Thank you a million times over, just about to head to a gym for the first time and I feel a lot less nervous now. So extremely detailed and thorough and paced perfect for newbies!!!! You "Rock"!!

For the first couple of months: just climb. Have fun.

Once you're more confident just being on the wall, use youtube and find any one of the hundreds of beginner bouldering tips videos and start to incorporate that into your sessions. Drills are great.

Top tips I have from this video: speed up! The longer you're on the wall, the more tired you'll be. Also, use your legs more- I can see you're stretching yourself out a lot by reaching super high, that doesn't leave you with much room to move. Looking great as a start though.

Welcome to the sport and good luck!!

Remember to take your harness off before bouldering! All falls are ground falls and you don't want anything between you and the mat! Other than that, keep climbing and having fun with it, and make some friends while you're at it like everyone else is saying.

The best general advice I can give is keeping your hips close to the wall will help you stay on, your legs are stronger than your arms so push yourself up instead of pulling, and just have fun. Don’t be afraid to try something that looks too hard, you might surprise yourself!

Also, when you get more into climbing you'll have belay devices and personal anchors on your harness that you do not want to land on. It's not necessarily dangerous with nothing on your harness, just not a good habit to develop.

Best tip: just have fun and don't stress. Sometimes the most joy can come from the beginner gains, don't diminish it by being too critical.

Things will make a bit more sense if you stick to one colour. They are graded somehow, so start easy and build up slowly.

If your gym offers classes for free (mine does for beginner classes) then take advantage of that. Two practice routines that were taught to me at a climbing class and I think worked well to build proper muscle memory for climbing technique:

• Find a route you consider moderately easy and climb it while forcing yourself to hover your hand over each new hold for a mental 5 count prior to grabbing the hold. This will force you to concentrate on maintaining 3 points of connection, climbing static, and it'll work your stabilization muscles a bit.

• Find a route you consider moderately easy and climb it while only allowing yourself to move your hand when that associated hip is touching the wall (i.e. you can only move your right hand to a new hold if your right hip is touching the wall, then left hand/left hip, repeat.) This will force you to place your weight on your toes and pivot around them, rather than climbing splay-footed as many newbies do.

No private lessons! Watch climbing YouTubers like Mani the Monkey and Magnus Mitdbo, David McLeod. They have nice instructional videos.

Slab climbing will force you to use foster better footwork. It will improve trusting feet, comfort on smaller holds, and general smearing.

Slab climbing is a technician's game.

When you're warming up on easier stuff, try to climb as static as possible. Place your feet exactly where you want them on the hold and try not to make any adjustments. Same thing goes for your hands. Another similar exercise is to try and climb without making any noise with your foot movements.

Best way to improve is to work on your footwork. What does that mean? What is footwork? Footwork is anything you do with your lower body to create/maintain balance. Try standing up and reaching out with your right hand. Now lean in that direction. What happens? You start to fall in that direction unless you use your left leg to counterbalance. With that as a basis, here is the secret to footwork in one simple sentence: If you are reaching with your right hand, you must do something with your right foot (ie, push, hook or flag) and vice versa. Let that sink in. Easy to dismiss this sentence but is the most important rule on footwork. I will be eventually posting videos on this concept.

Not much I can add for technique tips but what really helps me is doing climbs again even after sending it. Trying to climb more smoothly, thinking about which hand and which foot on what hold next.

Watching a lot of youtube videos on technique, but not all at once, watch 1-2 on a certain technique and then try at the gym!

Also keep those precious beginner videos, it will be so motivating seeing how much you've grown. :)

If I can also add with repetition, after a climb think about parts you can do better, can I place my feet better? Are my arms and hands good? How can I climb this more effectively? You're already recording yourself as you climb which helps see what you're doing good and what can be fixed. Maybe also check out some YouTube videos about climbing techniques and beginner stuff. All this comes with time but you're doing great so far!

Neil Greshams Climbing Masterclass! Really set me up for success when I first started ten years ago.

Still a bit of a beginner. Working towards V-4, almost there. Do core exercises, this will allow you stay closer to the wall and improve balance (especially when reaching). Learn to smear, you do not always need a foothold (core, core, core). Downclimb routes. This improves endurance and you start to look at your feet more. A big part of climbing is foot placement, use those legs as they are your strongest muscles.

Planning ahead before starting the climb definitely helps. Then again, sometimes guessing where to go whilst on the wall and trying to correct the inevitable mistakes can be pretty fun too

Is getting close to the wall still a priority in overhanging sections? With straight arms I end up swinging around like a monkey.

Just keep climbing, looks fine.

Buy some beginner shoes, they'll be way better than rentals.

Also that's what's called a French start, you moved your hand off the start hold before you took your foot off the ground. You need to be off the ground before you move from the start holds.

If you're into YouTube videos, I prefer 'movement for climbers' channel for learning techniques.

Your technique is absolutely amazing for the time you are climbing. I dont know if you are as comfortable on steeper terrain, maybe you can improve there? In general, try all angles and hold types available in your gym.

Invest in a pair of climbing shoes. Stay away from the high end models (aggressive, really soft and downturned) and buy ones that fit snuggly but are not painful. Otherwise you might not be able to load your feet properly and cant utilize the technique of yours.

your technique is great for two weeks, just not a legal start as other comments have said

Excellent foot work and control for being three weeks in!

Your footwork is looking great for being new to climbing, keep that up.

You cheated the start by jumping off the mat to next hold, try to establish on the wall first before moving off starting holds.

At this point just keep climbing and be sure to try climbs that don't suit you/seem uncomfortable e.g. overhangs, more dynamic movement etc. Getting a big variety of experience is most important right now.

I mean, definitely very helpful to have taken climbing classes. If you’re taking lessons for mountaineering they will teach you all of the rope / climbing you need. It’s very different from typical climbing until you get into pretty insane, pure rock face kind of stuff. Really depends on the type of mountaineering you plan to do. Some ascents are straight up rock faced - most are not.

I did mountaineering for years before I got into rock.

Even then I only did it because I was moving further from the mountains and my climbing partners.

I will say that being at least an intermediate rock climber helps a lot with mountaineering though.

My recommendation is don't worry about rock in year one. Mountainnering is about so much more than climbing technique at first. Then maybe year 2 consider some rock shoes and a gym pass to refine your rock skills while putting the other skills into practice in the hills.

Instead of thinking about skills and gear first, look into peaks that you want to do short-term and dream ones for long term. Get the gear you need for the immediate stuff and build up the skills and experience for the big stuff you dream of.

Repeat this process as you find new goals or realize you don’t want to do some of the peaks you had thought you would enjoy.

What are your short and long-term goals?

Two things: first, you don't have to get into rock climbing. While it certainly has value, it's not a requirement by any means. One of my main partners doesn't rock climb and the only place I notice it non-rock/ice routes is that he tends to be a little less comfortable with exposure.

Second thing: mountaineering is expensive, so prep yourself. You are going to need boots, crampons, at least one axe, warm clothing, a 4 season tent, a warm sleeping bag, insulated sleeping pad, stove, snowshoes, etc etc etc. Then you will end up wanted to buy duplicates of a lot of that gear for colder trips. Now add in ropes and stuff for more technical routes. You can space these purchases out and build your gear selection as you gain experience.

No, I started basic mountaineering/glacier travel first and got into rock climbing (and skiing) later. It’s a really common progression here in the PNW.

Eventually you’re going to want to learn to rock climb because it’s just way cooler feeling to climb a technical alpine route than a walk-up, and it opens up so many more options for you in terms of route selection. But that came come later.

Welcome to climbing! It’s brilliant fun.

On finger strength, you don’t need to train it specifically when you start, it comes as part of time on the wall. There are devices called hangboards which people use to hang by their fingers but they aren’t generally recommended until you’ve been climbing for a year or so.

I wish I’d dialled in decent technique earlier, like focussing on leg strength and positioning as this sets up a good foundation. I’d recommend watching the Hannah Morris videos with Coach Be as they show the basics and drills really well. I still sit and think feet, hips, hand as I climb.

Other than that, realising falling is a good thing. Climbing tends to be failing and falling a lot. It’s a good thing to be comfortable with, to know how to do safely, and to also reflect on why it happened so you can improve on your next attempt.

Personally I would learn how to belay with an ATC before jumping right to a grigri. Learning on an ATC will teach you good and safe habits that you might not really internalized if you start with a grigri.

Otherwise just climb, remember to use your feet and legs and not to rely on your arms to pull yourself up. And don’t climb too much immediately. Lots of new climbers get elbow tendinitis from over gripping and climbing a lot early on. Look at some ways to stretch your forearms and warm up before climbing.

I started climbing last year and I can’t get enough of it now. When I’m not climbing I’m watching climbing videos, it’s addictive haha! I think right now for your first few times don’t worry too much about strength or technique (I mean obviously it’ll be helpful to learn the best way to climb and things not to do etc.), I’d say just focus on having fun and seeing how it feels. Do you have someone who can show you the ropes (pun intended)?

Only mistake I made was believing that shoes are supposed to be painfully small beyond my own comfort. I have 34.5 shoe size and maybe scaling doesn't work well with that size anymore. First pair was exactly in my street size and they hurt me so much that I subconsciously avoided weighting my feet. But everyone was keeping reassuring me that climbing shoes are supposed to be uncomfortable. After almost a year of misery I finally decided to get another pair much bigger than my street size (scarpa origins 36) and FINALLY started to actually enjoy climbing. I wore of them quickly and got myself 35 tarantulas and I'm slowly thinking about getting back to my first pair. But I had to learn to use my feet again, creating stupidly large gap between using my feet and other elements of general climbing technique. So I'm advocating comfortable shoes now, as new climbers don't need that level of aggressiveness in the beginning.

My main advice for a new climber would be to watch your feet, be very deliberate and gentle with how you place your feet, make sure you use your toes as opposed to the middle of your foot, and most importantly remember to BREATHE, the rest will come with time, but knowing how to use your feet is probably going to be the most efficient way to progress.

https://youtu.be/h5Oxp9qujeE?si=-H_hesWhbLyHQY2s

Look at the the advice that Louis gives Maggie, V1 - V3 Climber. It's been super super helpful to my mentality with climbing. Especially, the "expect it to be scary, but just do it scared".

Depending on how bad the fear of heights is, you could do what I get my mate to do. He has the worst fear of heights of anyone I have met, so what I do is get him to pick a climb and go as high as he is willing to get then next time get time to go one higher each time.

If you're bouldering at a gym, I suggest you practice controlled falls.

You climb like a meter high and fall rolling back. When you're fine with this, you do it just a bit higher and so on. Do this for a few weeks until you're used to falling safely and only climb up to heights you're comfortable falling from.

In no time, you'll build muscle memory on how to fall properly and will feel safer about bouldering!

I’m in a similar boat - new to bouldering, terrified of heights. In the very beginning especially, I tended to “freeze” partway up a climb if I got too in my head about the height. What helped the most was setting a rule that whenever that happened, I had to practice an intentional fall, if safe to do so, from right there - no down climbing allowed. It’s really helped me calibrate how high I actually am on the wall. I’ve needed it less and less, but I still practice it sometimes as I progress!

thank you everyone for the advice!!! i will def add intentional falling and doing it scared into my arsenal of things to practice 😊🙏🙏

Do you boulder or do routes?

A great thing to do is to watch other climbers on the routes you are doing, especially ones which feel hard to you.

Also, 2 months is not very long to develop that awareness of your body. It's all very well watching videos, but you have to actually feel your body in those positions.

Instead of just trying to get up the wall, try climbing slowly and mindfully, feeling how each position and movement feels. Try pushing with your legs, rather than pulling with your arms. Try to keep your arms straight, and hand off them, rather than pulling yourself up with them. And feel where your centre of gravity is - over your feet in an ideal world.

Redo climbs, but this time think how could I make this easier for me?

And as someone else suggested, film yourself. How you actually look on the wall is often not what you thought at all. And it's a good way to see any mistakes and what you could do differently or better.

Wait till you're on a plateau for years... but seriously now, technique, not power. Climb more consistently with intention. 2 months are nothing, you have just scratched the surface. The improvement might be quick for some, longer for others but in the end we don't progress infinitely, otherwise all of us will climb Burden of Dreams. You'll see progress but 2 months to want to be advanced is very ambitious.

I learned from a few different things.

1. Technique videos on youtube. The first ones that clicked for me were the "Neal Gresham Climbing Masterclass" ones... these are kind of old school but still really good. I also really like Anna Hazelnutt's "Chaotic brain thoughts" shorts, where she gives voiceovers of what she's thinking moment to moment as she climbs. Other folks whose stuff I like are Richarson's Climbing, Louis Parkinson, Hannah Morris, Movement for Climbers, Send Edition. All these folks have some stuff I learned from and some stuff that didn't really click for me, I think it's good to shop around a bit.
2. Specifically making myself try every technique I learn about until I start to do them naturally. e.g. at one point I decided to look around my gym for every place where I could do a toe hook easily, and do it. After just a little bit of that I started to see them and use them naturally without having to think about it.
3. Watching excellent climbers and trying to anticipate what they will do before they do it. This can be climbing videos or comps or just watching the most graceful folks at the gym. It's like having a teaching quiz... try to read a move, get instant feedback on whether the climber read it the same way
4. My favorite exercise ever: get on a wall somewhere with lots of great holds and not too big a crowd, and just try to stay on the wall as long as possible. I started doing this a while ago as a warmup and endurance exercise, and it turned out to be amazing for technique too. I move around slowly, lingering after each move until the new position starts to feel tiring, not following any particular route or with any particular goal in mind except staying on and exploring the available space. This is good for technique because it requires efficiency in both static positions and in movement, and my body gives me continuous feedback in the form of tired or uncomfortable muscles and joints, telling me how I can do better. Because I'm not focused on trying to tick a climb, my attention can be on feeling out the least strenuous positions and movements with no distractions. Because I'm moving slow, if I'm not in an efficient position, a tired muscle will tell me what to fix. And because I'm favoring good holds, I have enough time to hang around figuring out beneficial micro-adjustments instead of trying to figure it out in a rush while about to fall off of things I can barely hold onto.

Watch YouTube videos of pros climbing. Your brain will absorb the movement and techniques on a subconscious level and it will improve your climbing. You can also watch specific videos on technique, but I find that less fun haha

Yeah, with 2, it's a way to take something from being just something I've watched a video on, and turning that into kind of usable knowledge you're talking about.

It's easy to watch a technique video, and then just fall back into the same habitual body movements as before. That kind of feels like, "my brain knows it, but my body doesn't know it yet." To teach it to my body, I have to do it. So say I just watched a video on how to do a rockover... it's worth taking a few minutes just looking for places to try rockovers and just making myself do as many as I can. In some places it will feel good and useful, in other places, it won't. Feeling the difference teaches me when to do it, what it's good for, and what the limitations are. It really doesn't take long of "forcing" a move like this to turn it into a natural part of my movement vocabulary, but doing at least a few minutes of deliberately trying each new technique is important, otherwise it's really hard to know when to even try it.