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Dumbdog posted:What are everyone's aims for the new year then? Id really like to get more 7B+s done and maybe break into 7C. Also trips to the lake district and north wales as often as possible would be good. New year's resolutions time already? Mine are, in rough chronological order: Lead 6c indoors consistently Climb all the V3-V5 circuit at the wall Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis (Winter) Point Five Gully, Ben Nevis Frensis Direct, Brimham (First E number) Great Western, Almscliff A Dream Of White Horses Traverse of the Cuillins Traverse of La Meije
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Dec 29, 2013 18:40
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Chris! posted:
While you're there and waiting for other people to climb, borrow whatever gear isn't in use and have a scamper around trying to place it. You'll soon get a feel of what type of placements take rocks, hexes, cams and so on. Pay attention to the way passive gear can still cam into the rock, and how friends can rotate and walk around in cracks. Consider which way a piece of gear would be loaded if you fell onto it. Maybe even try racking stuff on your harness, climbing a foot off the ground and placing gear while you're on the rock to get an idea of that pumped-out blurry panicked nothing-will-loving-fit fumbling. Practice removing the gear too, otherwise you will run out of climbing partners very fast. Beware - Dartmoor granite takes lots of gear but doesn't like to give it back.
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Mar 16, 2014 20:41
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Chris! posted:Thanks for the suggestion! That's a great idea and I'll give it a go. 40m is fine for most indoor stuff and a lot of UK cragging, but if you want to future proof yourself go for a 50m or 60m single. The extra cost and weight aren't overwhelming and you'll get a lot more out of it. On top roping- getting a good belay and getting the rope to run well can take practice. Consider finding someone to learn off and have a google around, some of your southern sandstone crags have local codes of practice that people follow to stop this happening: 
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Mar 21, 2014 00:12
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Maybe walk your hands up the passive end of the rope rather than sliding them, to make sure you fully let go with the moving hand? You're not messing up, you're just being cautious about a new skill. Keeping an iron hard grip on the rope with both hands at all times feels more secure but isn't really necessary.
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Mar 27, 2014 22:16
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Just got back from my second alpine trip, to the Ecrins this time. So much fun. I like how efficiency is the core ideal of alpinism and I'm fascinated by the techniques involved. Stuff like short roping and using natural protection seems so ridiculously risky at first, but in the right environment it just makes sense.
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Aug 9, 2014 16:48
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I led my first E1 on Saturday. Had a hang on the gear about three moves from the top so dogged the route a bit, but still very satisfied. My climbing partner took a helmet camera up the last route we climbed that day, another E1. He's very good at placing wires and leading near his technical limit, so if you wanted to learn about trad protection and the psychological aspect of leading, you might find it interesting. He's on the crux at about 9 minutes. http://youtu.be/JcumQLZWAv0
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Aug 18, 2014 21:46
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big scary monsters posted:...I am still a little nervous that I won't have a head for leading any more. There's nothing more satisfying than getting your lead head back on, when you can look between your feet and smile at gravity. I was wondering if that DMM video would turn up. It's freaking everyone out about perfectly good kit because they're watching the scary fall tests but then missing the messages at the end (always have a dynamic link in the system). I also think it's a little misleading because your body isn't going to behave like a lump of steel. You'll hyperextend your spine and dislocate limbs and get whiplash and all sorts of bad things, but what these things all do is reduce the forces involved. Worked example: If you weigh 80kg and want to load 20kN onto your dyneema anchor, you need to decelerate at 250m/s^2. So if you fall 1.2m onto a static anchor, you're going 4.9m/s when the rope goes tight. You'd need to stop in a distance of 47mm. Put another way, you need to be able to experience 25g acceleration applied at your bellybutton with an average movement of your body mass (through flailing limbs etc) of no more than 2".
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Aug 28, 2014 20:05
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aswang_pro posted:I've been doing a lot of top ropes with overhangs and I've gotten a lot better at it in the past couple weeks, but what usually messes with me is getting over the lip when it transitions back to a vertical. Tall folks on the same routes don't seem to have issues, but it takes me a little longer to figure out beta that works with my 5'6" Asian build. Tall people are always going to have the advantage of being able to reach through a crux and lank it, if you try to climb the same way you're not playing to your strengths. Compactness allows you to coil up where a taller climber would need to stand lower to give themselves room. Shorter limbs give you more leverage for powerful moves. Check out that Dave McLeod book, 9 out of 10 climbers...
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Sep 7, 2014 23:16
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CoasterMaster posted:...this particular route is on a 45 degree roof and the hold I was using was a large jug that I couldn't wrap my hand around (think a sphere, flat on top, mounted in to the wall). I was able to get my hand on top of it (between the top of hold and the wall), but I didn't have a confident grip on it and like I said, my hand slipped and I fell. How the hell are you supposed to hang on to these? Don't go over the top of it. Imagine the handhold is a car bonnet you're you're trying to force open. Undercut it by putting your hand on the lower side of it, the side towards your feet. Your arm should be straight and by pushing with your feet and using body tension, you'll keep your grip. Ideally your weight is below the sphere when you move onto it, otherwise your torso is going to swing and that'll be very hard to control.
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Oct 5, 2014 20:32
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Sigmund Fraud posted:Anyone been to Cuenca, Spain for a climbing vacation? Kalymnos. Costa Blanca out of high season. Ariege.
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Oct 28, 2014 21:08
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pbpancho posted:The gyms in Minnesota don't let you bring your own rope. Lead and topropes are provided. What? So what do you do with your old ropes if you can't use them indoors? You know, the ones so furry you could wear them as a scarf? The ones that handle like a rusty bike chain.
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Nov 17, 2014 20:33
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So I went to the Costa Blanca last week. Here's a picture of me trying to shake out the pump on a knee bar before fluffing the crux of the last climb of the holiday at Toix Este. Here's my buddy on the 60m abseil in to the route Parle which you absolutely must do if you're in the area. The first pitch is on the blocky ground left of the rope to the rock bridge. Then you go up to a hanging stance about level with where he's dangling, then a rising traverse out through the hole you abseiled in through. All this is over a giant zawn with the waves booming at the bottom.  Incidentally, anyone else worry about heat on long abseils? I tried to work out the physics on the way down (faster or slower = cooler?) but decided I wanted off the rope about 20m from the deck, when I started smelling burning plastic, and went as fast as my hands could take. I bought a pair of Tenaya Tatankas while I was out there, anyone tried them? They better stretch out because they're flipping agonising.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:56
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Save me jeebus posted:Incidentally, I demo'd some Tenaya Tarifas a few weeks ago and will probably pick up a pair to backup my Miuras. I'm interested to hear how your Tatankas break in. So the tatankas have stretched out maybe 3-4mm in length. I can now climb maybe 2 or 3 pitches between having to take them off but boy, do they edge well. I'm going to keep my red chilli habaneros for mountain roots and foot jams, but the tatankas are the most aggressive boot I've ever owned and I like them. Some friends and I, in a frenzy the other night booked flights and digs in Tafraout for over new year. Excited!
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Dec 8, 2014 22:17
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coldfire07 posted:I'm pretty new to climbing (about a month and a half), and have just been bouldering so far. A wee google about seems to indicate that tendons and ligaments take a lot longer to strengthen than muscles - around ten weeks. So your pulleys and so on are still catching up with your new muscular ability and will be for a while yet. Are you sure it's strength holding you back? On the problems you find hard, are you absolutely sure you've got the sequence and the balance and body position nailed? Have you asked any of the staff or other climbers for tips and beta? Try watching other people on a problem and see if you still get those "Aha!" moments when you see the way they climb it. If you do, it isn't your strength that's stopping you. This will probably come across as a throwback's ramble, so feel free to ignore it: Have you thought about extending your climbing in other ways than up the grades? I appreciate the barriers to entry are much higher once you start involving ropes and pro but you'll have fun and build experience, cunning and endurance in ways that won't blow up your knuckles. There seem to be a lot of people here who've been bouldering for a month or two and are already worried about finger injuries. To me that seems like worrying about getting caught for EPO doping while you're still riding around with stabilisers on your bike. I've been climbing for nearly 20 years and until I started bouldering last autumn, I'd have guessed a blown pulley was something to do with aid climbing.
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Dec 9, 2014 21:24
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borapt posted:Yuuuup. That's a me... I did a V3 yesterday, which was ok for me ... Then a guy that was doing V7s nearby went on the same route and made it look so much smoother and less difficult just by being more "balanced" than me. The hard part is making it look easy. Here's some stuff I do during my warmup on easier routes, because I secretly want to be that guy: Try to climb a route in continuous slow motion - no lunging, barn doors and frantic footwork - just steady upward progress. This makes you plan the route through before you start. Climb normally, but right when you're stretched out for a new hold, pause for a second. To do this, you have to be stable not just on the holds, but between them too. Work out the ideal grip position and limb line from each hold. The intersections of these on a route should determine where your body goes unless you have a devious route setter. Try to climb using the best grip position on every hold. Climb slabs.
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Dec 11, 2014 21:01
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Here are some pictures from my trip over new year. Three of us went to Tafraoute in the anti-atlas mountains in Morocco. The climbing is everything from boulder problems to 800m grandes courses, on mostly bomber quartzite. Protection is all trad, the food and accommodation are dirt cheap and provided you aren't fazed by bad roads, erratic grading and the complete absence of any rescue service the whole place is just amazing. Also, it is relatively undeveloped. You can drive down the valleys and see line after line on 100m faces that nobody has bothered to climb yet. The place is mind blowing. Owl Crack: First E1 of the trip  Me on Call to Prayer, my third clean E1 but this time with added cactus hazards. You don't get those at Stanage!  Go big or go home at Anergui. Spot the climber! 3 alternated 40m pitches at VS/HVS, then maybe another 150m moving together to the top.  View down Anergui valley. The crag in the middle at the right is maybe five pitches high. Most of the crags don't have any routes on.  Yes you can climb on the painted rocks.  I like to call this sequence "cragfast".     Sunset ridge:  Me chilling. The route up the right of the scoop in the crag behind is called Pink Lady and we alternated the nine pitches.  My other friend gets his E1, last climb of the trip. 
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Jan 20, 2015 23:11
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Sigmund Fraud posted:Amazing pictures! How far from the crags did you stay and what was the accommodation? How's quartzite to climb on compared to like limestone or north European granite? We stayed in Tafraoute which is the biggest local town and about 20 minutes from the nearest crags on the south side of the Jebel el Kest massif. Eight days in the hotel Argana for three of us cost £250 and was fine if you don't mind waiting a bit for hot water. For double that you can stay in hotel les Amandiers, which feels like being in The Shining, but set during the glory days of the empire. It has a bar, a pool and the new routes book which makes it the unofficial HQ of climbing this side. Figure £6 per restaurant meal. The bigger crags along the Tarakatin valley are maybe 40 minutes drive and then around an hour's walk in but it really varies - you can commute as far as you can be bothered. Our trip to Anergui took about 60 minutes to drive up a mind boggling road and then 40 minutes to walk in. If you go round the north side, there are the amazing Samzar and Afantinazar valleys, with some epic sized cliffs but less in the way of digs. You can stay in kasbah tizourgane which is meant to be nice, and seems to be becoming the unofficial HQ of north side climbing. We didn't get round there this year except for Pink Lady, but we will be back there. Oh yes. A trip split between Kasbah Tisourgane and Tafraoute would be a really good plan. The quartzite looks like it'll be low friction but it's made of baked beach sand and it has a really rough microtexture. It sticks to rubber really well, like font sandstone. It doesn't have the soapy feel limestone can have, or the crystalline coarseness and 'massiveness' of most of the granite I've climbed. Close up it looks a bit like gneiss, but with much more fissuring. It's thickly laminated and so it has fissured into large blocks. The cracks take protection very well at all widths, we should have taken all our size 4 cams and all our micro wires. The blocks often take sling runners. The climbing tends to be jammy on the friendly side of vertical, with large belay ledges. Some areas that have seen less traffic can have a bit of loose rock, between us we pulled maybe two handholds off all trip. Sometimes you'll have a moment when you realise that the reassuring spike you put a sling over is in fact the tip of a huge flake, which you also have two wires behind and are currently trying to layback off the rock face. More info here: http://www.climb-tafraout.com/
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Jan 21, 2015 21:49
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pac man frogs posted:I just picked up a passive rack (sets of dmm wallnuts, tricams, bd hexes) for 24 pieces of pro and a chance to use them tomorrow at Ozone, pretty stoked. I've placed a few cams on top rope, but this'll be new. Learn how to place and clean tricams using someone else's, if you can. They're brilliant bits of gear but absolute bastards for getting stuck. I find you have to kind of trip them up to get them out. Other than that, enjoy. Placing trad gear well is a strange kind of art in itself. Tsietisin posted:I am an utter utter beginner to this... Awesome!
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Feb 22, 2015 21:45
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tortilla_chip posted:
Nice! What's the deal with the quickdraws on the routes either side of you? Are they crag swag or in-situ or something?
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Mar 1, 2015 00:01
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spwrozek posted:ATC actually. Thinking about it she either had way way way too much slack out, was not holding onto the break well, was not paying attention, or a combination of the 3... The belayer was holding her hand like it got bad rope burn or bit into the ATC possibly. Aaand armorer posted:With most new climbing shoes, I've found that the rubber is more slippery the first few times I climb on them, but once it gets abraded a little it is a lot more sticky. I don't know if that's actually a thing that happens or if it's just some kind of placebo effect in my head, but I've noticed it with pretty much every new pair of shoes. Aaand SplitDestiny posted:Some photos from our attempted Royal Arches => North Dome, South Face linkup Aaand big scary monsters posted:Cool, maybe we'll see you. We'll be a group of two girls and two guys talking a big game and climbing really badly. If you're solid at HS get on Central Groove, definitely the route of the crag at around that grade. Otherwise Colonel's Arete and the imaginatively named Route B are two really nice V. Diffs there.
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Mar 20, 2015 20:59
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big scary monsters posted:Will do! Also hoping to go climb this ridiculous looking piece of rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUUyI39FOf4
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Mar 21, 2015 17:30
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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!
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Apr 12, 2015 19:29
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big scary monsters posted:I think I've convinced my climbing partner that we're going here next winter... Nice! I've got a friend who goes ski touring and ice climbing in the Norwegian alps most years. His words - "Rjukan is too busy".
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Apr 23, 2015 18:19
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Chris! posted:I always just use the belay loop, that's how I was shown back when I first had my induction at a climbing gym. Went to Kinlochleven Ice Factor earlier this year, when a forecast turned horrible on us. There'll be lots of nice placements for your axes that other people have chopped, use these if you want to save your arms. It was really good for practicing front pointing technique and trying to climb stuff way steeper than I'd attempt outside.
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Apr 25, 2015 09:26
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armorer posted:I am going climbing in Kalymnos for ~10 days in November. Has anyone been there that can give me some useful insider info? Massouri was a good place to be based when I went there. It is handy for the big cave and the multi-pitch adventures on the island across the bay. Also there are plenty of shops and cheap restaurants. I imagine a heck of a lot of the island has been developed since I went, but I fondly remember a route called Styx and a crag called Dolphin Bay. I'm told Elefantenhimmel is also worth doing.
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Aug 12, 2015 00:34
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SplitDestiny posted:Last week we attempted to climb the Palisade Traverse, which is 5 14'er peaks in one day. We got 3 and it was insanely hard. I don't know how people do all 5 car to car. Crest is best! Nice climbs. Saw this circulating about some climbers killed on the Barre des Ecrins. We had to run away from a falling serac on this face last year, it was pretty terrifying. 
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Sep 16, 2015 19:41
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Rime posted:I'm really bored doing 11a's inside and my gyms two artifical cracks are worn down glassy garbage which never get cleaned. The back of your neck is a really good place to put your hand if you want to warm it up.
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Dec 20, 2015 13:15
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Top tip for trad beginners: Sometimes you'll place gear, and it'll look rubbish. You'll want to yank on it to test it. This is fine. A good technique is to brace your thumb against the rock and pull with your fingers rather than your body weight. That way, if it pops you won't be unbalanced. Make sure you don't have your face anywhere near, because a fast moving cam does bad things to your smile. 
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Apr 5, 2016 23:58
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big scary monsters posted:Hell yeah I'm going to Font at the start of May. I'm out of shape and my pads and guide books are in another country over the sea but who cares, Fontainebleau is like the greatest playground I've ever been to and it's been years since I was there. If I'm feeling brave and strong by then I really want to get flung wildly from L'Hélicoptère: Duroxmanie is worth hunting out at Cuvier, not that I got up it.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:27
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big scary monsters posted:That looks like a fun problem! Although watching a video of it reminded me of those undercut sloper hell topouts that regular Bleausards just levitate up, but when you get there you're stuck doing your best beached whale impression while your mates who've already sent take pictures of your terrified expression. Yeah, chalk is everywhere. Some of the old French guys still use pof, so it helps to keep an eye on them and try their routes immediately after they walk away.
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Apr 15, 2016 19:17
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Save me jeebus posted:Waiting for a friend at the Garden of the Gods today when a UK tourist strikes up a convo with me about grades. "So what is it here, Severe; Very Severe?" We have an adjectival grade for that. Extreme Severe. It's sort of a coded warning grade that sits outside the normal hierarchy. The French alpine grade system claims the Beaufort prize for blase vagueness though. I think it came from a conversation like this "How difficult is this 1200m long route featuring rock, snow, ice, abseiling, routefinding and a variety objective dangers?" "Well, monsieur, it's definitely not easy (Facile), and far more than a bit difficult (Peu Difficile). Quite difficult (Assez Difficile) doesn't even begin to describe it, and difficult (Difficile) still falls a way short of the mark. Even very difficult (Tres Difficile) is somehow insufficient. Extremely difficult (Extremement Difficile) is getting closer, but still lacks a certain... je ne sais quois." "Would you say then, that it is Abominably Difficult?" "Oui, c'est abominablement difficile!"
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Sep 25, 2016 18:27
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spwrozek posted:Climbing
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Oct 30, 2016 21:43
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Ravenfood posted:So if I have Dyneema cord, can I make a decent anchor by girth hitching two carabineers and then girth hitching it to my tie-in loops? I am definitely not going to climb above it, but I want something to use for setting up to rappel off. I'm still only doing single pitch climbs and will be for awhile. Am I missing something? I do this with a sling (not a cord) all the time on sport routes when you want to "build it down" from the anchors or when doing a multi pitch abseil. I don't know how well a cord would hold in a girth hitch. Also your krabs won't be equalised in most situations. If you use a sling like me, consider clove hitching to the krabs, makes it easy to equalise them. Some tips: -the sling will sag quite low and snag on your knee which is annoying -take it off at the end of each day because otherwise it sort of locks the belay loop in one place and so the sawing action from the leg loops when you walk isn't evenly distributed. This is thought to have contributed to an accident not so long ago http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1933713/Todd-Skinners-failed-harness-update - as mentioned, dyneema likes to melt so don't let your rope run through it - dyneema is not dynamic. It can fail if there's no shock absorption in the system (like a short section of climbing rope for example) http://dmmclimbing.com/knowledge/how-to-break-nylon-dyneema-slings/
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Nov 27, 2016 17:58
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POWELL CURES KIDS posted:Me and my girlfriend are just getting into climbing, and as broke college kids we're trying to figure out how to get the best bang for our buck in terms of gear. Are there brands we should be looking for/avoiding? At the moment we're looking at this kit for both of us, but we need shoes too, and we've got no ideas there. All we're trying to do for the immediate foreseeable future is go climbing in a nearby gym. Any hot tips? Me and my ramen budget would be eternally grateful. Almost all climbing gear has to meet test standards so you'll never get something dangerous, you just pay more for additional features or Gucci kit. That looks like a decent starter pack. Everyone else is right on about shoes. In the UK it's quite common for the college (university) club to have masses of gear to borrow, because the administrators think gear = safety ∴ lots of gear = lots of safety. If your college has a club, try them out.
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Nov 27, 2016 18:10
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He's going to be ok, i think. The ground is a fair way out of shot on that video though.
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Apr 1, 2017 09:27
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PXJ800 posted:Thanks... it's funny, my older one is high-output and has to be the center of attention but the little one just quietly does her thing. She gave me the biggest hug after the first time she made it to the top. Old climbers just get more guileful. Here's Steve Mcclure, mid 40s, 2 kids, climbing really rather hard. https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/71135/interview_steve_mcclure_on_rainman_9b
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Jun 17, 2017 21:00
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Rallos posted:So I did a climbing thing over the weekend. Got to borrow a couple of climbing feet This is brilliant. Good on you.
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Sep 14, 2017 21:59
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Sigmund Fraud posted:Got a full rack of DMM Dragon cams and looking to get micro cams to complement the rack. The smallest cam I got is a Blue #00 with range 13-21 mm. Good choice with the dragon cams. They're lovely. You're going to have trouble ticking all that list in one go though. In my experience the stoppers on lobes are not to stop the cam from collapsing or inverting - the placement's already blown by that point. The stoppers are there to allow you to use it without any cam action at all - like a rock/nut/moac/.... To be helpful - Camalot C3s come in a colour coded range that has several sizes going smaller than your blue DMM cam. They have stoppers on them and there are only 3 camming units to keep them narrow. Alternatively, yet another bunch of people have brought out a knockoff of the legendary alien cams. They're called Alien revolutions have your extendable slings, 4 camming units and go almost as small as the camalots. Personally, I'd go for the aliens. My fave bit of kit is a green totem cam- they're the sort of original knockoffs of the alien cams. It's really reassuring how it grabs into crappy placements and how flexible the stem is. Also I don't trust C3s.
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Oct 10, 2017 23:02
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enraged_camel posted:
John Dunne says you can. He was a pioneer of the train heavy, climb light approach. Necky solo action + yaarkshire ethics start at 3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D0Mp0RrQRA
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Oct 27, 2017 16:58
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enraged_camel posted:You mean the inside and outside edges of the front part of the shoe? Have a look at this video for some footwork moves that might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAbqzBchGvw If that seems a bit too much like a ridiculous elf ballet, have a look at this one by Neil Gresham instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRSWZ6KTow4 If you've got the spare time you could do a lot worse than working through all that masterclass series. There's some really good stuff that applies to climbers at all levels. Rime's right. You're climbing using your legs and body position well, rather than thug power. There's flagging, twist locks, step throughs and even a craftily dropped knee. You're off to a good start.
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Nov 2, 2017 14:38
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