The Bouldering Treadmill: Why the Next Grade Won’t Buy You Happiness (And What Will)
We’ve all experienced it. You spend weeks, maybe months, projecting a specific line. You visualize the movements, build the specific finger strength, and fail dozens of times at the crux. Then, it happens. The stars align, your friction is perfect, and you top out.
The rush is incredible. You feel an intense wave of satisfaction, update your online logbook, and text your friends. But fast forward three weeks. The high is gone. That hard-fought grade has now simply become your new baseline, and you are already looking at the next number on the scale, feeling slightly dissatisfied that you aren’t there yet.
This loop isn’t just a quirk of the climbing mind—it is a deeply studied psychological phenomenon known as hedonic adaptation (or the hedonic treadmill).
The Science of Fading Highs
In psychology, hedonic adaptation describes our remarkably stable baseline of happiness. When something incredibly positive (or negative) happens, our emotions spike dramatically, but over a relatively short period, we adapt and return to our original psychological baseline.
The foundational proof for this comes from a classic 1978 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman. The researchers compared the long-term happiness levels of major lottery winners to everyday individuals and victims of catastrophic accidents.
The Finding: Within just a few months to a year, the lottery winners were no happier than the control group. The initial ecstasy of wealth quickly evaporated as day-to-day life adapted to the new circumstances.
Later research by psychologists like Sonja Lyubomirsky suggests that while external achievements or circumstances alter our joy temporarily, our happiness set-point is partially genetically determined, and a substantial part comes from our daily intentional activities and practices—not our external milestones.
Chasing the Next Grade: The Climber’s Trap
When we apply this psychological lens to bouldering, the parallels are striking. The grading system (whether V-scale or Font) creates a linear illusion of progress. It tempts us to tie our self-worth and happiness to a number.
If you fall into the trap of thinking, “I will finally feel like a ‘good’ climber when I send a solid V6 (or 6C),” you are setting a trap for yourself.
Here is what happens when you view bouldering entirely through the lens of external goals:
- The Goalpost Always Moves: Once you send the grade, your brain instantly normalizes it. V6 becomes the new normal, and suddenly V7 is the new threshold for satisfaction.
- The “Arrival Fallacy”: Coined by psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar, this is the false belief that reaching a destination will bring lasting happiness. In climbing, the “arrival” lasts about five minutes on the mats before the treadmill spins back up.
- Fragile Motivation: If the joy only lives in the send, you are choosing a hobby where you will be frustrated 99% of the time, since bouldering is inherently a sport of repeated failure punctuated by rare moments of success.
Shifting Focus: Finding Pleasure in the Journey
Goals aren’t bad. Having a target grade gives our training direction, sharpens our focus, and gets us out of bed on cold mornings. But goals are the compass, not the destination. Lasting fulfillment in bouldering—and in life—comes from falling in love with the process itself.
To break off the hedonic treadmill, try shifting your focus toward these three elements of the journey:
1. The Joy of Micro-Successes
Instead of defining a good session by whether you topped a problem, learn to celebrate micro-wins. Did you finally figure out the subtle body position change on a single move? Did you execute a perfect smear on a slippery volume that used to terrify you? These small, skill-based breakthroughs are where true growth and satisfaction live.
2. Deep Immersion (Flow State)
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined Flow as the state of optimal experience where you are completely absorbed in an activity for its own sake. Bouldering is a perfect flow generator. When you are on the wall, the past and future disappear; there is only the texture of the rock, your breathing, and the next move. Prioritize the feeling of movement and full presence over the scorecard.
3. The Shared Experience and Environment
Think about your favorite climbing memories. Often, they aren’t just about the numbers. They are about the crisp morning air at the crag, the shared frustration and laughter with a spotter, the perfect coffee before the session, and the collective cheers when someone gives their absolute best effort.
The Takeaway
Enjoy the goals, build the strength, and dream of the next grade. But remember that the happiness you seek isn’t waiting for you at the top of the boulder. It’s already present in the chalk on your hands, the puzzle of the movement, and the active effort of trying hard alongside people who share your passion.
Embrace the process. The journey isn’t the path to happiness—the journey is the happiness.
Sources
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.36.8.917 Cited by: 4335
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61(4), 305–314. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.61.4.305 Cited by: 3570
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111 Cited by: 6568
Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2019). Revisiting the Sustainable Happiness Model and Pie Chart: Can happiness be successfully pursued? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1689421 Cited by: 284