The Best Climbing Style for Every Zodiac Sign

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As all good climbers know, the secret to the send is more than strong fingers and solid footwork. It often all comes down to mindset. If you’ve been struggling in the climbing mentality department, consider a different perspective: your Zodiac sign.

We consulted in-house astrology expert Calin Van Paris at Yoga Journal to get the beta on how to abide your sign as a climber. Unlock your cosmic potential by exploring your astrological sign and what it suggests about your ideal climbing discipline, your anti-style, the best climbing partner for you, and what might take your climbing to the next celestial dimension.

Aquarius (January 20-February 18)

The Aquarius climber doesn’t move like you do—and they want you to know that. You may find them traveling to remote and rugged regions to bag first ascents, climbing multi-pitch in unconventional attire, or completely ignoring your beta. They still firmly believe that one of the greatest moments of all time in climbing was when the late Hayden Kennedy chopped the bolts on the Compressor Route.

Ideal style: Onsighting and beta breaking. This unique climber is all about chasing originality. They don’t want your beta, and if you give it to them, they will go out of their way to invent a different sequence.

Anti-style: Classic routes

Compatible partners: Gemini, Sagittarius

Aquarius climbing challenge: Humanitarians by nature, Aquarius climbers should choose a cause to support through their climbing. Take on an ambitious project to raise funds and awareness for environmental justice, or volunteer for Access Fund to clean up your local crag.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

With off-the-charts EQ and a bottomless capacity for compassion, the Pisces climber really shines when they’re not climbing at all—they are the consummate belayer. Did we mention they have martyr tendencies? This means they will offer to belay their partners all day long, while they secretly simmer.

Ideal style: Deep water soloing. With no belaying involved, you can stop being a martyr and lean/plunge into your element (water).

Anti-style: Dynos

Compatible partners: Virgo, Taurus

Pisces climbing challenge: The Pisces climber will thrive on a bouldering project, where they can work the moves solo, or show up with a crew depending on their mood. Choose a highball, a tricky top-out, or an anti-style problem to challenge yourself to overcome your fearful tendencies.

Pisces climbers: Plan a trip to Mallorca, Spain or Antalya, Turkey (pictured here) to manifest your element … and destiny (Photo: Ozge Elif Kizil / Getty Images)

Aries (March 21-April 19)

The resident rope gun of their crew, an Aries often sandbags themselves on limit grades and bold routes. You can usually find them going for the glory sends. They may or may not own a drone that they ask you to fly as they punch through the crux.

Ideal style: Steep sport climbing. With the patience of a pika and the courage of a ram, the Aries climber doesn’t have time to faff around with gear or systems. They feel most at home on pumpy sport routes, possibly in a photogenic cave.

Anti-style: Rope soloing (did you even send if no one was watching?)

Compatible partners: Libra, Leo

Aries climbing challenge: Rally a crew and plan a trip to the iconic Hurricave, where your bravery can reach new heights and angles. Also, your fiery nature will be right at home in the sweltering southern Utah desert heat.

Odds are, this climber working their way up this steep route in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang, China is an Aries (Photo: Gao Dongfeng / Getty)

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

What tick list? The Taurus climber is all about returning to their favorites. There’s nothing like the reassuring feeling of working the same beta over and over and over again. Since they’re probably as stubborn as a rock, good luck convincing a Taurus otherwise.

Ideal style: Moderate traversing. Grounded and responsible (sometimes to a fault), the Taurus climber has been known to tackle the same post-work traverse on their neighborhood cliffline on a weekly basis.

Anti-style: Big walls

Compatible partners: Scorpio, Cancer

Taurus climbing challenge: Shirk the coziness of sticking within your abilities by giving yourself a close-to-home trad climbing project a grade above your comfort level. The nature of projecting will soothe the creature of habit within, while the grade and gear placements will help you evolve.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

“It’s not a competition,” a Gemini will say shortly before recording how long their partner took to send the route and how many times they had to hang, compared to them. According to a Gemini climber, most if not all climbing areas they’ve been to are hopelessly sandbagged. Either that, or they happen to be at some sort of disadvantage due to their height, ape index, or finger anatomy.

Ideal style: Multi-pitch slab. Unafraid of heights and secretly sensitive, the Gemini climber is a friction ninja and they want the world to know it.

Anti-style: Gym bouldering (they can’t handle getting lapped by the little crushers)

Compatible partners: Sagittarius, Aquarius

Gemini climbing challenge: Enter an actual competition. A local comp, a climbing fest marathon, an invented tournament among friends—any competitive event will do. Find out what happens when you lean into the heat.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

The Cancer climber is often just here for the vibes—or because they’re loyal to their buddy who needs a belay. Yet with the persistence of an early 20th-century alpinist, this low-key crusher often exceeds expectations on the rock.

Ideal style: Seaside cliffs. Willing to wait for the right conditions and abide the tide, the Cancer climber finds the most happiness getting into their element alongside the water.

Anti-style: Steep sport climbs

Compatible partners: Capricorn, Taurus

Cancer climbing challenge: Soothe your soul on the sea stacks of Scotland, where your tenacity will shine amid the moody skies, salt-worn sandstone, and peaty, post-climb Scotch.

Did someone say seastack? Cancers can get into their element alongside the water, like at this seaside cliff in Brittany, France. (Arterra / Getty)

Leo (July 23-August 22)

The life of the crag or the campfire, Leos are bold climbers—though they don’t necessarily work for it. Instead, they rely on their ingenuity, ego, and fire within to send. Chances are, they will document that using the latest GoPro or 360 camera, too.

Ideal style: Free soloing. Seeing lines and possibilities where others don’t, the Leo climber will tell you “it goes,” then prove it, without a rope and with a camera.

Anti-style: Crimpy routes requiring extensive time on the fingerboard

Compatible partners: Gemini, Aries

Leo climbing challenge: Develop a ridiculously creative and ambitious birthday climbing challenge for yourself. Like 290 pitches for your 29th birthday à la Alex Honnold ridiculous. Plot twist: Don’t tell anyone about it. Ever.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Reminding everyone to warm up their fingers. Calling out your back-clip. Alerting the crew that sunset is in 46 minutes and no one brought headlamps so it’s time to pull the ropes. This voice of reason approaches everything from training to their projects with a strong work ethic and pragmatism.

Ideal style: Offwidths. While they might be slow to warm up to other humans, the Virgo climber loves disappearing into a crack and getting intimate with the rock.

Anti-style: Highballs

Compatible partners: Pisces, Cancer

Virgo climbing challenge: Lead a route with run-out or thought-provoking protection. Faff around and find out.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

A Libra’s worst nightmare is finding themselves at a high camp in the mountains or 10 pitches up a big wall with two partners whose oversized egos have resulted in a high-alpine, high-stakes conflict. The Libra climber will do everything in their power to keep the peace, which means they will also become easily stressed out if two different friend groups ask them to climb on the same day.

Ideal style: Alpine climbing. They love the intimacy of sharing a one-person tent with two other humans—as long as everyone is getting along.

Anti-style: Comp climbing

Compatible partners: Aries, Sagittarius

Libra climbing challenge: Get your AMGA Single Pitch Instructor certification and start guiding on the side. You are likely to enjoy what many guides dread: Making small talk with non-climbers asking you the same questions over and over again. You will also excel at nipping any conflict among your clients in the bud.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Scorpios know that real ones don’t call themselves “all-around climbers.” You can’t be good at climbing anything if you climb everything, they will tell you while putting the eighth burn of the day on their project. While they are downright diabolic about training (their current plan lives on a password-protected spreadsheet), they don’t entrust their progress to any one school of thought or method. If they are currently working on a project, it will be challenging for them to talk about anything else.

Ideal style: Finger cracks. In between pulley injuries, the Scorpio climber can be found torturing themselves on a razor-thin crack that only four people have ever climbed.

Anti-style: Adventure climbing

Compatible partners: Cancer, Taurus

Scorpio climbing challenge: Belay another Scorpio on their project. Observe what you learn about yourself in the process during this illuminating (and likely humbling) exercise.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Full of ideas and limitless stoke, the Sagittarius climber is on a meandering journey that cannot be defined or predicted. One minute, they’re spending the season in Yosemite, the next, plans have changed and they’re chasing an obscure summit in Finland with a new best friend they met last week.

Ideal style: Adventure climbing. As fickle and free as the wind in western Wyoming, a Sagittarius climber likes to keep it interesting in the vertical world, whether they’re trying out a new style or taking whippers halfway around the world.

Anti-style: Board climbing

Compatible partners: Gemini, Aires

Sagittarius climbing challenge: Commit to a four- or six-week training program—and don’t bail on it halfway through. If you find yourself getting antsy, switch it up and go to a different gym, mount your hangboard outside, or recruit a new training partner to do whatever you can to keep your head in the game.

Clue a Sagittarius into these Hercules Pillars in the Czech Republic, and they may be there as soon as next week, austere ethics and all. (Photo: Frank Hammerschmidt / Getty)

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Headphones in and head down on their latest training plan, the Capricorn climber is motivated—and ready to psych up the whole crew, too. Though their ambition knows few bounds, they rarely sacrifice safety upon the altar of the send. This may be because they’ve read every Accidents in North American Climbing published in the last seven decades.

Ideal style: Ice and mixed climbing. Since the Capricorn is also likely beholden to a 9-to-5, they can’t chase send temps in Mexico with their dirtbag compatriots. Instead, they spend their weekday evenings sharpening their points and their weekends ticking off their list of classic multi-pitch ice and mixed lines.