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Passionate climber 🧗
Team Canada 🇨🇦
Self-critical
Always posts late
I seem not talkable until we've properly talked
@athletes_eeq

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My identity has officially changed.

Starting with my first ever one-arm pull-up in early 2025, I only repeated this feat twice in the following year. Then twice within three months, and then twice within two weeks. The trend was definitely looking promising. But nothing would prepare me for what came next. All of a sudden, I could hit them every time. Today marks my 7th day in a row succeeding a OAP on at least one side.

I cannot put into words how miraculous this feels.

Is it overkill to be basing my progress almost exclusively off of this one exercise? I’m not sure but it doesn’t look like it. I’ve been feeling better than ever on the wall. On big powerful moves, on physical TUT exercices, even on techy foot coordos that subtly require explosiveness. Not just this week, but for a long time, all measures have been pointing towards the OAP being a surprisingly accurate indicator of my form. Any exercise where your 1RM hovers around 1 rep is good for this; if the rep feels easy you’re in shape, and if the rep feels hard you’re not. The OAP is perfect for me because it requires zero setup, all I need is a bar or a jug and neither is hard to find when I’m in climbing gyms every day. I don’t even need to warm up my fingers or anything, which means I can even try it anytime in my basement.

I’m hoping I can keep this streak going, but regardless, I don’t think there’s any going back. This is by far the strongest I’ve ever been in my life, even a little (perhaps inevitable) regression won’t hurt me in the slightest. I am SO PSYCHED.

Thanks @olivierdoriontheriault for your dark magic‼ by @max.martien

223

4 months ago

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Deux athlètes de l’équipe ont participé aux finales des NACS cette fin de semaine

@max.martien et @louka_boivin vous êtes de vrais champions 🤯

Félicitations Maxime pour ta place dans l’équipe Canadienne!

@fqme_escaladesportive @eeq_ecq

#climbing #competition #bouldering #coolboy #wow taken in DÉLIRE Escalade by @max.martien

183

5 months ago

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NACS Finals ✅

I got pretty much obliterated haha, as expected. I’m satisfied nonetheless, happy even, just reaching this stage was an amazing milestone. But @victorvxb told me I should be more angry. Very interesting suggestion and I’ll keep it in mind

Confidence in my beta is a tricky thing to balance. When you only ever try one thing, or never stick with anything, it’s easy to understand that you need to shift towards some middle ground. But when you’re doing a little bit of both, how are you meant to adjust? I’m glad I found a tactical skill to work on, that’s pretty rare for me.

I almost died on the first boulder by @max.martien

317

5 months ago

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Team Canada 🥹

This is an objective I set for myself so long ago, more or less consciously. It started off as only a dream when I had just started climbing, then became an actual goal after years of perseverance, and became almost an inevitability as my progression kept going in the last year or two. But despite that, it still seems unreal. Of course I don’t really have words to describe my feelings.

Yesterday in qualifiers I spent a whole minute in a half-squat position, fighting for my life trying to move out of it, in vain. On my very first attempt of the comp. I was insanely exhausted afterwards and had to carry that through the rest of the round, and even more, it took me multiple hours after finishing to recuperate properly. I did what I could. The chances of semis were ridiculously low, if if if if if […] but everything ended up turning in my favor, so I squeaked through to semis, tied in 24th place, just like last year!!!! Really pushing my luck…

Felt none of that today. I had an exceptional round and managed to stay fresh the entire time. Let’s hope I keep it rolling in finals tonight! 🍁 by @max.martien

395

5 months ago

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Félicitations à Maxime Thérien (@max.martien) qui a remporté, en tant qu'athlète identifié Relève, la bourse @fondationaleo! 👏

À 18 ans, Maxime se tient parmi les meilleurs au pays dans les disciplines de bloc et de difficulté.

Médaillé d’argent au bloc et à la voie, au Championnat National des moins de 19 ans, en mai 2025 à Vancouver, il étudie en sciences de la nature au Cégep Édouard-Montpetit.

« J'adore résoudre des problèmes ou des casse-têtes mathématiques, les cours de calcul et de physique mécanique étaient d'ailleurs une grande source de joie pour moi, j'ai adoré ces cours! »

Maxime sera ravi d'utiliser cette bourse de 3000$ pour ses dépenses d'entraînement et de compétition.

Merci beaucoup à la fondation Aléo et bravo à Maxime Thérien! 💙

Photos @worldclimbing
@climbcanada by @max.martien

163

8 months ago

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Lead Pan Am Cup 2025: Semis

I had everything going my way.

Good sleep, perfect temperature, successful warmup, feeling in great shape, and maybe one of the best mental states I remember ever having had just before my turn. I was awake, psyched, excited but not stressed. The exact arousal level I’m looking for. Even found myself really enjoying the music for some reason. Got a fantastic start to my climb, hitting the holds and positions just like I wanted, didn’t even get thrown off from almost falling when crossing on the two black holds because my mental was unbreakable.

And despite the lucky conditions, I managed to fall 10 moves in. Foot felt a bit high but still very much fine, not a great hold in my left hand but I embraced it, and next one was a jug. But when I finished bending my left arm and twisting my shoulders inwards as one should do this move, I suddenly became way less stable and my upper body went away from the wall really quickly. At that time the jug could save me, had I aimed perfectly… Alas, a couple millimeters can make a world of difference.

A failure like this when everything was set up so well is a little difficult to swallow.

Continued in the comments. by @max.martien

a year ago

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Lead Pan Am Cup 2025: Qualifiers

Struggled a lot in both routes. I actually felt like I was doing okay on the first one but started pumping rapidly midway through, and as shown by the chicken wings on the crimps, I didn’t have a lot left in me. I’m glad I decided to break away from the intended sequence there because it gave me one single additional hold and that made a big difference in the scores.

I was more tense on the second route. It was (mostly) intentional because I knew I should stay on the safe side since I was in good position already. But weirdly enough, I didn’t really get the fatigue that time, despite seemingly being less efficient. However, the dyno still took me down. I was fresh, committed fully without any hesitation, but as soon as I thought I caught the hold, my hand came right off. I potentially could’ve grabbed it higher, cupping instead of pinching, but I’m not fully convinced that would’ve been more solid. I also could’ve tried keeping my foot, it looks like a hard position to hold but so does whatever it is that I was aiming for. Both were done by many people…

Enough for semis… :) by @max.martien

130

a year ago

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$Boulder Pan Am Cup 2025: Semis This round actually suited me much better. The boulders were more like what I’m used to, I wasn’t jittering for no reason and my mental was great - but I was SO EXHAUSTED 🥵 After flying off of the boulder 2 no-tex press so many times I thought I’d be able to redeem myself on the lache but simply had no energy. I was holding on a huge jug and yet I still almost fell backwards on one of my swings. And I was trying to do the classic hip-kick to gain momentum but I wasn’t actually getting any speed out of it. Not to mention missing the foot and the hand multiple times but I guess that issue is more common. Oh and the fact that this was my best attempt and only success on the first move on boulder 4 says a lot about how much juice I had in me. Lead tomorrow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ by @max.martien$

122

a year ago

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Boulder Pan Am Cup 2025: Qualifiers

My round started with some unusual shakiness. It seems I was destabilized by… by everything really. This definitely did not go in my favor, neither physically nor mentally. I noticed that and actively tried to change my state of mind but no success. I guess the scale of this event is a lot to handle for a kid like me.

Nevertheless I ended up having a great round, thankfully I was in shape!! Pleasantly surprised to make it through to semis and I’m confident in my ability to climb more smoothly in the next round 😎 by @max.martien

141

a year ago

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This summer participated in my third and last Youth World Championships (in Helsinki), guess I’m an elder now 👴 (3 videos are missing 😔)

Was the performance goal (semis) achievable? …yes, this time it was. From a hand on a top and a timeout after the crux in bouldering, to a barely missed beta break opportunity and a single unforgiving hesitation in lead, a lot of things were really close. There’s always a long way to go from coulds to dids but they’re still way better than couldn’ts.

As always, this experience was more than just competing. Spectating in person on the international scene, for a week nonstop, was an absolute buffet. I’m also very grateful to @climbcanada and the coaches for organizing great training camps, at the Oval and especially in Munich and Innsbruck. Climbing in Europe with everyone was an amazing opportunity, more than worth it. And of course, I had a blast simply being in the youth national team, even though it being my final time is saddening. The kid in me will miss being among these other kids... This budding bunch of energetic comp kids adds so much life to the trip and I’ll remember this forever.

Did anything grow more this year than my T-shirt collection?? 😂 Thanks to Thomas Lemagner, Logan Schlecht, Chu Shouhong, Tadej Hren, Andrin Zedler, Piero David Luna, Anton Fassbender, Sharvin Sekar, Palmer Larsen, Evan Lau, and Omid Sheikhbahaei for trading shirts respectively from France, USA, China, Slovenia, Germany, Ecuador, Germany, Singapore, USA, New Zealand and Spain… Other national teams’ jerseys as souvenirs is a legendary tradition 🤩

Thanks to @bloc9.81 and @produitsfit for supporting me this year, and for literally being my playground- thinking especially of that one rewind coordo I set and worked on for hours, and I’m not sure if anyone else dared to even try it. It’s unbelievable I was allowed to do this but… it’s awesome. Thank you @olivierdoriontheriault for taking care, from a distance, of the stubborn maniac that I am. And obviously, thank you to my parents, without their everlasting support none of this would be remotely possible.

The senior circuit is my main prey now. Watch your backs 👀😅 by @max.martien

175

a year ago

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Late™, Edmonton NACS semis

…it was cold. (10°C)

I didn’t take my sweater off once during warmup. Only did so when I was right in front of my route and ready to go. Immediately after starting I realized how underprepared I was. I’d literally *never* climbed in such cold weather, not even below like 15°C. I didn’t know I’d prefer long sleeves, and I wasn’t even ready to handle those conditions because I hadn’t practiced any of it.

Its effect on me was brutal. I felt the cold in my lungs as if they were being compressed, I had more and more trouble breathing. I was trying my best to but it just wouldn’t. Of course that meant it was hindering my recovery on the route - I got pumped extremely fast. Plus, hands out in this weather? Could never be me, I would hide them in my pockets or wear gloves. Well this time was climbing time so they had to stand the temperature, and they failed. I decided to cut off some shaking (in retrospect, still can’t decide whether this was a good tradeoff) because those fingers in the freezing wind, they were suffering, increasingly paralyzed, and screaming at me to get them some warmth. Unfortunately didn’t have any of that anywhere on me.

My climbing was kinda mid, but nothing crazy there. It’s interesting seeing a completely different aspect being so important in this round, so it seems that’s where the most was to learn this time :)

Only 3/48 people climbed with long sleeves (yes, I checked) and there were quite a few tank tops too!?! I don’t understand what I’m supposed to think anymore 😂

@bloc9.81 @produitsfit by @max.martien

116

a year ago

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Edmonton NACS qualifiers

Heel hooks are strange. I’m especially good at good heel hooks but now I also know I’m especially bad at bad heel hooks. Sounds silly but it’s not trivial actually. My hip mobility helps me rock over good holds but in this case I had to keep the tension on a bad hold despite going away from it, and that clearly wasn’t my cup of tea. It ended up fine when I decided to just bump to skip the sequence. I even managed to recuperate soon after, I still had a lot in the tank!

A comfortable top on the first route and a big fight on the second put me in a crazy good position. Always nice having a great round. For both routes my beta was dialed in more than usual - and it showed when I kept going higher and higher.

My name is high on the boards. Even though the field was small, the top was clearly very strong since some big names I look up to were scattered until quite far down. How am I all the way up there!? 🤯 I know I keep saying this but I really feel it. The progress is real.

@bloc9.81 @produitsfit by @max.martien

a year ago

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Maxime Thérien

@max.martien