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I just started going to a climbing gym for the first time in about a decade. I was working on what was graded as an easy traverse sort of problem, but I couldn't figure it out. All of the holds seemed to be facing the wrong way for where I was trying to go. I banged my head against it for a few days, trying crazier and crazier moves to finish the thing. Then I saw a much better climber warming up on it. Turns out I was starting at the end point and trying to do it backwards.
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Mar 24, 2019 14:44
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I just got back from a vacation to Paris that I had planned before I started climbing. About halfway through the trip I realized that Fontainebleau is ridiculously close, and it's all bouldering so I didn't have to learn ropes or anything. I proceeded to head out there with no guidebook, crashpad, or knowledge of any kind. I went to Bas Cuvier because there was a google map location for it and it was on the road between Paris and Fontainebleau town. I spent a goony half hour walking around looking at boulders being too shy to approach anyone and admit my ignorance, but then I latched onto some folks from the UK and had an absolute blast. It was my first time climbing outside, and I can say for sure that I am hooked. This hobby is dope.
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May 16, 2019 12:50
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I've got a weekend at the Red River Gorge planned for June 8. I'm going with a friend who has been climbing for about a decade, and he's going to teach me how to climb ropes instead of only bouldering. I am very excited.
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May 23, 2019 13:00
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I’m going sport climbing for the first time ever in a couple weeks. Can I, realistically, make enough progress on endurance in those two weeks to be able to climb hard instead of hanging at every bolt? And if so how? My climbing experience consists of bouldering for 2-3 hours 3-4 times a week for the last 4 months or so (if that’s relevant at all I have no idea).
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Jun 26, 2019 17:11
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Yea I’ve never climbed ropes before other than a few goes on the auto belay when I first signed up at my gym. I already run, so that’s good, and I’ve probably gotten all of the climbing benefit I ever will from that. So, I’ll either try to snag one of the other boulder peeps to try to do some top roping with or I’ll do 4x4s. Thanks for the advice everyone!
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Jun 26, 2019 20:19
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Sab669 posted:Nice! I don't know if your gym has topouts, but mine doesn't, and so the first time I went bouldering outside I was super afraid of all of the topouts. Unfortunately, I'm very inexperienced, so I don't have any real advice other than try to stay cool.
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Jun 28, 2019 15:53
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Well here is another weather hypothetical. It's supposed to be "scattered thunderstorms" Thursday through Sunday at the Red River Gorge, which just so happens to be when I am supposed to head out there. Think I'll be able to get on anything? Or should I just resign myself to drinking and hiking?
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Jul 1, 2019 12:46
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I just got back from my first trip to the Red River Gorge. Climbed Thursday and Friday, then just chilled out yesterday because we were all wrecked. It was extremely hot and humid, but stayed almost entirely dry, so that's great! I learned to lead, lead belay, and clean routes, which opens up a ton of new stuff for me to do at my gym. Overall an extremely cool and fun experience. Here is a video of my first ever lead fall. I'm falling off of a 5.10b Overlord. The fall was a bit scary because it was slab, and I caught my leg on the rope right at the bottom of the fall so I got a nasty rope burn, but it basically cured me of being afraid of any other fall while I was there. I did go on to complete it and was really happy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqP5-Z8EDs
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Jul 7, 2019 18:38
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Meaty Ore posted:I was just on that one about a month ago and nearly fell at that same point. What other routes did you do at that wall? I did Pogue Ethics and Creature Feature. Both were extremely good. Really good routes to learn to lead on for sure.
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Jul 8, 2019 03:06
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How then to not have lovely posture? Just concentrate on keeping your shoulders back? Don't be lazy about posture? Or are there exercises you can do to help?
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Jul 10, 2019 16:11
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How do I find someone to do lead climbing with in the gym? I learned to lead climb and belay climbing outside with some knowledgeable friends, but they live far away so we can't climb together regularly. None of the people I know at the gym want to climb ropes, likely because I know them from bouldering near eachother. Should I just walk up to people already at the tall walls and ask if they want a third person? Climbing has yanked me out of my social comfort zone so many times.
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Jul 19, 2019 15:15
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Thanks for the advice about finding a partner everyone. I managed to find someone who has a trip to the red planned and invited me along. That should be a blast and then I can probably climb with them in the gym too.
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Jul 21, 2019 17:41
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rest his guts posted:Excuse me, I use fat interchangeably with ‘over 5’9” ‘ or ‘over 160.’ It seems rare to see a muscular lad do well in lead (young Sharma, Hojer and current-iteration Ondra notwithstanding), as evidenced by all the skinny dorks who also made the final. As a 6'3", 200 pound man I can vouch that climbing is one of the only activities in which I get called "bulky".
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Jul 24, 2019 14:50
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armorer posted:From my experience, nobody really cares outside if you just want to hang out and watch them climb, assuming that you're not being weird or creepy or anything. This seems pretty spot on, but I would like to point out that even just hanging out with people and watching them climb could help you make some friends that you could climb with later. They probably won't feel comfortable letting a stranger belay them outdoors, but if you live in the same area they might feel comfortable with letting the person they hung out with for a few hours the other day climb with them in the gym. Getting into climbing outdoors and roped climbing has been quite a process for me (because I didn't have any friends already doing it in my area), and making friends has been the most important part of it. Edit - I just saw the post above. Since it's bouldering, I would just go for it and ask people if you can hang and climb with them. That's what I did when I went bouldering for the first time and it was great. It feels super weird, but since they never have to put their safety in your hands it's much easier to just get absorbed into their group.
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Jul 24, 2019 16:48
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Got outside today with some people I met at the gym. Went to the roadside crag at the red. Climbed a bunch of fun easy slab and then a 5.10a slab. Don't really know why we climbed slab all day, but still had a great time.
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Jul 28, 2019 03:20
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Here I am trying a boulder problem that I can't figure out. It's pretty steep, and when I get to the point where I fell off I can't figure out what to do with my feet. It's the black holds, but I realize that it's sort of hard to see which holds are in in the video. Any tips would be appreciated! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcy0Vb3NzNs Edit - Woops had it as private! Should be fixed now. Jester Mcgee fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jul 30, 2019 |
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Jul 30, 2019 15:49
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Hmmm, like a drop knee with my right leg? That might work. The heel hook with the left foot looks really doable in the video, but when I was up there it felt like I wouldn't get anything from it, definitely worth trying though. And about the general lack of body tension: that is one of my biggest weaknesses. I'm pretty tall, and that means my puny core can't keep up with all this bod I'm lugging around.
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Jul 30, 2019 16:26
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KingColliwog posted:yeah like a drop knee with the right leg is what I had in mind. But looking at it more I think by just moving the foot closer to the tip of the volume and actively pushing in your toes you might be able to avoid the drop knee thing I suggested entirely. Your foot slips off automatically when your right hand leave the hold so by not relying just on the left leg you might not open and slip like that.
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Jul 30, 2019 18:01
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:I'll go against the grain slightly (as someone quite inexperienced!) and suggest heel hooking as previously suggested, but with a view to driving up with your right leg, where the small black hold is: rest his guts posted:I would spend more time practicing heel hooks and trying to find positions where you can almost isometrically perch atop, engaging your hands/arms minimally. I think you are right. A big part of my issue with body tension is getting lazy and just not focusing on it because it's not my strong suit. And this problem really punishes that because its steep at the beginning, but then the top bit is vertical, so I end up with my center of gravity super far away from being directly over my feet. Thanks for the help everyone! It's really nice to get help like this. People in the gym are nice and generally helpful, but they are also doing their own climbing.
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Jul 30, 2019 22:40
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Got outside climbing today. Did a couple 5.10b routes and a few easier routes. I boulder so much more than I route climb, so on anything where my endurance doesn't eat poo poo all of the moves feel super easy. I really need to concentrate on getting some more time on the ropes at the gym instead of bouldering. Anyways, climbing outside is great.
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Aug 6, 2019 22:42
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armorer posted:Bouldering grades are supposed to compare with roped grades as well, with v4 being around 5.12a. So, if you can top rope 12a, you should be able to boulder v4, at least in theory. Leading 12a will be harder, because it requires more endurance and mental fortitude. I can sort of see how this is true, but even though I can generally Boulder V4-5 I still fall off most 5.10b routes because my endurance is garbage. It feels bad to fall of a route that doesn’t have any challenging moves, but I think that’s just the name of the game as I work on my sport climbing. Probably doesn’t help that I’m always climbing at the Red, and so most things are endurance challenges as opposed to super techy stuff.
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Aug 15, 2019 23:45
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armorer posted:Dude if you can always climb at the red then just loving always climb at the red. That place is lovely. I get out there as much as I can, but when my schedule doesn't work out with my climbing partner, or if it's raining, then I got to hit the gym.
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Aug 16, 2019 02:32
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I can maybe understand preferring to climb indoors, but preferring the treadmill to running outside is killing me.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:54
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I mostly sport climb because it’s easier on my fingers and I can be climbing at the red river gorge by 8am.
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Oct 9, 2019 00:47
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I tweaked my A2 pulleys in my middle and ring fingers on both hands back in July, and in the past couple weeks I think I've finally gotten them healed up. I initially noticed soreness in them after I went on a 3 day climbing trip in early July. I climbed as hard as I could all 3 days, and had only been climbing since March, so I didn't have a strong base going into the trip. I didn't realize that the soreness I was feeling was an indication of an injury, so I kept climbing the same way I had been before the injury. About mid way through July I realized I was really putting a hurting on my fingers. I stopped bouldering entirely. I found that even easy boulder problems were requiring me to pull harder than my fingers could take. And on sport climbing I avoided steep routes as much as possible. I also did as much outdoor climbing as I could. For some reason I could go pretty hard outdoors without bothering my fingers in the way that hard climbing indoors would. My overall rehab plan was consistent climbing, with the goal of not irritating my pulleys further, and gentle massage of the afflicted areas, both to promote blood flow and also to help determine if I had been irritating them with my climbing. Increased tenderness in my fingers was a sign that I had been doing something wrong in my climbing. I did my first bouldering session since mid July yesterday, my fingers weren't sore immediately following the session, and they weren't sore this morning. I think I've finally done it! I know that 3 and half months isn't that long to deal with an injury, but it was pretty hard to stay out of a gloomy mindset when my fingers felt like they were never going to get better. Well, that's my finger story, hope it can help some other newbie with bad pulleys not get too down and get back to climbing hard.
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Oct 17, 2019 14:17
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Sound_man posted:I went to Red River Gorge and got hooked on crack Those look amazing. I'm out there all the time looking wistfully at the cracks, because I don't know how to trad climb.
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Oct 22, 2019 15:02
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I onsighted my first 5.10d today! Super lovely rainy day at the Red. I went with a friend who hasn’t been climbing recently, so he only climbed one route and then belayed me the rest of the time, but I think I wanted to impress him or something because I felt like I was giving it my all when I finished the 10d. Overall, good day.
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Oct 27, 2019 01:54
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Sab669 posted:I feel like I've really "plateaud" recently, but oh well. Still having fun I’m pretty new, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I was feeling about like you are, then I spent a few months lead climbing, and the increase in my endurance helped my bouldering a lot. I’d bet there are more bouldering specific endurance training methods, but I don’t know them, and lead is fun anyways.
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Nov 17, 2019 19:58
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I took my 10 year old cousin climbing and she’s a natural I guess? She just hopped on and climbed V2. The only thing she really struggled with was because she’s small for her age so a lot of problems were impossible because she couldn’t reach holds, but if it was possible at all she found a way. It was crazy.
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Dec 2, 2019 15:03
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The bolts are in the wall, but you need quickdraws to hang so you can clip in. They are usually 10-15 bucks each I think, and you’ll probably need a dozen or so depending on the length of the routes.
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Dec 6, 2019 14:24
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If you've been exclusively bouldering, then all of the routes are going to either feel crazy easy, or impossible. You're strength will allow you to do all of the individual moves easily, but your endurance will crap out way before you start finding challenging moves. When I first moved on to route climbing, I had to wrap my head around falling off of jug ladders because I just couldn't hold on anymore. Very weird experience if you're used to bouldering.
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Dec 10, 2019 18:13
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I wouldn’t ever do them if you don’t start climbing. After climbing for a while your tendons and ligaments will strengthen up and you’d be fine to do them. Although, I don’t really get the point of the exercise. Seems like if you want to do pull ups you should do pull ups and if you want to strengthen your fingers you should hang board. Combining the two seems counter productive.
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Dec 12, 2019 19:04
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I tried out a Moon board for the first time today. It took a few tries, but I knocked down a couple of the benchmark V4s. It was a ton of fun! I really liked that the problems were so much straightforward climbing as opposed to the fancier stuff on the main bouldering wall.
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Dec 14, 2019 00:06
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I stopped running because after a hard run I couldn’t try hard climbing for about three days. It way a really strange feeling. I wouldn’t feel fatigued, but when it came time to really pull on the bouldering wall, or really fight through pump, I just had nothing in the tank.
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Dec 18, 2019 13:39
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I’ve hurt myself in a way that I’m unfamiliar with. If I bend the lowest part of my middle finger towards my palm with the rest of the joints of the finger flexed then I get pain in both the finger and the middle of my wrist. If I bend the just the top two joints of the finger I get no pain, and if I bend the lowest joint without bending the top two I get no pain. It’s a sharp pain rather than an ache or soreness. Any ideas?
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Jan 12, 2020 14:05
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I got my first pair of aggressive shoes and boy howdy they hurt. I’ve had a few sessions in them, and now I can actually climb in them without being distracted by pain, but it was a difficult process. I’m a little worried that I may have sized them too small, but one size up and I had empty space by the big toe and that didn’t feel right at all. Most of the pain is the knuckles of the toes pushing against the upper and the tip of my big toe not being used to being weighted like it is in these shoes. Does that all sound normal? Or did I mess this up?
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Feb 25, 2020 21:59
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I kept hearing that shoes should be snug, but not painful. So it’s nice to hear that aggressive shoes are painful when fit correctly, at least at first if you aren’t used to them.
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Feb 26, 2020 00:03
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My shoes were definitely in the "gasping in pain as I rushed to finish the climb" at first, but the payoff is that I can go on full point like some sort of hairy, chalky ballerina.
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Feb 27, 2020 15:08
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That's a good dog rescue. I've hung out with crag dogs that were great and chill, and I've hung out with crag dogs that immediately roll in human poo poo. I think, overall, I prefer not having dogs around at the crag.
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Mar 8, 2020 15:32
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I ordered a hangboard on March 24, and it looks like it might come in today. I'm very excited. I've been doing some bodyweight exercises and stretching to try to stay fit, but it's not the same without something to work on my fingers. My hands are soft and I feel like I couldn't hang on jugs after not doing any climbing since like the middle of March. Basically, it's nice to feel some psych about training.
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Apr 9, 2020 12:19
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