|
Fatkraken posted:Did my first taster session at the Foundry yesterday, LOVED it! definitely gonna finish the course and join the regular climbing club. I know I'm not particularly good yet but I was still amazed how well I was able to support my own weight and how well I could cling onto some surprisingly slight grips, but then I'm 65 lbs lighter than I have been pretty much my entire adult life so that's hardly surprising. We had a go on the bouldering wall at the end and I was really bad at it, the more dynamic movement was really tough but I know with practice I'll get better and stronger. I'm new myself (second time yesterday) but I saw some people with what I assume were some funky mirror glasses that allow you to look up by looking straight.
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 13:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 13:17 |
|
|
Look up 'belay glasses'. Goofy but effective. They're kind of expensive but are getting cheaper as more companies start making them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 13:16
|
|
|
Siamang posted:Look up 'belay glasses'. Goofy but effective. They're kind of expensive but are getting cheaper as more companies start making them. $80 is worth saving your goddamned neck.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 13:23
|
|
|
Aren't they just a mirror + glasses? Cos me and my superglue could do it for 5.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 16:41
|
|
|
petrol blue posted:Aren't they just a mirror + glasses? Cos me and my superglue could do it for 5. No they all use a prism, but they certainly don't need to be as expensive as they are.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 17:30
|
|
|
Footballers never have this problem! 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 17:51
|
|
|
You are belaying top rope...you don't really need to look at the person just pull the slack. Even if you are belaying lead you need to be able to do it all by feel and the pulls on the rope. plenty of times you can't see a person climbing. In the gym I usually am not looking up much at all, practicing doing it all by feel.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 23:11
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:You are belaying top rope...you don't really need to look at the person just pull the slack. Still awesome to have when climbing with someone new, on a new problem that has a decent fall risk, or for any reasonably risky maneuver that I want to be more attentive for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 01:41
|
|
|
Siamang posted:Look up 'belay glasses'. Goofy but effective. They're kind of expensive but are getting cheaper as more companies start making them. gamera009 posted:$80 is worth saving your goddamned neck. Alibaba has you covered dudes: http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Look-Up-Belay-Glasses_1865940559.html Now who wants to pay for shipping?  I swear my friend ordered a single set...lemme poke around.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 02:24
|
|
|
gamera009 posted:Still awesome to have when climbing with someone new, on a new problem that has a decent fall risk, or for any reasonably risky maneuver that I want to be more attentive for. I do agree.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 04:26
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:doing it all by feel.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 05:17
|
|
|
Belaggles rule. Eat poo poo haters.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 06:23
|
|
|
I went to a bouldering gym with my girlfriend for the first time. Unfortunately, she had an allergic reaction to the chalk they were using. She developed a bad rash on her shins and other areas that had contact with the wall. Anyone have experience with this sort of issue?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 17:04
|
|
|
Rated PG-34 posted:I went to a bouldering gym with my girlfriend for the first time. Unfortunately, she had an allergic reaction to the chalk they were using. She developed a bad rash on her shins and other areas that had contact with the wall. Anyone have experience with this sort of issue? Standard climbing chalk is Magnesium Carbonate, but some of the brands include additional drying agents. I just use the block chalk and smash it up myself (it is much more economical). I've never heard of anyone being allergic to magnesium carbonate, but I have heard of the added drying agents irritating some people's skin. What is off about your comment is that her shins showed an issue. Her shins shouldn't have come into contact with the walls or the chalk nearly as much as her hands / wrists / forearms. Was she kneeling on the floor a lot? Maybe something from the mats?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 18:29
|
|
|
armorer posted:Standard climbing chalk is Magnesium Carbonate, but some of the brands include additional drying agents. I just use the block chalk and smash it up myself (it is much more economical). I've never heard of anyone being allergic to magnesium carbonate, but I have heard of the added drying agents irritating some people's skin. What is off about your comment is that her shins showed an issue. Her shins shouldn't have come into contact with the walls or the chalk nearly as much as her hands / wrists / forearms. Was she kneeling on the floor a lot? Maybe something from the mats? This gym provides chalk. I will ask them what brand they provide. It was actually more her knees that developed a rash; I assume from their contact with the wall.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 18:36
|
|
|
Rated PG-34 posted:This gym provides chalk. I will ask them what brand they provide. It was actually more her knees that developed a rash; I assume from their contact with the wall. I forget how much my knees banged the wall as a new climber, but now they never touch the wall at all. If the rash was most severe on her knees, it still seems like maybe something on the mats irritated them. That is, assuming that bouldering at your gym is anything like bouldering at my gym, where people are constantly sitting and kneeling in front of bouldering problems.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
I've been working on a V3 at my local gym that's all about heel hooks. I had never done them before and I had no idea how hard they can be! They always look so easy in pictures 
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 20:34
|
|
|
tortilla_chip posted:Aka short roping the poo poo out of your climber Most of the climbing I do outside I can't see or hear the person so it is what you have to do. I don't short rope people though. People get short roped because the belayer is not paying attention, talking to someone else, etc.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 22:30
|
|
|
armorer posted:I forget how much my knees banged the wall as a new climber, but now they never touch the wall at all. If the rash was most severe on her knees, it still seems like maybe something on the mats irritated them. That is, assuming that bouldering at your gym is anything like bouldering at my gym, where people are constantly sitting and kneeling in front of bouldering problems. I don't see how it could be from kneeling, since there are nice areas for sitting just behind the mats. Maybe she can get away with wearing long sleeve clothing, and possibly gloves? Also, is it necessary to trim nails?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 23:47
|
|
|
Noobie boulderer (one month) - my knees get a bit banged up - maybe she scraped them and it got ground in? But agreeing with others that it's hard to imagine it not destroying hands before knees. Trimming nails is unnecessary, because you will have no nails. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2015 00:37
|
|
|
Climbed for a few hours today, whole poo poo my arms are fried. I think I've done every 5.9 in the gym, and I think I've failed every 5.10a as well.  I hope its the kind of thing that going with fresh arms will make a huge difference, the 5.9s are still challenging, they're at least possible. Most of the 10a's don't have the same quality of hand holds or require better technique and stuff. Hard when the thing I need to put my hand on is just a big blob with nowhere to grip.Watching that technique video seemed like it'd be a huge help but in practice today I didn't get many opportunities to use them. Everyone I saw doing 12s and above seemed to be doing it the "wrong" way.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2015 01:09
|
|
|
Good Dog posted:Watching that technique video seemed like it'd be a huge help but in practice today I didn't get many opportunities to use them. Everyone I saw doing 12s and above seemed to be doing it the "wrong" way. I think it's good to watch videos like that (or at least be aware of those types of movements that you can make) because it can help you think of totally different ways of approaching a route / move even if you're not going to just randomly throw out a huge drop knee from nowhere. The general idea of "rotate your body to gain extra reach and keep your balance and/or gain a mechanical advantage in ascending" is an extremely useful one to focus on once you've moved past the beginner stage. And yeah people a lot better than you are going to climb with bad technique anyway, you can get a long way with raw strength and basic moves, good technique will just let you go further. Plus some people like to show off if they're climbing a route they know well or if they're warming up and climbing 2 grades down or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2015 01:48
|
|
|
I'm going to be climbing Mount Whitney at the end of the month, going up East Buttress and descending the Mountaineers Route. Has anyone else done this before and have any advice or stories? I've never gone up this high, here's hoping altitude doesn't put me down.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
petrol blue posted:Trimming nails is unnecessary, because you will have no nails. Ouch. I prefer to pre-trim them rather than having the wall rip them off, personally! - My middle finger joint is feeling significantly better after a couple weeks of taking it easy on crimps, and resting more between climbing days. Will likely not climb crimpy/slopey stuff for a good while still, but I'm feeling hopeful that my joints will be awesome after the crimp hiatus. It's a little frustrating to feel so limited on my climbs, but.. I'd rather be climbing something easy than not climbing at all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2015 18:19
|
|
|
pac man frogs posted:I'm going to be climbing Mount Whitney at the end of the month, going up East Buttress and descending the Mountaineers Route. Has anyone else done this before and have any advice or stories? I've never gone up this high, here's hoping altitude doesn't put me down. Consider sleeping at Whitney portal to get some acclimatization at the very least.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2015 21:27
|
|
|
French Canadian posted:Consider sleeping at Whitney portal to get some acclimatization at the very least. Thanks. Sounds like we're going up on a Thursday and climbing Sunday, with nights at the Portal, Lower Boyscout, and Iceberg before - I guess last time my brother did this they went straight up to Iceberg and weren't able to actually deal the next day and had to come down.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2015 17:02
|
|
|
A few images from the last few weekends Corrugation Corner and Surrealistic Pillar Linkup at Lovers Leap   Nutcracker in Yosemite. We did the 5.9 variation and tried to pass people. Still encountered a massive traffic jam.  I promise there is a third anchor point here. I just ended up not belaying in the same direction I decided to sit.  The top 
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2015 23:02
|
|
|
Looks like an awesome climb! Thanks for sharing the photos. Also Backcountry.com has Prana gear 30% off until tomorrow. I picked up two pair of the Zion Stretch Shorts. Couldn't get any pants though which is a bummer since they don't carry the 30 inseam, boo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2015 23:55
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:Looks like an awesome climb! Thanks for sharing the photos. Ahhh, excellent, thank you! Snagged a pair of the Zion pants in 32 length. I have one pair already and they're fantastic, but I hate the color (bland khaki).
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2015 00:09
|
|
|
Rated PG-34 posted:I don't see how it could be from kneeling, since there are nice areas for sitting just behind the mats. Maybe she can get away with wearing long sleeve clothing, and possibly gloves? Also, is it necessary to trim nails? I have an issue where sometimes I get huge hard hives in areas where sweat gets trapped. It happens like 5-10% of the time but the next day I can hardly walk because the bottom of my feet are just these hard lumps. It also happens for any other sweaty activity too, was she wearing half pants where it was tight around the shins? I take benedryl every night now and it helps a lot.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2015 00:47
|
|
|
big scary monsters posted:Haha, funnily enough I'll be in Devon too. I learned the ropes on Dartmoor granite and haven't climbed over that way in years so it's a bit of a homecoming for me. We're hoping to go to Blackchurch in North Devon, then maybe down to Bosigran and Sennen in Cornwall. I'd like to stop in on Dartmoor too, maybe hit the Dewerstone or Sheepstor. We're going on the long bank holiday weekend, how about you? Hey big scary monsters, how was your Devon trip? We got rained off most days so went climbing indoors at The Quay, which is a great wall with some fun high lead problems. We tried bouldering on hay tor one day, but it was just too wet and slippery for our liking, then got one full day trad climbing at Chudleigh rocks, which was really great, and pretty sheltered from the rain thankfully!
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2015 23:22
|
|
|
Chris! posted:Hey big scary monsters, how was your Devon trip? You got rained off!? We had great weather and I have the sunburn to prove it, you must have been in a different Devon to me. Actually I barely did any climbing. I went with three friends, Friday night we wild camped at the Dewerstone and while the two girls got a load of classic HVS and below ticks done me and my other mate went for a breakfast fryup in Cornwood and then mountain biking on the moors.  Saturday night we stayed at a campsite near Ashburton, the girls went to Baggy Point for some sea cliff fun and we knocked off a few problems at Bonehill Rocks. After that we stayed in Croyde in North Devon and spent two days surfing, the other two went across to Hartland Point and did some slabs in the sunshine. Great trip but two of us started it off super hungover after a night drinking Polish vodka (left over from a disastrous ice climbing trip there) in Bristol and never quite recovered the psyche to actually tie on a rope. I'm hopefully moving into a house with some climbers soon though and anticipate recovering my motivation for both training and actually climbing rocks more than 3m high. Oh yeah, because I packed barely able to see straight and with a splitting headache I forgot to bring my sleeping mat. This was my bed for four nights:  Bonus picture of not me climbing. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2015 00:08
|
|
|
Oh cool, sounds like you had a good trip! Where was that climbing picture taken? Yeah we were pretty unlucky - we were in the area for a wedding, and every day there was nice weather we had other duties. The free days the weather sucked, so only got one morning of slippery climbing in Where were you climbing in Poland? I'm going for a 5 day climbing trip there in May, to Jura, only rock, no ice.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2015 22:34
|
|
|
Pretty sure that pic is from Baggy Point. That's a shame, hope the weather was at least nice for the wedding. We went to Poland a few years back, flying in to Krakow and getting a very shoogly minibus to Zakopane near the High Tatras. Unfortunately it was literally too cold for ice - the temperatures when we were there were between -15 and -30 and it hadn't been above 0 in a couple months so there was none of the freeze/thaw cycle you need for snow to melt and icefalls to form. We went across the border to Poprad in Slovakia and tried what we were told was a reliable area in the middle of a huge, flat plain near a strange town called Spišské Tomášovce, but to no avail. We had a strange and fun trip with lots of interesting stories to tell once we got back (getting a knife pulled on us "as a joke" in Costa Coffee, meeting a champion memory athlete, ending up in the Czech Republic not knowing which country we were in and with no money, walking over the top of a sea of fir trees, and others) but this was the only vertical ice we found the whole time we were there:  It was a leaky pipe at Poprad train station. I'd go back in a shot, except that there are still so many other places I want to visit. Next year's ice trip is in planning and is currently a tossup between the safety of Rjukan or seeing what things are like in Morocco's High Atlas mountains. Or I've got a friend who lives in Siberia and has invited me to come stay...
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2015 23:32
|
|
|
pac man frogs posted:I'm going to be climbing Mount Whitney at the end of the month, going up East Buttress and descending the Mountaineers Route. Has anyone else done this before and have any advice or stories? I've never gone up this high, here's hoping altitude doesn't put me down. Lower Boy Scout lake has some nice flat camping spots in the trees, and is high enough to feel it. We got up to about 13,800' on the Mountaineer's route, below the notch, before getting stormed off. It's easy going on solid talus and rock up to that point. We went up the tourist route the next day and I'd say you might have a hard time finding the Mountaineer's route from the summit. Don't be worried to bail down the easy track. The info here seems useful: http://timberlinetrails.net/WhitneyMountaineersRoute.html East buttress looked like a fantastic route though. Enjoy!
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2015 19:29
|
|
|
Looks like I will getting an extremely easy day in red rocks canyon in 2 fridays. That is exciting. Just booked my trip to Red River Gorge for the 4th of July time frame (haven't been there in 4 years). Looking at dates for my trip to Ouray in August I hope. Have to work on a crew for that one still. I didn't climb this weekend though which is a bummer. Lots of skiing though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 01:30
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:
holla
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2015 03:36
|
|
|
Bud Manstrong posted:holla Oh I will! I am pulling routes together in the Ouray and Telluride area and it is looking good man. Also depending on the amount of days going, bikes for an off day. Looks like some good trails around.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2015 05:58
|
|
|
Anyone bolting here? I'm looking to get my hands on relatively cheap A4 (AISL 316) expander bolts and hangers. They are too fing expensive here in Sweden...
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2015 21:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 13:17 |
|
|
Three hours climbing tonight, one move further on the indoor route I'm struggling with. Totally worth it. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2015 23:24
|
|