The Endurance Blueprint: How to Predict and Prevent Your Next Big Failure

Why do climbers fail on routes they "should" be able to do?

More often than not, it’s not about raw strength or technical difficulty—it's an energy system mismatch. A climber who trains exclusively on 40-foot routes and then attempts a 120-foot route of the same grade is essentially asking a sprinter to run a marathon. The failure is predictable.

The Length Progression Chart is your tool to prevent these predictable failures. Its purpose is to make your hidden fitness gaps visible before they become expensive, disappointing failures on a climbing trip. Unlike charts that just describe what you've done, this one helps predict what you're prepared for, giving you the lead time you need to train for your biggest goals.

How to Read the Chart: A Quick Guide

This chart shows your recent experience with different route lengths 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: The size of each section shows the percentage of your pitches for that month that fell into a specific length_category.

  • Purple (Micro): Pitches under 30 feet (9m) - Bouldery, powerful routes.

  • Blue (Short): Pitches from 30-60 feet (9-18m) - Typical for many gyms and smaller crags.

  • Green (Medium): Pitches from 60-100 feet (18-30m) - Requires solid power-endurance.

  • Orange (Long): Pitches from 100-140 feet (30-42m) - True aerobic endurance tests.

  • Red (Epic / Multi-pitch): Pitches over 140 feet (42m+). This category often represents pitches on multi-pitch routes.

(Note on context: Remember that standardized gym walls can create a false sense of endurance. A 60-foot gym route often has more rests than a sustained 60-foot outdoor climb. Similarly, a steep 40-foot route can be more taxing than a vertical 60-foot one.)

What Your Chart Can Tell You: Spotting Your Profile

By looking at the dominant colors, you can identify your personal length profile.

The Power Specialist

• What it looks like: Your chart is almost entirely purple and blue. Most sport climbers spend 60-80% of their time on short-to-medium routes; if you are 90%+ in these categories, you are heavily specialized.

• What it means: Your strength is undeniable, but you have a significant, undeveloped weakness in sustained endurance.

The All-Rounder

• What it looks like: A healthy mix of blue and green bars, with occasional flashes of orange. Your experience profile matches the demands of most popular sport climbing destinations.

• What it means: You have a solid base of fitness for a wide variety of single-pitch climbing.

The Endurance Monster

• What it looks like: The orange "Long" section is consistently present and often makes up a significant portion of your chart (20-30%+).

• What it means: You are well-prepared for destinations known for their sustained climbing, like Kalymnos, Ten Sleep, or European limestone.

The Adventurer

• What it looks like: You see consistent flashes of the red "Epic / Multi-pitch" category in your chart.

• What it means: You are comfortable with the unique demands of very long pitches and big days. Your goals often go beyond single-pitch difficulty and into the realm of logistics and mountain sense.

Putting Your Insights into Action: Training Simulations

This chart is a powerful tool for aligning your training with your ambitions.

1. Destination Matching: If you are training for a trip to the Red River Gorge (known for 100ft+ routes), but your chart is solid blue and green, it's a clear warning sign.

   • Action: For the two months before your trip, aim for your monthly bars to be at least 40-50% orange. If you don't have access to long routes, simulate them: do 3-4 laps on shorter routes with minimal rest, or practice "link-ups" by climbing two gym routes back-to-back.

2. Explain Your Plateau: If you crush 50-foot routes but feel like you can't break into the next grade, your chart might reveal a lack of experience on longer climbs.

   • Action: Dedicate a month to endurance. Aim for the green and orange sections of your bar to make up 70%+ of your volume. Practice pacing on easier routes, learning to climb efficiently and recover at rests.

Troubleshooting & Limitations

• "My local crag only has short routes!" This is a common problem. Your primary training tool becomes simulation. Focus on lapping routes, doing "4x4s" (climbing four routes four times with rests), and traversing to build the aerobic capacity you can't get from single pitches.

• Multi-Pitch Climbing: The red "Epic / Multi-pitch" category appears when you log a pitch over 140 feet. While this is a good indicator of your fitness for very long individual pitches, it has limitations. It doesn't differentiate between a 2-pitch 200-foot route and a 10-pitch 1000-foot alpine epic. Use this chart to gauge your "per-pitch preparedness," but recognize that true multi-pitch readiness also involves skills like rope management and belay efficiency that aren't measured here.

• What This Chart Isn't: It doesn't measure difficulty, success rate, or the technical skill of managing rope drag and route-finding on longer climbs. It is a targeted tool specifically for diagnosing your physical endurance preparedness.

Your physical and mental experience on a 40-foot route is fundamentally different from a 120-foot one. This chart helps you see if your past experience has truly prepared you for your future goals, giving you time to fix the gaps before you're halfway up your dream route.

Now, head to the app and check out your Length Progression Chart. Is your endurance profile an asset or a liability for your biggest goals?