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hot cocoa on the couch posted:this was rattlesnake up in halton region. almost totally dry, very little mud or water seeping from rock. and yeah, tshirts almost all day. really amazing Oh and if I may perform a little thread necromancy -- I finally got out to Rattlesnake last weekend for my first sport climbing session ever! It was really fun, although I 100% got mentally psyched for no good reason. I got maybe half way up Exposure Plus and just did not feel safe at all with the ledges below me and poo poo so I just bailed off it. I did get up Ice Castle Plus, I think it was, but I had a real tough time tying into the bolts at the top to be lowered down after leading it. My friends gave me a crash course on what to do before I got up it and I practiced it a few times -- but the position I was in by the bolts at the top + struggling to take a big enough bite of that heavy rope to feed through, my calf was on fire as I struggled from my position. Had to really work on my mental game to remind myself to stay calm. My buddy and I were thinking about trying to get up Noob Caccoon too, but we're both pretty gumby and neither of us were feeling great after having a tough time on Exposure Plus. Next time I just need to get a few easier climbs under my belt, first. It was me and one guy who climbs at my level and then 2 guys who climb a few grades above us so they just wanted to climb harder poo poo the whole time of course.
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May 16, 2024 18:36
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:the thing i hate most about autobelay is that if i miss and come off, im going right to the ground. i cant work a crux sequence or bypass it to climb above to see what the rest is like You could do what i saw a guy doing at my gym recently and use your PAS to clip into the bolts when you want a rest. We have some overhung autobelays. They're nice for working endurance / ARCing. Also I like to work routes way above my grade on autobelay - I feel silly asking for a catch if I'm going to fail three moves in but using the autobelay I can hop on.
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May 16, 2024 19:39
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vonnegutt posted:You could do what i saw a guy doing at my gym recently and use your PAS to clip into the bolts when you want a rest. they dont let us use gear on the hangers other than an ohm at my gym  Sab669 posted:Oh and if I may perform a little thread necromancy -- I finally got out to Rattlesnake last weekend for my first sport climbing session ever! It was really fun, although I 100% got mentally psyched for no good reason. I got maybe half way up Exposure Plus and just did not feel safe at all with the ledges below me and poo poo so I just bailed off it. aw man you should have told me! i totally would have come out with you. exposure plus is a great climb but man the end is a psych out. the ledges for sure make it scary, feels like you're gonna deck even tho you're many bolts up. ice castle plus is much more chill for sure. noob cocoon is one of the few climbs i havent tried at rattlesnake - its often taken or overlapped by the 2 routes that start on the ledge above. looks nice tho if you go all the way climbers right there's some chill 5.5s with a 5.7 in the middle of them that are quite nice for new outdoor climbers. blocky ledges and good holds. the left 5.5 ends in a dihedral which is fun, the right meanders around a tree. the 5.7 has a showy high left foot + bicep curl type move near the top that feels epic.
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May 16, 2024 20:02
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It was a really last-minute invite I got from the 2 guys who knew what they were doing 
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May 16, 2024 20:22
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spwrozek posted:You are just getting the Yo-Yo experience of the 80s(?). Embrace life before working a route was cool. Or, claim it as a "ground-up onsight" which was a thing in the UK trad scene at the same time. The end of the affair was probably a high-water mark: https://climbing-history.org/climb/586/end-of-the-affair
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May 16, 2024 22:06
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I'm at the half way point for my 2-week Mile Challenge and BOY I was really hoping this would feel easier by now 🥵 I need to make auto belay laps a more regular part of my climbing habbits
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May 18, 2024 02:40
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I'm ~14 months into indoor climbing, with progress slowing down at v5, occasionally sending some dyno or slab v6s. I realized I couldn't hold a bodyweight half crimp on a hangboard, so I spent a few weeks working on that and got some very quick noobie hangboarding gains. I'm a big dummy and thought a half crimp necessitated full hyperextension at the DIP joint. I had some consecutive weeks of hype from seeing quick progress and, in hindsight, my left middle finger DIP was a little irritated but I was too stupid to take it easy. Probably can guess what happened next. Was working on a steep v5 while way too tired and heard a pop in my left middle finger. My A2 pulley was pretty swollen and my DIP joint was stiff and irritated, pretty much the entire finger was angry. I took 10 days off and started working on some basic rehab, completely pain free. I was H taping my left middle finger, must have done a poo poo job because it limited my middle finger mobility when closing my hand into a fist. This quickly led to a lumbrical injury, since my middle finger was more extended than the other 3. All three injuries are almost completely pain free and mild, seeing some quick progress from not being a dumbass and caring for it appropriately. Seeing progress is fun, but definitely have learned my lesson, especially since I have so many obvious weaknesses that I could train instead of making such poor decisions. Edit to say, I'm dumb but I'm learning how to be more focused. Just felt like writing it all down. When your fingers feel tired and you're overtraining, learn from my mistakes and shift your time towards training a weakness. COOKIE DELIGHT fucked around with this message at 19:06 on May 21, 2024 |
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May 21, 2024 18:08
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I'm building a home wall in a shed with limited height (~2 metre roof height). I'm trying to decide between a custom woody and a mini-Moonboard. Does anyone have experience climbing on the Mini, and how would you rate it as a training tool? I'm familiar with the yellow School holds and Wood A from a couple of local walls that have 2017 sets, but I've never even touched Woods B and C. I'm leaning towards the Moon because I suspect if I build a woody I'll struggle to set challenging problems on it and will just default to stuff that's fun / easy / I'm already good at, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the wall. The Mini problems will definitely challenge me, but my concern is it'll be a bit one-dimensional. I can't imagine it's easy to do 4x4s or any kind of endurance workout on it given how generally bad the holds look. One possible hybrid solution would be to buy the Mini holds and then a couple of dozen screw-on jugs, pinches etc and put them in between the Moon holds so I can do circuits on the board as well. But maybe I'll just end up with the bigger holds getting in the way of the Moon ones and a setup that doesn't work for anything? Any feedback appreciated. FWIW I can usually do V6 in a session and V7-8 across several sessions. Zephro fucked around with this message at 13:55 on May 22, 2024 |
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May 22, 2024 13:53
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Zephro posted:boards I guess I'd figure out what you want the board for. Are you looking to train specifically harder to attain higher grades, or to go out to the shed on a rainy day with snacks and try and crack a few problems for fun? If it's the former I'd go for a moonboard, the latter a custom. - Mildly technical question concerning knots for a via ferrata kit I'm putting together. I'm using two snap hooks on climbing rope, that come together into one strand that goes through a kong kisa friction/screamer plate. - My natural inclination would be to attach the snap hooks using a figure eight with backup, but some arborists and climbers use an anchor hitch with backup, which seems less bulky. - To convert the 2 strands into 1 before going into the kisa, I was going to use a simple overhand, with one strand shorter with backup, and the other strand much longer to go through the plate and then have a stopper knot at the end. Any thoughts appreciated. I can provide photos if my description doesn't make sense. I'm probably overthinking it.
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May 23, 2024 10:39
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Shelvocke posted:I guess I'd figure out what you want the board for. Shelvocke posted:Mildly technical question concerning knots for a via ferrata kit I'm putting together. I'm using two snap hooks on climbing rope, that come together into one strand that goes through a kong kisa friction/screamer plate. Zephro fucked around with this message at 13:49 on May 23, 2024 |
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May 23, 2024 12:09
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Thanks, not a dick - it's actually through caution that I arrived at a custom lanyard, because there's a particularly difficult and exposed VF near where we're staying in Omegna. The lanyards you can buy/rent are one shot, so the idea of being midway through a 2 hour route and taking a fall, then having absolutely no protection on the way back down is what I'm averse to. While I don't/haven't fallen on a VF before, and sport climb 7a/b, the knot question is fairly unique and I haven't met anyone who knows. I take your point, though.
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May 23, 2024 15:23
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Shelvocke posted:Thanks, not a dick - it's actually through caution that I arrived at a custom lanyard, because there's a particularly difficult and exposed VF near where we're staying in Omegna. The lanyards you can buy/rent are one shot, so the idea of being midway through a 2 hour route and taking a fall, then having absolutely no protection on the way back down is what I'm averse to. While I don't/haven't fallen on a VF before, and sport climb 7a/b, the knot question is fairly unique and I haven't met anyone who knows. I take your point, though. My worry with the homemade idea would be the use of climbing ropes as the arms, basically. Climbing ropes are explicitly not rated for VF. They are likely to snap with even a moderate fall because there's only a very short length of rope to absorb the force. Adding two knots in the rope (one for the karabiners, one to attach the ropes together) will weaken it further. You would have to be 100% sure that the friction plate would start to slow the fall such that the ropes would never experience a high enough load to snap them. I'm not even sure how I'd begin calculating that - it's going to depend on everything from bodyweight to rope thickness to the size of the fall, as well as exactly how much weaker the knots make things and the characteristics of the plate itself. Personally I'd be reluctant to trust something with a big unknown like that. Especially since none of the commercial sets are built that way, at least as far as I know - all the ones I've seen / used attach the arms to the karabiners with a lot of heavy stitching, and the arms to the brake in the same way. Zephro fucked around with this message at 16:40 on May 23, 2024 |
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May 23, 2024 16:20
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Interestingly, the rope I'm using has an impact break force of 7.2kn (So if both strands are engaged, more, minus knots) and the via ferrata lanyards I can find data on are rated around 6kn. The Kong Kisa, snap hooks, and carabiners are all 25kn+. The system has the potential to be a lot safer, as well as resettable. I'm not certain but I get the feeling the lanyards effectively become static anything more significant than 6kn. In the interest of science, I'm going to set up some dummy falls on the friction plate in the back garden (I'm the dummy) and will share results.
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May 23, 2024 16:59
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https://www.peakinstruction.com/blog/cowstails-for-srt/ This is for caving, not via ferrata, but since you've decided that a screamer type (ie single-use breakaway stitching) lanyard is not what you want, then looking at how other people tie their lanyards is the next step. Importantly: when it comes to arresting your fall, the knot itself is reducing the impact to your body by tightening. Also importantly: a caving cowstail is used such that it is always be attached to an anchor that is above your harness to minimize the fall factor.
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May 23, 2024 17:18
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Also, generally speaking if you take a fall that activates the breakaway part of your VF lanyard, you're going to be getting rescued off the route anyway.
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May 23, 2024 17:35
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yeah i thought via ferrata was supposed to be like - "do not fall". the gear is to save your life in an emergency, not to enable you to continue progressing
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May 23, 2024 17:37
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Speleothing posted:https://www.peakinstruction.com/blog/cowstails-for-srt/ This is really interesting and informative, thanks!
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May 23, 2024 18:04
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Zephro posted:mini-Moonboard this mountainproject thread has some opinions from people who have used the mini
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May 24, 2024 16:08
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ploots posted:this mountainproject thread has some opinions from people who have used the mini My only concern is the review saying "you have to be climbing V8 regularly to get any use out of it". I can climb V8 but it's a multi-session project. And all the Moon sets are sandbagged but apparently the Mini is the most sandbagged of the lot. Maybe I'll just go with the Moon set up + a dozen jugs peppered around the holds.
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May 25, 2024 10:21
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:aw man you should have told me! i totally would have come out with you Me and a bunch of people from my gym will be taking over Rattlesnake on the 9th if you wanna meet up! Do you know if any of the Gravity gyms in St Catherines / Hamilton carry the guidebook? We snagged photos of someone's book when we were there the other week, but it'd be nice to have an actual physical copy. Also has anyone here been to New River Gorge? Its on my way home from my trip to NC next week; was planning on stopping by to at least do some hiking if nothing else.
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May 25, 2024 17:30
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Sab669 posted:Me and a bunch of people from my gym will be taking over Rattlesnake on the 9th if you wanna meet up! I used to go to the New all the time when I lived in Baltimore, it's one of the best sport climbing areas in the country. It'll probably be very hot in June, but you can try to chase shade. Bolts tend to be a little run out on easier climbs, make sure you bring a long stick clip unless you're comfortable climbing 10-15 feet before your first clip. Masuko is a super classic that actually has its first clip 20 feet up
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May 25, 2024 18:19
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Sab669 posted:Me and a bunch of people from my gym will be taking over Rattlesnake on the 9th if you wanna meet up! gah. we're going to calabogie for a climbing trip all next week (praying for less/no rain atm) so we're likely to be pretty gassed. unlikely to make it out that weekend but maybe. ill let you know!
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May 25, 2024 20:11
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Zephro posted:I'm building a home wall in a shed with limited height (~2 metre roof height). I'm trying to decide between a custom woody and a mini-Moonboard. Does anyone have experience climbing on the Mini, and how would you rate it as a training tool? I'm familiar with the yellow School holds and Wood A from a couple of local walls that have 2017 sets, but I've never even touched Woods B and C. I built a mini-moonboard in basically the tiniest amount of space you can build one (had to reduce the size of the already small kicker a little bit to have it all fit, highly advise not reducing the size of that if you can) and boulder at approximately the same difficulty. When constructing my board, I did the standard mini-moonboard t-nut grid and then did another grid offset from from that. You are able to fit mini-jugs and other holds on the offset grid and, if you are careful about it, those mostly don't get in the way. If they do get in the way, oh well, now it is a little harder. Or you can take down the offending hold and reworking your layout a bit. I did not add the LEDs so I can't comment on if having extra holds around would be annoying with those. I don't mind not having the LEDs as it forces me to work on my memory a bit at the same time. You also aren't doing that many moves and you get very familiar with the holds so I don't find it that difficult to remember a problem. If I was doing it again, I'm unsure if I would do the offset grid again or if I'd just use screw on holds to add some non-moonboard holds to the wall. I would absolutely do one of those though. The mini-moonboard is stiff. And it kind of needs to be given how small it is. It is a pretty great training tool (at what it is good at) and can be pretty fun and frustrating. You just have to treat it as its own little universe. I enjoy having it. I like doing sessions on it and it makes it easy to squeeze them in. I haven't done endurance work on it since I have other options. I still boulder more often at commercial gyms since I live near multiple and can bike to them. My mini tends to get used more in the winter and during bad weather. There is supposed to be a 2024 refresh to the mini but I haven't heard any dates on it. I'm not sure that I will buy the new set to replace mine as there are so many climbs I haven't done. No idea if I'd wait to build one or not but I'd at least be mentally prepared for that happening so if you build it now you're ok with sticking with the current set or upgrading pretty quickly after building it.
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May 26, 2024 17:16
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Shelvocke posted:In the interest of science, I'm going to set up some dummy falls on the friction plate in the back garden (I'm the dummy) and will share results.
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May 27, 2024 22:31
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Niyqor posted:Mini-Moon stuff Could you talk a bit more about difficulty? Were there climbs you could do when you first got it, how far into the benchies have you managed to get, etc? The benchmarks on the 2017 Moon board already feel 1 (or sometimes 2) grades harder than the commercial gyms I go to, so if the Mini is stiffer again I am a bit worried about running out of climbs, at least for a while! Zephro fucked around with this message at 13:05 on May 28, 2024 |
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May 28, 2024 11:57
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Zephro posted:Could you talk a bit more about difficulty? Were there climbs you could do when you first got it, how far into the benchies have you managed to get, etc? The benchmarks on the 2017 Moon board already feel 1 (or sometimes 2) grades harder than the commercial gyms I go to, so if the Mini is stiffer again I am a bit worried about running out of climbs, at least for a while! I went back and looked at my logbook (a feature of the Moonboard app) and it looks like for the first four sessions on the board I sent zero problems. But at that time I also only had the yellow holds as the wood ones were taking longer to arrive. Once the wood holds arrived, I was able to start sending some of the v3 problems (lowest grade possible). I was trying for a while to send all the v3 benchmarks and gave up with two left. I've sent v4 and v5 benchmarks as well. I haven't tried harder than that and haven't spent much time projecting v5s. Even in the benchmarks, each grade (or at least the v3s) have a wide spread of difficulty. I've found the grades after v3 seem a bit more consistent. There are a ton of non-benchmarks as well. I'd have a hard time imaging someone would be able to run out of problems to do unless they refused to project problems that will take multiple sessions. There are so many problems. Estimating about two grades harder than a commercial gym is a reasonable estimate. If you haven't already learned to enjoy small amounts of progress, the mini will help you learn how to do that.
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May 29, 2024 03:43
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Niyqor posted:I went back and looked at my logbook (a feature of the Moonboard app) and it looks like for the first four sessions on the board I sent zero problems. But at that time I also only had the yellow holds as the wood ones were taking longer to arrive. Once the wood holds arrived, I was able to start sending some of the v3 problems (lowest grade possible).
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May 29, 2024 11:15
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Sab669 posted:Also has anyone here been to New River Gorge? Its on my way home from my trip to NC next week; was planning on stopping by to at least do some hiking if nothing else. Xyven posted:I used to go to the New all the time when I lived in Baltimore, it's one of the best sport climbing areas in the country. It'll probably be very hot in June, but you can try to chase shade. Yo! I climb there often! Masuko is currently underwater, as Summersville Lake is filled up. But you can deepwater solo the top ~50ft of it and other nearby routes, it's super fun. Just don't get caught by the fun police, who *will* give fines to "cliff jumpers"(entering the water from above 6ft). On good days there are usually several people out there you can hang with. Shady sport climbing can be found in steep cave areas like the Coliseum at Summersville or the Hole at Kaymoor, and some vertical walls have cooler aspects like Fantasy area of Endless Wall. Augster fucked around with this message at 01:03 on May 30, 2024 |
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May 30, 2024 01:00
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Sadly I only had time to poke my nose in the visitor center, but then we stopped for dinner nearby and I grabbed a pair of guide books and a book about anchors. Definitely going to need to make a trip back down there next year. I've also been to Coopers Rock a few years ago, WV is such a crazy beautiful state. Just wrapped up my trip to Pilot Mountain in NC though, had a great time even though everything conspired against me. Started getting sick 2 days before my flight, thunderstorms and heavy rain the night before & morning of the day I was to go climb. While raining the guide and I just hung out under some covered pavilion and he gave me a class about anchors and knots and stuff, then when the sun came out we got like 4 hours of climbing in. I was glad to have done that Mile challenge the last 2 weeks, although I wish I bumped up the grades of my climbs rather than going pure endurance focused. I knocked out a ton of easy routes but then when we got on harder stuff I still found myself getting pumped out quickly while trying to find the good holds. In short, 10/10 climbing owns 
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May 30, 2024 13:44
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