Alphane 2nd Ascent, Burden of Dreams & Training Strategies: The Aidan Roberts Interview

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Aidan Roberts just climbed Alphane, a 9A in Chironico  this week, so we got him to sit down with Tom Randall interview to discuss the news, the process and Aidan’s history with this line. 

This is the second ascent after Shawn Raboutou,  and one of the few 9A/V17s in the world right now. The interview is broken down into sections few, which should give everyone something to go away with, whether you’re in the double digits yourself or you’re interested in what process someone goes through to work towards a project at their limit. 

The big areas we discuss:

• The history of Alphane and Aidan’s first season
• How he prepared for this past Switzerland trip
• His thoughts on the line and what he’s up to next
• Q&A session with Lattice audience

Specific topics and questions covered:

• When did he first try the problem
• Who did he try it with and how did they climb/project? 
• How his first trip went and what he learnt
• How he prepared with his coach, Ollie Torr, for his follow trip
• What ‘on the wall’ and ‘off the wall’ training he used
• His thoughts on teaming up with Will Bosi for a ‘Team Trip.’
• How the project sessions broke down, and what approaches they both used
• The send go
• His next projects in Switzerland and ‘Alphane Right Hand’ line
• How he balances repeats vs FAs
• His historic approach to mileage vs projecting. Which does he do more?
• What training has had the biggest impact ‘on rock’ for him
• How much a week he trains
• How long does he rest between burns
• What degree of ‘perfection’ does he look for in a move before making links
• His thoughts on Burden of Dreams, Isles Sit Start & Superpower
• What’s harder than Alphane? Is anything flying under the radar?

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.