Savage Slabs & Innsbruck's Hardest Boulders

I'm here in Innsbruck today and I'm going to be having a bouldering session. I'm pretty psyched. The boulders here are really hard. They've recently changed the grading system. So now it goes from a system from 1 to 9, with 1 being the easiest and 9 being the hardest. Previously they did it so each of the grades was set by colour, which I think is a lot worse. But this way you can use whatever holds you want for each of the grades. So we're going to go from 1 and then slowly work the grades up to 9 and then see if I can get some of the 9s done. But I'm pretty psyched. The boulders here are always really cool and it should be a good session. So I might have to do this intro again. I started out saying I was going to slowly work through the grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and then try the 9s. But this actually turned out just to be an incredible slab session on some really good slabs where the grades are just totally irrelevant. I love it when you just find some slab boulders and you just get stuck into it and you can just spend hours on them. So yeah, not the intended video idea or the intended session. But yeah, I'm sure it'll be, hopefully it's entertaining to watch. And yeah, thank you for watching. This looks very inviting. It's so hard climbing when there's so many holds, it's hard to pick. It's really going through the process at this point. Let's see if we can keep this up to 9. Nice flowy climb. Let's see if we can keep this up to 9 and it'll be done in no time. Some of these have like kids size on them. I think they're smaller people. Just keep going. Just finish at the top of the wall. They finish halfway. I guess it's kind of cool if you're like four and a half foot and you don't want to be jumping off the top. Getting a bit harder. It's definitely getting a bit harder. 1 to 6 in like 5 minutes and then 7, 8, 9. I reckon it's going to get exponentially harder. This blue one, another 6. I actually want to get warmed up. I don't just want to go onto something which is going to be too hard. Maybe I'll try this pink. Pink 7 next. Completely cold to completely warmed up. Maybe 45 minutes. Sometimes I come to the gym and I feel like I can just pull on straight away. Other times I feel like I might need to do a bit of stretching or something. I think I'll do a couple more 7s and then try an 8. Ace 8 down there which I did before which I might do. See how I feel. I've really not done many of these. I did one or two on my first day just to warm up for lead. Most of them are pretty much new. I'll try this purple one. I thought I had a foot around here but it was here. I couldn't see it because that blocked it. As I hit it and then only two fingers were warm. Now I'm warm. I think I'll go down there and try that yellow 8 and then try that black 9 over there. I kind of hit the pink one. I feel as though I've lost my brush. Unless I've just not looked properly. I found it. The move to the penultimate hold is pretty hard. I just didn't want to commit to it. I didn't know the lower foot or the higher foot was better. The start is actually not too bad. You've just got to hit the holds and dead point them. If you have enough finger strength then it's not too bad. I've done quite a big amount of lead. I wasn't feeling in the best lead shape. In terms of endurance, I wanted to put some big sessions in. To make sure I'm alright for the World Cup. I did 25 routes over two days. It was pretty hard. Above 80 plus. It was a good session. That has repercussions for your power and stuff. In the long run it's better but in the short run it makes you feel a bit worse. Feeling a bit powered out on the boulders especially. And power endurance. I found my recoveries a bit better. I can recover my forearms quite well. But I can't string really hard moves together for too long. Because when you do that much lead and you just keep going. It just drains all of your power reserves and it takes time to recover from that. But when you do recover from it, you recover from it stronger. I think right hand with the lower foot. I don't know if that's the best beat. That's the easiest beat ever. The sun's right in my eyes. Drop knee. I knew there was an easier way to do it. Well that was just way easier. I'm going to go from the start now. I think I tried five different beaters. And that one was just... Didn't feel like the same move. The drop knee really just pulls you into the wall. Allows you to sink your weight properly below the hold. It's a pretty basic climbing technique. Really a drop knee. But I guess it's quite easy to overlook. You can either go strong and powerful. Or technical. I guess with bouldering it's quite easy to always go strong and powerful. But technical is quite often better. Particularly as the grades get higher. There's less room for error. If you're an 8a climber and you're trying a 7b. Chances are you can just overpower it. And climb it whichever way you want. But if you're an 8a climber trying an 8a. Then there's less room for error. To climb it perfectly. But the idea is to be strong enough for everything. Stronger than everything you get on. So everything's easy. That's nice. It's satisfying to put it together. Two halves of it are like opposite styles. So you've got crimps at the start. A little rose move. And then slow pullers. Slow friction. Drop knees. Technical at the top. Nice gym boulder. You don't normally get that. Now I'm going to go try these slabs. The new slabs. I've been eyeing them up for a while. And they look really cool. I think they're a combination of 8s and 9s. They look pretty tough some of them. I've been eyeing them up for a while. They look really cool. I'm psyched to get on them. I'm going to start on the blue one. It's like a load of foot swaps in a really small space. To not really move anywhere. But it just sets you up to explode out of it. Into these two which are actually quite good. And then the last bit's pretty easy. It's like as soon as you take the weight off. The foot just slips. I'm going to try the yellow and give my skin a bit of a break. It looks really slabby. Not many hands. Come on. Really nice Toby, come on. Last move's the hardest move. I got to the end of yesterday's session. And my skin was slowly wearing thin. And there was a couple of boulders which I didn't manage to get. And I'm really psyched to get back on them. So we're back here today. Managed to slowly recover a bit of skin overnight. Not quite adequate. But I'm still pretty psyched to get on them. And see if I can link the boulders together. I've just seen on the setting board that some of these boulders are actually set by Tsukuru. The Japanese setter. And he's an incredibly hard setter. He sets really hard. He set bricks and boulders for the final boulder. Which I won my first Boulder World Cup on. And he's also done loads of setting in B Pump. He also set for the Rock City day we did. He's done so much setting. He's an incredible setter. And it's no surprise that these blocks are so hard. Because they were set by him. The grades don't make any difference. But for example the 7, 8 and 9's here. But the 7, 8 and 9's here. Compared to the 7, 8 and 9's in the rest of the centre. They're just incomparable. The ones here are just so much harder. I think a 7 here might probably be like a 9 over there. So it's quite humbling getting on all these slabs. And just sort of getting destroyed basically. I'm incredibly psyched to give them another go. Let's go. See if I can get some tops in. I missed it. This move. Couple of tops in the bag. Good session. I've just finished my session for the day. And it was actually very successful. I got back on the boulders. There were two boulders. The green one and the yellow one. Which I actually decided not to try. Because the holes are just so razor sharp. And my skin's pretty thin. The last thing I want to do now is just lift the tip. For just no reason whatsoever. I was cautious and I skipped them. It was a really good session. I got three of the climbs. Which I didn't get last time. I managed to piece them all together. Which I'm really happy with. So that's the red slab. The black slab. Oh and actually the blue one. Which I didn't actually try that last time. But it was a pretty hard boulder. And I managed to piece it together pretty quickly. With quite a committing last move. So it was a successful session. And nice to get some slabs done. That's it now. It's been a great 6 or 7 days training in Innsbruck. I find it so hard when you come here for a week. Because you know you're only here for a week. You want to do as much as possible. But it's hard to then take the rest when you need it. Because if I just come here and then climb every single day. As much as I actually want to. Then I'll just leave it and just be destroyed. And not be able to climb for quite a while. So it was pretty good. I went pretty hard to start with. And then slowly tapered down. And my last session today only being maybe 4 or 5 hours long. Or 4 hours or whatever. But it's been really good. And I'm excited to get home now. And rest up before the World Cup. I did a lot of routes during the week. The main aim coming here was for my endurance. Because that's the best thing about Innsbruck. Is the long routes. So I did an incredibly high volume of routes in the first couple of days. And then slowly tapered it down. And now I know I'm really tired. But still getting on the routes now. I'm feeling like my recovery is a lot better. And I'm back in that sort of lead mode. Which is really nice to feel before the World Cup. So I really hope you enjoyed the video. Be sure to like and subscribe if you enjoy this content. And just let me know what your favorite boulder was. Or if you've got any ideas for me in the future. Thank you so much for watching. I'm going to go do some lead now. Finish myself off. And then head home.