Want to Become an Efficient Climber? Here’s How to Do It

Imagine standing before a rock face you want to climb, brimming with confidence, like free soloist Alex Honnold, the goddess Sasha Digiulian, or the all-rounder Sonnie Trotter, believing you can climb 99% of the routes you see.

Where does such confidence and ability come from? It stems, of course, from years of progressively more difficult training, accumulated climbing volume, and climbing experience.

That sounds objective and rational, but the only path to reaching their level of ability is diligent, hard work. Even if you’re naturally gifted for climbing, you still need to commit to intense training and climbing.

Once you settle into this mindset, congratulations—every time you climb with purpose, you take a step closer to your goal.

After interviewing over a dozen professional climbers, we have even better news for you: some training methods don’t require going outdoors or to the climbing gym; you can even train while sleeping.

Following the format of the bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” we’ve compiled these insights into seven highly effective climbing training habits. Follow them diligently, and you’re sure to improve.

1. Confidence in Goals

Alex Honnold didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to free solo El Capitan that day (Alex Honnold’s free solo of “Freerider”). He prepared for years to achieve that goal.

Image: Alex Honnold free soloing the “Freerider” route on El Capitan.

Now, imagine your belayer is ready, your shoes are on, your figure-eight knot is tied, and you’re facing the hardest route within your ability. Consider two possible mindsets:

Mindset One: Nervous and fearful, expecting to fall, sweating from tension.

Mindset Two: Chomping at the bit, eager to try, accepting that falling is okay because each attempt yields new beta (movement sequences), increasing the chances of success next time. And if you don’t fall? It proves you can climb the route!

Which mindset belongs to the more confident climber, the one more likely to succeed? The answer is obvious: Mindset Two.

Interviews with renowned coaches consistently identify confidence as the paramount factor for climbing success. All elite professional climbers possess this trait, whether in the short-term battle for a redpoint or throughout their long-term climbing careers. Once the goal and plan are set, they focus relentlessly on training and execution, without wasting energy doubting feasibility.

Just as Honnold wouldn’t impulsively attempt the 900-meter “Freerider,” nor would Digiulian train for only 2-3 weeks before climbing the 700-meter “Mora Mora” on Madagascar’s Tsaranoro Massif. These outstanding achievements are built on the accumulation of daily, yearly, even decades of climbing experiences, both good and bad. Why do they climb these hard lines? Why endure hardship instead of lounging on the sofa with snacks and video games? Because they love the sport.

Image: Sasha Digiulian climbing “Mora Mora” (5.14b sport multi-pitch), Madagascar.

Therefore, the essence behind these positive mindsets and confidence is this: You must find your passion within climbing. This passion fuels effort regardless of immediate outcomes, allowing you to accumulate climbing mileage and progressively improve.

2. Prioritize Sleep

“Sleep is crucial for physical health, recovery, and mental well-being.” – Jonathan Siegrist

Consider how these three climbing experts approach sleep:

Sasha Digiulian: Despite a grueling travel schedule flying from Colorado to Indonesia for 12 days, back to Colorado, then to New York for two nights, and finally to Madagascar for a month-long big wall project, Digiulian still aims for eight hours of sleep daily. She dedicates a full day to jet lag recovery, sleeping as much as possible, to reset her circadian rhythm to the local time for optimal living and performance.

Jonathan Siegrist (who has redpointed countless 5.14s and seven 5.15s) prioritizes sleep above all else: “8-10 hours in a dark room on a comfortable bed.” If conditions aren’t ideal, he uses earplugs and covers his eyes. His reasoning is fundamental: “Sleep is crucial for physical health, recovery, and mental well-being.”

*Image: Jonathan Siegrist climbing “Biographie/Realization” (5.15a), Céüse, France.

Alex Honnold: While admitting his sleep schedule isn’t always optimal, Honnold avoids coffee and energy drinks. This allows his body to maximize sleep during any available downtime.

3. Do Something Daily for Progress

“Any training plan will yield improvement if you stick with it consistently.”

Ask professional climbers or coaches about their specific training methods, and you’ll find diverse opinions. However, one point unites them: The specific plan matters less than choosing one and sticking to it consistently. Your training can be simple; the key is setting a fixed schedule and following through. Progress will come.

Sonnie Trotter does 1-3 things daily to advance towards his goals. These could be analyzing a route’s features or researching better training protocols.

Sasha Digiulian has benefited from various plans; crucially, she identifies her ideal training time (noon) and schedules accordingly.

Alex Honnold, quoting Ben Moon, treats fingerboard training “like brushing your teeth” – essential and daily. Preparing for “Freerider,” he implemented a targeted fingerboard routine to maintain sport climbing strength while training endurance and crack technique (crucial for the route’s ~V7 boulder problem on pitch 23).

Image: Alex Honnold training on a fingerboard in his van.

4. Find a Great Partner

“Great partnerships throughout my climbing career have made me a better climber and given me an accurate sense of my abilities.” – Madaleine Sorkin

Jonathan Siegrist: “Having a super motivated and psyched partner is incredibly important. Their climbing grade doesn’t matter as much as their love for climbing, their willingness to project hard, and their ability to stick with it through long sessions when needed.” Climbing involves constant setbacks en route to a redpoint. An enthusiastic, optimistic partner is infinitely better than a pessimistic, complaining one.

Big wall free climber Madaleine Sorkin: “I choose partners based on whether they will understand and support my goals. Whether your partner believes in you and supports you can sometimes be critical to whether you send the route.” Sorkin learned this the hard way. Once, climbing with an unfamiliar and unsupportive partner, she took a 15-meter ground fall, partly attributing it to the distraction caused by the partner’s negativity. Now, she carefully selects partners. Time spent with a partner is integral to the climbing experience; an incompatible partner can make climbing unpleasant and even dangerous.

Image: Madaleine Sorkin demonstrating the importance of a good partner.

The foundation for pushing your limits is a well-matched partner coupled with reliable belaying skills.

5. Quality Trumps Quantity

Make your time at the crag or gym count.

While hard work (“diligence can compensate for clumsiness”) has merit and quantity is sometimes necessary to achieve a qualitative leap, consistent climbing isn’t always easy. Many people with 9-to-5 jobs have severely limited climbing time. How to maximize improvement within these constraints?

New Zealand pro Mayan Smith-Gobat’s mantra is “Less is More.”

Unlike many who climb until exhaustion, she stops challenging herself before she’s completely spent.

In the gym (which she dislikes), she sets strict time limits and focuses solely on climbing, avoiding social chit-chat.

She schedules mandatory rest days – a full day off after 2-3 consecutive climbing days. “Adopting ‘Less is More’ makes my climbing more efficient, more productive, and less injury-prone.”

Image: Mayan Smith-Gobat climbing.

This principle applies to choosing goals: More isn’t necessarily better. Select routes that genuinely excite you, that you want to climb repeatedly.

Sonnie Trotter: “I love a route for its appearance, the movement, or the feeling it gives while climbing. When I have that feeling, I’m willing to push myself to complete it. Routes like that are the ones that motivate me to climb day after day.”

6. Meticulously Document Everything

“I keep track of long-term goals and daily minutiae.” – Alex Honnold

Document your climbing goals and progress, daily nutrition, and training plans. Even if you don’t tick off every “100 pull-ups” or “45 mins cardio,” completing small daily tasks builds positive momentum and a sense of accomplishment, fueling motivation.

Alex Honnold: “I keep track of long-term goals and daily minutiae.” He uses multiple notebooks: one for climbing logs (every route climbed), another for training logs (schedule, food, sleep, variables to adjust). Understanding how food, rest, and training affect your body allows you to use time and energy most effectively.

Image: One of Alex Honnold’s notebooks logging daily climbs.

Start Simple: Begin by tracking sleep. Record bedtime, wake time, morning feeling, and factors affecting sleep quality. After a few weeks, adjust based on patterns.

Next, log what you eat before and after climbing. Timing, type, and quantity of food impact performance. Collect enough data to discover your body’s optimal operating rhythm.

7. Meticulous Preparation

“Eliminate as many unknowns as possible.” – Madaleine Sorkin

Madaleine Sorkin calls her big wall preparation principle the “Princess Strategy.” On big walls, bad weather or any difficult section can derail the entire plan. The “Princess Strategy” means preparing exhaustively to minimize obstacles, making the execution as smooth as possible.

Examples:

Before climbing “El Corazon” (5.13b) or “Moonlight Buttress” (5.12d), Sorkin rappelled the routes, leaving gear, food, and water at key points. She then top-roped sections using a self-belay (e.g., GriGri on a fixed rope) to learn the moves and cruxes. Previewing cruxes is essential; conserving limited energy and time on the wall means not figuring out holds at the crux.

She writes detailed gear lists for each pitch.

Preparing for “The Honeymoon is Over” (5.13c) on Colorado’s Diamond, Sorkin spent weeks in strict routine: same clothes, same schedule, same food – like an ascetic – to minimize variables.

Apply the Principle:

Sport Climbing: If stuck on a crux move, repeatedly climb the entire route bottom-to-top until flawless.

Bouldering: Mark key holds from the top down to avoid confusion mid-problem.

Multi-pitch: Download topos, study route descriptions, ask previous ascensionists, search online for beta/trip reports.

The Core: Prepare as thoroughly as possible to achieve your climbing goal.