“I Have Good Grace For Myself”: Matt Fultz on Injuries, Training, and his Two-V16 Season

This article originally appeared on Climbing

Between September 2020 and August 2021, Matt Fultz had one of the most productive 12 months of bouldering an American has ever experienced, sending his first four V16s, numerous V15s, and cementing his place in the U.S. bouldering pantheon. But then, in August, while gunning for the second ascent of Drew Ruana's Insomniac (V16), he heard that telltale ping! that every boulderer fears.

When I last spoke with him, in November of 2021, Fultz was rehabbing his finger in Idaho and planning to spend the winter training before heading down to Vegas to try Daniel Woods' Return of the Sleepwalker (V17). But recovering from the injury took longer than anticipated. And Return to the Sleepwalker didn't go quite according to plan (in our interview below he says he was hobbled by a "mental injury" accrued during his long recovery season). Yet he managed to turn the year around in June by making the FA of Brace for the Cure, a V16 on the Green 45 boulder in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then, in October, he made the second ascent of Moonlight Sonata (V16), Taylor McNeil's technical masterpiece in Joe’s Valley.

For those keeping score, that brings his V16 count up to six.

Earlier this month, Fultz and I caught up to chat about his season--and also about grades, about how to structure board sessions, about in-season strength training, and--of course--about how Fultz measures progress and stays confident when spending 20+ days on a single boulder.

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