Your First 90 Days of Bouldering
A path through everything we've written, in the order it becomes useful. Free, ungated, on one page — no course, no drip, no login.
Everything below already exists on this site, free and ungated. What was missing was the order. This is the path we'd give a friend who texted "I'm going bouldering on Saturday, what do I need to know?" — four phases, no filler, and nothing you have to sign up for.
Before you go at all
You need shoes and chalk. That's the entire list — every gym rents shoes, and most sell chalk at the desk. Do not buy a kit before your first session; you don't know yet whether you like this.
- Why climbers use chalk — it manages moisture, it isn't glue, and most people use far too much.
- Bouldering grades explained — enough to read the wall without nodding along.
Do this: book a session, rent the shoes, buy nothing.
Weeks 1–2: learn where your feet go
Almost every failed problem in your first fortnight is a foot that never moved. Climb the easy circuits, climb a lot of them, and resist the pull of the hardest thing you can nearly do. Your forearms will be useless after forty minutes and that is correct.
- What every V-grade feels like — start at V0 and read up two grades. That's your world for now.
- The unwritten rules, in one line: don't sit under a problem, don't offer beta nobody asked for, and brush the holds you sweated on.
Do this: two sessions a week, mostly V0–V1, stop before your skin does.
Month 1: buy the right three things
By now you know whether you're coming back. This is the moment to buy shoes that fit you rather than the rental pair that fits nobody, and to stop paying for chalk by the scoop.
- The bouldering gym bag checklist — five non-negotiables, and what never earns its place.
- Chalk ball vs loose vs liquid — and where loose chalk is banned, because some gyms decide this for you.
- Chalk bucket size calculator — work out what your session actually needs before you buy a bag.
- How much chalk you actually use — 5–15 g a session, so a 200 g bag lasts months.
Do this: shoes that fit, your own chalk, something to carry both.
Months 2–3: build the base, skip the plateau
Somewhere around V3 the grade stops rising by itself, and the standard reaction is to project one problem for a month. That is the wrong move and it is why so many climbers spend a year at V4. Width beats height at this stage: many sends slightly below your limit teach more than few sends at it.
- Build your bouldering pyramid — the single most useful thing on this page. It shows you in thirty seconds which grade you skipped.
- V0 to V5: a realistic timeline — the honest numbers, with the error bars attached.
- Brushes and keeping your gear clean — small habits, and the ones other climbers notice.
Do this: count your sends by grade, then spend a month filling the lowest hollow tier.
And then: go outside
Nothing in a gym prepares you for how a real boulder feels, and the sooner you find that out the less it stings. Expect to drop two or three grades on your first trip. Everybody does.
- Gym vs outdoor grade reality check — what your gym number is actually worth on rock.
- Gym to crag — pads, etiquette, safety and what changes.
- V scale to Font converter — for the day you read a European topo.
Do this: go with someone who has been before, and bring more pads than you think.
Why this isn't an email course
Because an email course would be worse for you and better for us. Everything here is on one page, in order, with no gate and no drip — you can read it in twenty minutes or bookmark the phase you're in. We'd rather you actually use it than open six emails.
If you want to hear when we build a new tool, there's a box below. It sends one email when something ships and nothing else.
Quick answers
How do I start bouldering?
Book a session at a gym, rent shoes, buy chalk at the desk, and climb the easiest circuit until your forearms give up. Buy nothing else until you've been three or four times.
What do I need for my first bouldering session?
Shoes and chalk, both available at the gym. Comfortable clothes you can move in, and water. That's genuinely it — everything else is an optimisation you can't yet use.
How long until I'm good at bouldering?
Most people reach V3 within a few consistent months and V5 somewhere between one and three years. The spread is enormous and depends far more on how often you climb than on how hard you try.
How often should a beginner boulder?
Two to three sessions a week, with rest days between them. Bouldering loads tendons faster than it builds them, and the injuries that end beginners' first year are almost always from climbing too often, too hard, too soon.
Made by climbers, for climbers — here's who we are, and here are the tools.