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I started climbing a few months ago -- a little bit of experience in high school but nothing for a long time since -- and I've been enjoying it. I'm not a big guy and I'm still working on my technique so 5.7 is my "challenge myself" level right now but it's coming along. I tend to want to go more than my friends, so I took an intro bouldering clinic at my gym. I'm glad I took it because I was worried about not knowing stuff like etiquette, but it wasn't much of a class. We went over etiquette, a few techniquesj, and a little safety but not some of the stuff you'd think they would, and then we went down and started trying out the easier problems for the rest of the time. Most of the class was just climbing and asking for help if we had problems. The grading of some of this stuff seems really arbitrary. What my gym calls V Intro seems to be what you guys call VB, and they don't have anything marked V0 so I guess they've just categorized problems of that difficulty as either V Intro or V1. The first couple V Intros I climbed were easy, then I climbed a V1 that was fine and V2 that wasn't too bad, and then I started finding V Intros I couldn't climb and a V2 that people with prior experience struggled with. Maybe we were just getting tired but it seemed like there were several marked Intro that were harder than the V2 I climbed. Different setters maybe. I was told that once you move yourself up a grade in top-roped clmbing you should expect to be there for a couple months climbing 1-2x a week. What should I be expecting from bouldering? And yeah, I destroyed my hands, much more than roped.
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Jul 30, 2013 16:32
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QwertyAsher posted:Bouldering grades are especially bizarre to me. I can on-sight a 5.10c if I'm warmed up, and am working on 5.11a's right now, but anything in the bouldering area of our gym that isn't a v0 is just a nightmare that I can't even make the first move on. I don't know how true it is but I was told by the teacher of that class that bouldering takes the tricky moves you might run into on a roped climb and concentrates them in one place, removing the easier stuff.
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Jul 30, 2013 20:18
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My shoes are synthetic. What's a good way to keep them from being stinky? I already air them out after climbing but that's starting to be insufficient.
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Jul 31, 2013 20:19
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Today is the first day that I finished a problem I couldn't do before. Two, in fact. That's a pretty great feeling.
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Aug 8, 2013 00:41
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I am introducing friends to the hobby, with some success. A lot of them are fit and take to it no problem, but I have one friend who -- although she has been very gung-ho -- is having a lot of trouble getting going because she's out of shape. She isn't even doing routes right now, just using whatever handholds are handy, and still can't reliably get up the wall, and generally only manages 1-2 attempts per evening. She's upbeat about it, not getting discouraged or anything, and she loves it enough to buy gear and everything already. So that's great. But I'm a little worried she'll get discouraged. I try to give her technique advice and be motivating, but I'd welcome advice on helping her improve, if any of you guys have experience getting people who aren't in top form started.
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Aug 18, 2013 02:42
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WhatEvil posted:Maybe try doing traverses across the walls (side to side) using whatever holds are available? It depends strongly on how your gym is setup but this can be fun and can have a mix of challenging and easier sections, while also teaching you some of the technique of how to grip various holds without wearing you out quite as much as climbing up the wall. This sounds like a good idea, thanks. I'll try that. Magnus Manfist posted:This presumably pretty long routes? Does your gym have a bouldering wall as well? If she can literally only go up a couple of times a session, then doing short bouldering routes will allow her to do a lot more routes, which means quicker improvement and more successes. Not entirely sure I'm following. We do have a bouldering cave, but the limiting factor isn't time, she's just pooped after a time or two up. Wouldn't bouldering be harder for her? (edit: I generally find "easy" bouldering problems more demanding than "easy" top-roped routes. guppy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 17:07
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Thanks for the advice guys. She's overweight, not under, so the rail-thin stuff doesn't really apply.
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Aug 19, 2013 12:20
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My regular partner's been out injured and the person I've been introducing to climbing is out of town, so I've been going bouldering and putting my name up on the "looking for a partner" board and it's been going great. I've made some new friends and gotten a whole bunch of wall time. Climbing is neat. I stepped up to 5.8s and I'm bringing another new friend tomorrow night. I seem to be hurting the ball of my foot occasionally by standing on that instead of on my toes -- it's nothing serious but it's sore sometimes when I walk on it, especially barefoot. I climb in climbing shoes, but just cheap Evolvs. Other than the obvious ("stop standing on the balls of your feet") is there anything I should be doing? It's not a severe injury or anything, I just want to make sure it's okay to keep climbing while it recovers and that I don't need to be doing anything in particular to treat it.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:14
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French Canadian posted:PYF chalkbags: http://www.yamaclimbing.com/index.html I was actually looking into custom bags recently. This might be my answer.
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Aug 24, 2013 01:33
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French Canadian posted:PYF chalkbags: http://www.yamaclimbing.com/index.html Hey just wanted to let people know that I did place a custom order with Yama and I got exactly what I wanted. (I'm not affiliated at all.) Good stuff.
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Sep 6, 2013 19:14
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My friend who's new and has been having trouble making it up the wall unrouted nailed her first two routes yesterday  I've always been the one texting her to schedule gym visits, and this morning she texted me to ask if I wanted to climb over the weekend.
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Sep 12, 2013 14:23
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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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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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Yeah, if I'm just bouldering I'll often be there for half or less of the time I would be if I were top-roping. Sometimes I'll spend some time on the hangboards or whatever those days though. (EDIT: And remember, your time bouldering on the wall is just you. Top-rope and lead time is split between you and your partner.) Does your gym do the trade-a-belay thing? My gym has a board where you can write your name and what you're wearing so people can find you, and I'll put myself up there and start bouldering and see if anyone comes to find me to partner up. I've met people a few times that way. I wonder if we could put together a list of the general areas of regulars in this thread -- we could maybe find partners that way, either for one-off meetups or to find regular partners, a la Climbfind. I'm starting to climb 5.9s regularly. Think I might look into a lead class soon. guppy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 18:07
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You also tend to bend your arms and death grip yourself in when you're tense, and it wastes a lot of energy. You'll find your arms get much less tired (because you're using them less, in favor of your legs) if you take his advice.
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Oct 9, 2013 12:28
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I'm in the Baltimore area climbing at EarthTreks right now. I know this was my idea, but I wonder if we should find an out-of-thread way to do it.
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Oct 9, 2013 19:03
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Frown Town posted:Timonium Earth Treks? That place was my stomping grounds before I moved to Boulder. It's a great gym! Will be visiting Baltimore next week and probably will climb Fri afternoon. That's the most convenient for me, yeah, but I do make it down to Columbia once in a while. (Rockville is pretty inconvenient for me.) I'm currently nursing a foot injury, but if you want a partner I'm hoping to be fit by then.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:13
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agarjogger posted:Tips on BF/CM gear deals? I just need shoes and a harness. My rock gym is running deals on Friday, they had signs up last night. I don't need anything, as it happens, but it's not like they're opening early or anything so I wouldn't feel bad buying stuff. Maybe check yours.
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Nov 28, 2013 10:41
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Well, poo poo. My climbing partner, who I climb with twice a week, may have broken her tailbone.  Awaiting further details.I might need a new partner for a while, if anyone in the Baltimore metro area is looking.
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Dec 11, 2013 18:29
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Lazareth posted:That sucks, but it's good to see you're moving on so quickly. I really hope she's okay. I'm not sure what happened -- it's snowed here, so it might have been on the ice or something, or maybe a fall bouldering -- but I asked once and I'm sure with the injury she's got other things on her mind than replying to my texts.
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Dec 12, 2013 03:20
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weekly font posted:After not being able to climb more than 2 or 3 times in December due to illness/finals/holidays I have regressed to the point where V2s are really hard again. Yeah, between minor injuries to myself, major ones to my friends, and the holiday season I've climbed like twice in three weeks. I'm ready to go back but I am sure I will be much worse than I was, and I still have to sort out regular climbing partners while my usual ones are recovering. 
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Dec 31, 2013 19:31
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My gym has three locations in the area, all with different setters, and you can tell. The location near me is generally agreed to be grading harder, and I sometimes climb at one of the other ones and I agree. Try not to worry so much about the difference between gyms and just use it as a relative guide to track your own progress at your gym. In unrelated news, I sent my first 5.10a! Been trying to make that jump for a while now, and was set back briefly by injury. Big confidence boost, I'm looking forward to trying more of them.
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Feb 23, 2014 13:12
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Puseklepp posted:What's some good exercises for training grip strength in relation to climbing? I don't know what the consensus is on them, but my gym sells these: http://www.amazon.com/Metolius-METOLIUS-Gripsaver-Plus-Medium/dp/B00A6EO9Y8
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Mar 3, 2014 04:03
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I own one but I rarely remember to use it so I will defer to the opinions of others. Note that it is basically just a grip ball (they make them in different resistances) combined with one of those Hand Xpand things or whatever -- you grip, and then pull your fingers back against the resistance of the rubber bands.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:13
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I'm much less experienced than a lot of these guys, but what I do is try to always be doing a mixed bag of difficulty. I always want to be climbing some stuff that pushes my limits, but also some stuff that's not as demanding so that I can work on my technique. It's what I was taught and so far it's working pretty well for me.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:10
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Lead climbing class is tonight. Slightly terrified. Here goes nothing.
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Mar 17, 2014 23:05
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SaltLick posted:It's nothin. The falls are the best part Yep the practice falls were definitely the most fun part. Gonna be a lot of practice mock leading to be safe and feel natural though.
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Mar 18, 2014 02:56
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FiestaDePantalones posted:All right, I'll ease up guys, Thanks for the info. I know myself that I don't have the ligament strength for the more crimp heavy routes, so yeah I should probably be giving the hands more rest since that is when recovery happens. I understand the reasoning, but just hate the feeling of wasting time I could be lifting or climbing. Thanks for the advice, though. I'll try to chill a few times a week. It varies person to person. I would definitely say sending 5.12s does not happen quickly for most people and I think you are badly misinterpreting that comment. I've been climbing for about a year and I'm in the early stages of 5.10s if that makes you feel any better. Please don't destroy your body by climbing too much. You aren't "wasting time" by not climbing every waking hour. This is not a healthy mindset at all. I climb ~3 days a week when I can, which isn't every week, and I do some other stuff on some non-climbing days and rest on others. That's worked pretty well for me.
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Mar 20, 2014 12:12
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I took an outdoor sport lead clinic at my rock gym and it ruled. (That is, the class was not held outdoors, nor was it on lead climbing technique -- it was outdoor-specific stuff like how to clean routes, ways to descend, how to set up an anchor system so you don't die while you're setting up your descent, that kind of thing.) It ruled and I wanna do it more. Got a lot more practice of both that and basic lead climb/belay technique before I do though. Hoping I'll consider myself reliable enough to get out there this upcoming outdoor season, I've never really been.
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Mar 27, 2014 04:39
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Unoriginal Name posted:My completely unbiased opinion is that evolv's of all kinds smell like the devil's rear end in a top hat. My shoes are Evolv Defys as well, and I've seriously considered upgrading for that reason alone. Hard to justify when they're still in decent shape though.
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Apr 6, 2014 18:27
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skudmunky posted:If you think that area is sketchy, it's a good thing you didn't go to Rock Spot in Dedham. Yes. I climb at EarthTreks. There are three locations, but the one closest to BWI is probably going to be Columbia: http://www.earthtreksclimbing.com/md/columbia/ About a 15 minute drive from the airport. I'm usually at Timonium because it's closer to me, but I go to Columbia once in a while. Drop me a note if you want someone to climb with. I often have spare guest passes, so there's a good chance I can get you in for free to try it out and see if you like the place.
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Apr 17, 2014 14:05
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Climbing barefoot is not very fun and climbing shoes are much better for it than sneakers. Buy shoes. If you don't have a convenient rock gym nearby, you might have an REI, they carry climbing gear.
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Apr 21, 2014 23:09
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My gym just held a La Sportiva demo day. I was already in the market for an upgrade (coming from cheapo Evolv Defys) and tried on ~5 pairs of shoes: a pair whose name I don't know (mostly orange, low-midrange, looking at their website I think it was the Jeckyl), Miura VS, Solution, and both the velcro and lace versions of the Katana. The probably-Jeckyl was very comfortable but didn't seem like enough of a performance improvement to be worth upgrading to. Couldn't get the Miura VS comfortable -- the downturn was fine, but I tried on a few sizes and couldn't find a pair that didn't pinch my toes too much. Solution was okay. Ended up ordering the velcro Katana. Didn't like the toe as much on the lace-up one. The demo day was really nice. It's single-vendor, of course, but my gym mostly carries La Sportiva anyway. Really good to be able to try on a lot of shoes, different sizes, climb a bunch of routes in them. I tried on every shoe but the Solution at least twice, some three times.
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Apr 23, 2014 23:06
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And yes, it's also good for your climbing.
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May 11, 2014 17:00
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Might be going outdoors for the first time this weekend. In the gym I usually just wear athletic sweatpants (think Champion, Underarmor, etc -- I tend to prefer long pants in case I want to put a knee on something). Should I want something sturdier for outdoors? What do you guys use for pants?
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May 13, 2014 02:22
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I saw this chalk bag at my rock gym tonight: PRETTY JEALOUS.
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May 28, 2014 03:51
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Making progress toward making progress. I started climbing 5.10a/b in the gym recently. Only started working 5.10b in the last couple weeks, and I have one picked out as a project that's defeated me the last few weeks -- I've made it up, but not clean, and there's one sequence of moves that I've been trying to figure out the best way to tackle because I couldn't make it through the whole thing uninterrupted. An old friend I climb with who is superbly capable has been too busy to climb lately, but she's back in action as of this past weekend and I got some beta from her on Sunday. I'm still not up it clean but I know what I need to do now, and I made that sequence in one go. Big problem seems to be that I just don't want it badly enough, combined with not being 100% sure on the best way to work it. I got some tweaks from my friend, and I just need to power through on sheer force of hatred, rather than pausing and taking a break because I think I'll fall. (I'm just top-roping this, I am doing lead now but not on anything that hard, so it's not like I'm going anywhere if I do fall.) Hoping to nail it next time. My gym has a few locations in the area, and I successfully sent a couple of 10bs at another location on Thursday, but it's generally agreed the setters there grade softer. I want to nail one in my home gym, dammit.
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Jul 7, 2014 19:18
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gamera009 posted:Gym grades mean nothing. Go outside! It's on the to-do list. Some friends invited me to the Red earlier this year but I couldn't go. My gym is running a two-day trip to Coopers Rock later this year and I intend to go on it. In the meantime, flawed though they are, gym grades are the best benchmark available to me for my performance.
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Jul 9, 2014 02:23
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FiestaDePantalones posted:Wait Cooper's Rock like in WV? I didn't know I shared a state with another climbing goon! Any chance you can fit one more 'never climbed outdoors but 5.10b indoors' in the mix? Right site, but we'll be coming from out of state -- we're out of the Baltimore area, and I believe this is being organized for members of the gym only. If you'e in WV it obviously makes no sense for you to join my gym. Adding more people isn't my call to make as I don't work there. Sorry
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Jul 9, 2014 17:14
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A La Sportiva rep told me once that you can just straight up wash them out with water without hurting them. Synthetic or leather.
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Jul 18, 2014 22:15
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