How Long It Takes to Progress in Bouldering (With V Scale)


When I started bouldering in 2018 I often asked myself the question why it takes so long until I get better at climbing. Like every other sport bouldering takes very long to progress and get good at. Now, after years of experience I know how long it took me to move up through the bouldering grades.

On average progressing in bouldering takes 3-4 months as a beginner, until you see clear improvements. Progressing from there on will take 6-9 months until you get on the next stage of improvement, as the fundamentals are already learned. Getting good in bouldering can take 3-4 years.

These time spans are just a rough outline how long it took me to get good at bouldering. However progressing in bouldering is best explained with a scale of difficulty. The most popular scale in bouldering is the V scale, which is the scale I will use to tell you how long it took me to progress in bouldering.

Progressing in Bouldering Through The V Scale

The V scale can help you a lot to progress in bouldering, as it visually shows you the progress you make. Every new bouldering grade you manage to climb shows you, that you progressed and improved as a climber. This visual progress can give you a huge boost of motivation to keep going.

But what is the V scale? The V scale is a scale of difficulty in climbing, that describes how hard a bouldering problem is in a grade. The scale goes from V0 to V17, where V0 is the easiest grade. Some gyms also offer VB’s, which stands for beginner or basic, that are below the V0’s.

On your first day on the climbing gym you should be able to climb VB’s and most of the V0’s. Some people, that are doing other kinds of sport might also be able to climb a V1. From there on you can progress all the way up to V17. However, V17 is a grade that almost no climber is able to climb, so set your target a bit lower, maybe at V6 after 1 year.

The problem with the V scale is that every climbing gym has different route setters, that might interpret the difficulty of a boulder differently. However, most of the times the V scale is fairly accurate and can be compared worldwide. Just be aware, that if you visit different climbing gyms sometimes one gym might set the route difficulties higher than others.

If you only climb in one gym you won’t face this problem, as the route setters will always be the same and the difficulty will remain the same aswell. So you can compare yourself within your gym very accurately because of that.

In the following table I collected the time it took me to progress through the bouldering grades. These time spans are just a rough outline and will vary from person to person. It might take you longer to achieve certain climbing grades or less time. I think when I started bouldering I was a pretty average guy that sometimes did a bit of sport, but I didn’t really have any specific sport background that I would benefit from in climbing.

Climbing Grade on the V scaleHow long it took me to be able to climb it
VBOn the first day
V0On the first day
V11 week
V21 month
V33 months
V45 months
V57 months
V61 year
V71 year 7 months
V82 years 5 months
V9will take 3-4 years
V10-11will take about 5-8 years
V12-13will take about 10 years
V14-17probably won’t be able to climb ever

As you can see when I’m writing this article I only cimbed one V8 so far and progressing from now on will take very long. However getting into the V14-V17 range is nearly impossible for most climbers and will require talent, consistency and very hard work.

Consistency is The Key to Progress in Bouldering

Consistency is the most important factor for progressing in bouldering, because if you stop climbing, all the great training tactics and equipment won’t help you. You have to climb consistent in order to get better in bouldering and move up through the climbing grades.

Taking long breaks of weeks or even months will throw you back a lot in your climbing progress. You will get back to where you left pretty quickly, but it will still take you a few weeks if you didn’t climb for months. Having a climbing schedule is helpful here to know how often and when you will climb every week.

On the opposite site it is also bad to climb too often, as this won’t let your body recover fully, which leads to bad perfomances and an increase in the risk of injuring yourself. If you you want to know how long you should rest between your bouldering sessions click here.

Other Tips for Quickly Progressing in Bouldering

Just as consistency and resting appropriately there are also other factors that can help you to improve as a climber faster. The following list contains additional tips to progress in bouldering.

  • Sleep is very important to progress in bouldering, as enough sleep will enable you for peak perforamance and faster recovery
  • Structuring your bouldering sessions and optimizing it towards your weaknesses can help you to climb new grades faster. If you want to know how you structure your bouldering sessions in an optimal way click here
  • Trying to visualize the bouldering problem before climbing it will safe you a lot of attempts and improves your route reading skills
  • Climb together with more experienced people, as they will be able to help you and share their experiences how they progressed as a beginner with you

Final Thoughts

Having the visual progress is one reason why I love climbing so much. It’s very unique and most other kind of sports don’t have a scale where you can cearly tell that you improved. However I think as a hobby climber the main focus should be fun and not the progress.

Of course progress can be motivating, but try to give yourself the time you need and have fun doing it. Comparing yourself with other people and how fast they progress can be helpful, but also demotivating when you take it too serious.

Niclas Maas

I am a hobby climber since 2018, when I discovered this awesome sport through a friend. Ever since then I enjoyed bouldering and rock climbing in my free time with friends or alone. I love the fulfillment of climbing new routes you couldn't before, but through hard training you are now able to.

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