In reply to:
OK, we've heard from the stength crowd, the technique crowd, the gymbies and the boulderes, men, women, people who can do pullups and people who cannot.
Common themes?
Mileage, there is no substitute.
Fitness, you need it.
Attention, you must focus ON YOUR FEET!!!111
Now there is another component, attitude.
You have to want it. IF you really want it, you will find YOUR way. No one on the internet is going to tell you how to climb 5.10. You have to teach your body how to do that. You don't learn to climb 5.10 on 5.9's either.
What is the findamental difference between 5.8, 5.9 and 5.10?
I refer to it as Tips and Toes. At the 5.8 level, be it a crack or a face or what have you, you're almost integrated with the rock. If its crack climbing you are likely IN the rock so to speak, hands and feet deeply buried. Well anchored as it were.
At 5.9 you start getting spit out of the cracks unless you have solid technique. Face climbs at the 5.9 level involve a lot more 'connect the distant dots' than 5.8. But you're still finding full foot and hand placements, or jams, with frequency.
As you rise into the 5.10, you also RISE OFF THE ROCK, onto your tips and toes. Most 5.10's and up, unless the are 135 degree jug endurance sport fests, involve miniscule finger and foot holds. You'll find yourself standing on the tip of one big toe, with the pads of two digits smeared into a dimple, extending to reach a distant cling grip and then stepping to another tiny foothold.
Whole pitches, whole cliffs, dihedrals, cracks, faces, you can find yourself on your tips and toes the whole way.
For the wouldbe 5.10er, embrace your tips and toes. Know that you will be standing like a ballerina, on your toe tips, for long periods. Get into the headspace necessary to do this, its a different mindset than a 5.9 jamfest. 5.10 cracks can be this way too (OW's excepted)
You can practice tips and toes on 8's and 9's too, just use your tips and toes, not your whole hand or whole foot. Watch good climbers on hard routes, you'll see what I mean.
Tips and toes. Work with it.
As Wolfgar said, "There is no security." 5.10 and up, finding true no hands rests and the like is increasingly difficult. You are going to be climbing on your tips and toes.
DMT
