sarah's chart shows three straight months of 80% green, indicating a deliberate base-building period.

• What it means: You are consolidating your skills and improving endurance. This is a crucial phase to prepare your body for future projects.

The Onsight Seeker Phase

• What it looks like: The orange "Tier 2" section is consistently prominent (e.g., 30-50%) across several months. You are spending a lot of time in that "hard-but-achievable" zone.

• What it means: You are focused on technical mastery and performance-on-demand, improving your route-reading and mental game.

The Rest Phase

• What it looks like: A month may have a missing or very small bar, indicating little to no activity.

• What it means: This indicates a period of inactivity due to injury, life stress, or a necessary mental break from climbing.

Putting Your Insights into Action

Your effort ratio is not "good" or "bad"—it's a tool. The goal is to make sure your effort matches your intention.

1. If your goal is Performance... but your monthly bars have been consistently 90% green with tiny red sections, you might be stuck in a comfort zone. It's a clear signal to shift focus. Action: Aim for your next month's bars to have a red "Project" section of at least 20-30%.

2. If you're feeling burnt out... from projecting, your data can guide your recovery. Action: Intentionally plan a "Mileage Builder" month. Aim for the next bar to be over 70% green. Give yourself permission to have fun and climb without pressure.

3. If you want to improve your technique... like a Technician archetype (a climber focused on mastery of movement) would, you'll want to see a balanced diet of colors over time. Action: If your red section has been missing for a year, challenge yourself on a few routes at your limit. If the green section is always tiny, dedicate a few sessions purely to mileage to refine your movement.

What This Chart Isn't

• It doesn't measure your grade. This chart is purely about the percentage of effort relative to your max. A pro climber and a new climber could have identical-looking charts.

• It doesn't show your total volume. A month where you climbed 100 pitches and a month where you climbed 10 pitches will both have a bar that goes to 100%. For volume context, cross-reference this chart with your Days Outside chart.

If your chart looks a bit chaotic or sparse, it may be because you've only recently started logging detailed data. Keep at it. The more you log, the clearer your personal patterns of effort and volume will become.

Now, head to the app and explore your Difficulty Progression Chart. Are you in a comfort zone or a growth zone? And more importantly, is it the zone you want to be in right now?