Introducing: Wild Iris Trip Prep
It certainly isn’t necessary to spend nearly 30 years climbing all over the US and abroad to understand that many climbing areas require unique preparation. Hueco is filled with incut edges, Rifle demands kneebar skills, and the tiny pockets at Wild Iris are going to test your tendon strength.
However, when you have a group of coaches who HAVE traveled extensively for decades, and know acutely how to prepare for those climbing areas, then why not leverage that experience to build the best set of trip prep training plans available in the climbing world?
Yeah, why not?
While our Proven Plans are quite possibly the most effective and complete system of training out there, they are, in fact, fairly general. To create those, we looked at the patterns for the average climber at a specific grade. So we got training plans that are fantastic for your general preparation.
But climbers love to travel. And climbers loved our What When How to Train podcast series. So we decided to take things one step further, and we started with Wild Iris.
I’ve climbed here for over a decade, up to 13d, and acutely understand how to prepare for it. My first 6 or 7 years here were all via 2 week trips in the summer. When my top grade was 13a, I climbed 13a at Wild Iris on one of those trips. Same with 13b and 13c. Now I want to pass that info on to you to help you prepare for your first trip or to help ensure you’ll finally clip chains on that nemesis project.
I’ve built three levels of the plan, 5.11, 5.12 and 5.13. Each grade here requires something a little different. The angles change, the holds change, and even the moves change. I take the guesswork out of that, and if you’re starting at the 5.11 level, the next plans will gradually progress you into your first 5.13.
And one more thing - these aren’t just training plans. Each comes with a resource library of training and performance tips for Wild Iris, local beta, a classic routes list (with an entrance and exit exam suggestion) and a relevant podcast playlist that you can queue up for your travel.
Summer is almost here, so it’s about time to start getting prepared. We’ll see you here.
