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Whatever you do, don't talk to the staff. It's pretty much industry standard not to talk to anyone who can't boulder at least v7, you're just not worth our time. Kidding, kind of. It shouldn't be that way anyway.
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Sep 17, 2013 19:27
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My gym got broken in to!  I think they used a large vehicle...
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Sep 17, 2013 21:48
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Headhunter posted:'sup climbing thread. Just climb more. Spend time traversing, work on your grip by staying on the wall longer, and understand that you will never progress as fast as when you started out.
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Sep 17, 2013 22:22
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French Canadian posted:My gym got broken in to! But how's the wall??
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Sep 17, 2013 23:54
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Covert Ops Wizard posted:Certainly tendon damage if you can't feel it while you're actually climbing. Ice and rest. And you're right, your fingers have never seen stress like this, so your schedule (which is pretty much right at the point where you're pushing it too hard) is just too much for them. Give them a couple weeks to a month of rest, then take it easy and maybe get into routes for a month after. Otherwise there are a few other choices, keep climbing like you have been and see a tendon finally go (Which is months and possibly years of recovery time), Half rear end the resting and see the problem come back pretty quick and linger, or just climb easier stuff and have the problem be manageable but never go away. Obviously, a full period of rest is for the best, though I do know how hard it is to take time off. drat, I was afraid this might be the case. I guess I'll take a week or two away from the wall and then come back with some lighter climbing sessions. Maybe twice a week and not keeping at it until I'm actually shaking from exhaustion. But I'm going to miss totally destroying myself at the gym.
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Sep 18, 2013 07:13
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As others have said: It is much better to back off when hurt and return to climbing in a few weeks than it is to keep going, and eventually knock yourself out of commission for a year or more. Just take a break, work on cardio and core strength in your off time, and come back strong.
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Sep 18, 2013 15:19
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ante posted:But how's the wall?? Wall is fine and they're staying open. Apparently the thieves left the giant Allied Climbers donation jar alone, so they weren't exactly being thorough.
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Sep 18, 2013 16:06
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Does anyone have any advice for starting bouldering as a real tall fucker? I can knock out v2 if I cheat and start standing, but the starting holds from a sit down position put me in a spot where I cannot get any leverage whatsoever and can only start the babiest of v0 routes
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Sep 18, 2013 20:52
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Suck it up and work more on core strength. In most climbing endeavors, being tall will help you. It definitely hinders you in some things though, typically when you are all bunched up on sit starts or the rare similar move mid-climb. I'm 6', so tall but not really tall, and I know the sort of moves you are having trouble with. I assume you are taller than me, but if you complain about it in the gym to anyone shorter than you they will probably laugh and tell you to quit complaining.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:04
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Sit-starts are stupid anyway. Don't worry about them.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:29
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QwertyAsher posted:Does anyone have any advice for starting bouldering as a real tall fucker? I can knock out v2 if I cheat and start standing, but the starting holds from a sit down position put me in a spot where I cannot get any leverage whatsoever and can only start the babiest of v0 routes Lean far to the left or right and put it into your shoulders more, getting below low starts isn't an option for tall folks.
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Sep 18, 2013 23:00
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I'm just under 6 foot 6, and some routes are not designed well for sit starts when your arms are 6 inches longer than the route-setters. Sometimes you can cheat, sometimes you use much more dynamic movements, sometimes you need more technique, and sometimes you need to be very slow and controlled. With that being said, some starts are just impossible.
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Sep 19, 2013 09:15
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On fear of climbing: Fear and learning oppose eachother: If you are afraid you will not exercise proper technique. You will tense up, causing unnecessary build up of lactic acid, be unable to do as powerful moves and move jerkily. You can become afraid of several things when climbing, not just the risk of bodily harm. You may be afraid of not sending a difficult onsight. Or be afraid of looking silly infront of other people. If you practice bad technique - which you WILL do when you are afraid - you will learn bad technique. Being afraid greatly increases the risk of harming yourself while climbing. If you are afraid when you take a lead fall you might grab the rope, a bolt or carabiner. You will impact the wall much harder with a stiff body. The same goes for taking a fall while bouldering. In short: It is very important to be relaxed in whatever you do when climbing to both aid in learning and reduce the risk of injury. The solution is two parts: Be sure you know what you are doing and practice the scary things, starting low and slowly extend your comfort zone. If you boulder, you must know how to fall properly. Most boulder falls you land on your feet. When you do, drop down in a sitting position and roll over on to your back. Landing on your feet and not dropping down shock loads the joints, risking short- and long term injury. If you fall horizontally, land on your side, head up and lower arm straight, parallel to your body and slightly in front of it. The arm should impact the ground together with your body to absorb some of the impact. Ask a buddy who has practiced martial arts! If you lead climb, learn how to manage the rope in relationsip to your legs, how to clip and be completely confident in your gear - a good buddy check and practice falls will go a long way if you are new. The only way to become accustomed to falling is to practice it. Start with falls underneath the bolts and steadily increase the amount of slack and inch your way above the bolt. Ideally you should be confident in taking a lead fall where you extend the rope above your head to simulate a fall while clipping a bolt.
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Sep 19, 2013 12:55
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Sigmund Fraud posted:Ideally you should be confident in taking a lead fall where you extend the rope above your head to simulate a fall while clipping a bolt. I started lead climbing indoors a few months ago, and I still have to remind myself not to clip over my head unless I have to. In some cases it may be unavoidable, but clipping at chest level is so much easier and means that you don't need as much rope out to make the clip. I think it's hardest for me on the first and second clips because I want to get those two done as soon as possible. It's disconcerting to climb higher for the clip knowing that I could fall all the way to the ground. Once I'm high enough though I don't really worry.
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Sep 19, 2013 16:19
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Went to the Reel Rock opening last night. I feel like some of the energy from earlier years was missing, but it was still pretty cool. Movies include: Making fun of Daniel Woods vs some badass japanese climber I'm too young to have idolized. Then they go climb together. Funny but I felt like the mentorship part of the story was forced, or just not actually shown very well. British climbers are loving insane. They have managed to raise a young blond woman who competes for the top levels of insanity. This was probably my favorite of the movies. Extended preview for a bigger documentary about the "Stone Masters" period of climbing in Yosemite. Includes them looting a crashed drug plane and making mad money. Ueli Steck got beat up on Everest. There is a movie about it, since they were planning to make a movie about him doing the climb he was going to do. Ueli's partner was a crazy italian dude. They don't talk about it much, it's pretty clear the Sherpa are kind of exploited, or at least aren't really treated as equals to the rich(er) foreign climbing guides.
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Sep 20, 2013 16:39
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modig posted:Went to the Reel Rock opening last night. I feel like some of the energy from earlier years was missing, but it was still pretty cool. I remember from last year's reel rock there was one about Sharma and Ondra teaming up to climb. Sharma wants to relax and climb at this stage of his life. Ondra only cares about climbing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stQhEZn4RE0
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Sep 20, 2013 18:00
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Crabby Abby posted:I started lead climbing indoors a few months ago, and I still have to remind myself not to clip over my head unless I have to. In some cases it may be unavoidable, but clipping at chest level is so much easier and means that you don't need as much rope out to make the clip. I think it's hardest for me on the first and second clips because I want to get those two done as soon as possible. It's disconcerting to climb higher for the clip knowing that I could fall all the way to the ground. Once I'm high enough though I don't really worry. Yeah, you actually fall further if you fall while clipping high than if you just climbed a bit more and then clipped. If you find a good hold and can confidently clip high, then go for it, but if you are feeling sketchy where you are it's better to keep moving. Obviously there are scenarios where that isn't necessarily right (the fall has a dangerous swing, you don't trust a particular hanger, the next move is a big dyno, etc...) but it holds up in general. Edit: To be perfectly clear, your fall distance is actually the same in either case if you ignore rope stretch, but you end up closer to the ground if you fall while clipping high. With rope stretch though, you fall further when clipping high. And because I have to run out and won't be able to respond to this for a while, consider these two simplified scenarios: I am climbing a route and my last clip (clip A) is at 30 ft., the next clip (clip B) is at 40 ft. Scenario 1: I climb to 36 ft, and clip high. In this case I have 14 ft. of rope out, enough to go from clip A to clip B, and then come 4 ft. back down to my harness. If I fall now, ignoring rope stretch, I fall 14 feet below clip A, ending up at 16 ft. Thus I fell from 36 ft to 16ft, a 20 ft. fall. Scenario 2: I climb to 40 ft and clip at my waist. In this case I have 10 ft. of rope out, enough to go from clip A to clip B. If I fall now, again ignoring rope stretch, I fall 10 feet below clip A, ending up at 20 ft. Thus I fell from 40 ft. to 20 ft, another 20 ft. fall. Now if you factor in rope stretch, which you should because it can be the difference between a ground fall and a close shave, you fall further in the case where you have 14 ft of rope out, simply because it stretches more. armorer fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 20, 2013 18:07
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Anyone planning on going to 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell? I'm volunteering for the competition but hoping to get my first outdoor 5.12 after. STOKED.
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Sep 21, 2013 19:29
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Atomic Hotdog posted:Anyone planning on going to 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell? I'm volunteering for the competition but hoping to get my first outdoor 5.12 after. STOKED. Too far of a drive. I bet it would be tons of fun.
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Sep 22, 2013 04:42
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My buddies and I are finally getting into the meat of V3's and starting to be able to experiment meaningfully on V4's and stuff, which feels fantastic. I don't think any of us have ever been this strong in our lives so we're having a good time. Sadly my buddies aren't into roped climbing while I am so I'll have to find a climbing partner or something. Getting into these harder problems though, I hear a lot of talk about body tension but I'm not exactly sure what that is and what it's meant to feel like. Can someone explain it to me? Especially for sloper type stuff (which we can't do) I hear "body tension" thrown around a lot and I've tried a lot of techniques (e.g. with slopers trying to use opposition) but I think I'm either not strong enough or just doing it completely wrong because I don't really have a mental reference for how it's supposed to feel.
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Sep 22, 2013 15:20
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Chroisman posted:Getting into these harder problems though, I hear a lot of talk about body tension but I'm not exactly sure what that is and what it's meant to feel like. Can someone explain it to me? Most climbing involves pulling or standing on holds to get yourself up the wall. That is extremely obvious, but bear with me a second. When you do this, gravity is pulling down on you and so there is a force keeping your hand (or foot) in contact with the hold besides you actively holding it. You will see this clearly if you hang on a big sketchy sloper - so long as you are directly underneath it, it is relatively easy to hang from, but if you lift your weight up higher, suddenly your hand slides right off of it. Gravity helps when you are below it, but if you are next to it you can't actively hold onto it well enough to stay there. Sometimes when you are climbing, particularly in roof sections, you need to hold onto holds where gravity isn't pulling you into the hold, but rather it is pulling you off of the hold. Pinch blocks on roof sections are a great example of this. When people talk about "body tension" they are generally referring to a way of increasing the friction that you have on a particular hold. A made up example could be something like this: You need to make a move out of a roof section, where you have a decent foot back a ways under the roof and a single pinch block right before the roof ends. The pinch block edges run parallel to the roof edge, not perpendicular. You are moving up to a good jug on the vertical face above the roof. In a scenario like that you can pinch the block in an undercling position, and push HARD against the foot hold while keeping your body stiff (go go gadget core strength). In that case, you are using body tension to generate more force against the pinch block than if you simply held onto it like a pinch. If you foot is really good, or if you have two decent feet, you can often actually undercling it (I mean your thumb becomes unnecessary in the grip) which lets you extend your body further around the lip of the roof, and makes the jug much easier to reach. Moves like that require a lot of core strength, because gravity is trying to pull your hips down and you have to fight to keep your body straight and stiff, in order to keep your hold on the roof.
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Sep 22, 2013 15:37
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Hello climbing thread. Is it too soon to bring the ice climbing and mixed climbing stoke to the thread? The early season is only a month away in the Canadian Rockies... and usually a 3hr walk is involved, but that's all part of the fun of chasing early season ice. Sharpen those tools and crampons!
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Sep 22, 2013 15:39
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armorer posted:In a scenario like that you can pinch the block in an undercling position, and push HARD against the foot hold while keeping your body stiff (go go gadget core strength). Aaahh right that actually makes a tonne of sense, thanks. I was actually having issues with roof bits like that as well. I guess I have felt it before, but just not in every situation. Thanks a lot!
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Sep 22, 2013 16:22
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Wor posted:Hello climbing thread. Is it too soon to bring the ice climbing and mixed climbing stoke to the thread? None of us are gnarly enough to ice climb (also there is no ice climbing in Southern California). I thought about it once but realized that if I can barely trad climb maybe I ought to avoid ice climbing for now. I do own some crampons for general mountaineering however.
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Sep 24, 2013 18:42
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French Canadian posted:None of us are gnarly enough to ice climb (also there is no ice climbing in Southern California). I thought about it once but realized that if I can barely trad climb maybe I ought to avoid ice climbing for now. I do own some crampons for general mountaineering however. Ice is a whole new dimension when it comes to commitment and scary, even when compared to traditional rock climbing. Falling on gear is always a very bad idea on ice. I still recommend you try out ice climbing should you get the chance! Your general mountaineering crampons may not be up to the task, but it depends what type of 'pons you have and what boots they can fit on. Generally a stiff boot + rigid crampon combo is the best. The flexible crampons designed for summer mountaineering will cause your heels to lift, front-points to shear through the ice, and instant hilarity on top-rope. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to answer any waterfall ice or mixed climbing related questions, or questions about that other suffer filled discipline, alpine climbing. I have four seasons of experience of freezing my arse off climbing in Canadian winters, and I love it as much... maybe more...than rock climbing. It's too bloody cold in the Canadian Rockies to rock climb outside past mid-October. The dedicated can pull it off a few days every season when the warm chinooks blow through on a sunny day, but I never bother chasing the nicest days. Too much effort when I could be ice climbing!
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Sep 25, 2013 03:40
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edit: nm
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Sep 25, 2013 03:47
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Wor posted:
Where do you climb? I've vaguely heard that there might be something out near Lillooet, but I don't know any details.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:05
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Wor posted:Your general mountaineering crampons may not be up to the task, but it depends what type of 'pons you have and what boots they can fit on. Generally a stiff boot + rigid crampon combo is the best. The flexible crampons designed for summer mountaineering will cause your heels to lift, front-points to shear through the ice, and instant hilarity on top-rope. Yeah, my crampons aren't step-in/auto either. They're just regular stainless strap BD crampons. I do have Sportiva Trangos that are pretty light and step-in/auto compatible so I could eventually go that route if I needed to. Have you been to one of those fancy ice-climbing gyms? They look pretty awesome. Also, do you know a crazy Russian guy named Constantin?
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Sep 25, 2013 17:52
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If you're bold & cold & have no shortage of water, you can make your own ice wall in the backyard. Once it's consistently below freezing, hang crossbeams off a sturdy tree with webbing loops or chain link fence dangling. Set up a sprayer hose, and have a 20ft wall in a week.
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Sep 25, 2013 18:51
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I just finished the second day of a 2 day route setting clinic with Chris Danielson (look him up) who's originally from this area and was more or less doing us a favor. My boss said there was a surprise for us when we showed up yesterday. We got there, and Angie Payne was ballooning up our hardest problems. Chris and Angie are dating so she was tagging along for fun and to get a workout. The setting clinic was pretty cool and didn't really teach specific techniques, but more gave us different ways to conceive the route setting process.
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Sep 25, 2013 20:25
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French Canadian posted:Yeah, my crampons aren't step-in/auto either. They're just regular stainless strap BD crampons. I do have Sportiva Trangos that are pretty light and step-in/auto compatible so I could eventually go that route if I needed to. I live in Calgary and climb mainly in the Bow Valley near Canmore and Banff. There is a lifetime of limestone sport climbing on my doorstep (well over 6000 routes up to high 5.14's), and world class ice climbing in the winter. There is some quartzite and a bit of dolomite closer to Lake Louise. There is plenty of scary hard (and easy) alpine and good old fashioned mountaineering, too. I am close enough for weekend trips to Revelstoke or Rogers Pass. The Bugaboos can be weekend tripped from Calgary if the logging road is good, but I was a sleep deprived zombie come Monday morning. Calgary is cold enough in the winter to sustain a homemade ice wall, but it would get hammered by the frequent winter chinooks. I just climb outside on weekends, and at least twice a week in the gym after work. I don't know the crazy Russian guy! I would not be surprised if that description fits several people in our local scene.
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Sep 26, 2013 00:28
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Hey I'm pretty much totally new to this, have wanted to get into climbing for ages but never done it. Are there any Brisbane, Australia, climbers who can help me out? I'm fit, NZer, work FIFO out of town 15/6. So I'm looking for something to do on my weeks off work and I don't really know anyone in town.
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Sep 26, 2013 03:03
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Great thread! Hopefully this is appropriate to ask here. I just moved to San Luis Obispo and joined SLO OP this week. I had done a bit of climbing before, but never anything serious. After going to this gym a few times I know I am going to be hooked. Is anyone in the thread currently climbing there?
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Sep 28, 2013 00:26
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Southern California climbing season has officially arrived...post your rock climbing destination transportation:  Seats 7 comfortably, 10 uncomfortably, and everyone's crashpad/gear regardless. French Canadian fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 18:19
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Did Vedauwoo last weekend. It totally lived up to being old school, hard, full of cracks, and where bolt are necessary, they are few and far between. What I didn't expect was the 50 mph wind. It was definitely a test of my outdoor clothes to stay warm and still be able to climb. Mostly we found climbs that were pretty well sheltered. But my friend Mike did try to climb a 5.6 that had the full brunt of the wind. He bailed off once he realized how bad it was going to be. Just a few feet away on the walk out we were getting almost knocked over, so I'm sure it was pretty intense on lead. Also the ratings were seemed inconsistent on the stuff we climbed. 5.6 varied from cruiser seam on low angle slab to offwidth next to steep slab. 5.9 varied from pretty hard with lots of hard offwidth, to really hard overhung hand crack (harder than curving crack at castle rock, which is pretty hard 5.9 crack I think). I want to go back, but I think I should probably practice my crack climbing a bit more first.
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Oct 1, 2013 03:01
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So I went to a Physical Therapist (after searching for one that doesn't offer any alternative medicine), and apparently my quads are "special" and laughable. As in the therapist actually laughed during some of the exam. They're both inflexible (legs at 50 degrees up when lying on my back, vs 80 for normal) and weak (I can't resist pushing down on my ankles with legs lifted). Apparently this is the cause of my knee pain on any extended hikes, and the therapist thinks a month or so of work should help a lot. So maybe I won't have to carry hiking poles on climbing approaches anymore. Also she checked out my elbow, which hurts while climbing, and couldn't find any problems. So I'm just going to climb as normal, and if it hurts I can have her look at it at one of my regular appointments. TLDR; Hopefully soon I'll have fewer excuses when I don't want to do a 4 hour approach.
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Oct 2, 2013 18:31
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I feel like I'm making big progress and it's great. Starting to climb 5.9s regularly, and I couldn't get up even one of them a couple months ago -- when I tried back then, in fact, I could barely even start one of them. Climbed 3 or 4 last night, and most of them weren't even that bad, although one of them I had to get myself up through sheer force of will because the holds were awful. (Frankly, it felt mis-graded compared to the others, or possibly like some holds were incorrectly unmarked.) but I did it. I've been told that you're supposed to start all routes with both hands on the hold marked as the route start, and not move them up until your feet are on the wall. Why is that, and should I respect it? It seems like a silly and pointless rule.
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Oct 3, 2013 15:40
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Routes are generally designed that way, a lot of the time the start itself is a challenging move. If you skip using the available starting footholds then you're not doing the full problem/route and it doesn't count as actually finishing it. Sometimes setters or problems outdoors will have one of the hardest moves be the start itself, kind of defeats the purpose if you just start moving your hands while your feet are on the ground rather than putting your feet on the intended start holds. Although if you're strong enough to skip the starting footholds like when you're campusing then it'll still count. Just being on the ground makes the move trivial though.
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Oct 3, 2013 15:48
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guppy posted:I feel like I'm making big progress and it's great. Starting to climb 5.9s regularly, and I couldn't get up even one of them a couple months ago -- when I tried back then, in fact, I could barely even start one of them. Climbed 3 or 4 last night, and most of them weren't even that bad, although one of them I had to get myself up through sheer force of will because the holds were awful. (Frankly, it felt mis-graded compared to the others, or possibly like some holds were incorrectly unmarked.) but I did it. Why would I do the obstacles in this obstacle course when I can just walk around them?
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Oct 3, 2013 15:55
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TotallyUnoriginal posted:Routes are generally designed that way, a lot of the time the start itself is a challenging move. If you skip using the available starting footholds then you're not doing the full problem/route and it doesn't count as actually finishing it. I guess it makes sense in this light if you regard it as an intrinsic part of the problem. Papercut posted:Why would I do the obstacles in this obstacle course when I can just walk around them? While I'm sure it's fun to be smarmy, this is a misstatement of the issue. You're still using the tools provided on the route, and only those tools. People skip holds further up the route all the time.
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Oct 3, 2013 17:00
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