Posts tagged climbing
While taking the certification course for working at height, the official recommendation for moving from a cherrypicker / crane device to a tower was to completely detach your fall protective gear ...
I follow the international rock climbing scene, and we constantly hear of repetitions of hard routes on El Capitan. On Youtube, it is possible to find many videos of strong climbers from all over...
I received an old climbing rope, whose history is unknown. I know this rope should not be used for any situations where a fall is possible since it may have already sustained one. However, can it ...
The most recent (2013) edition of Climbing Anchors, by Long and Gaines, makes some interesting statements in the preface about catastrophic failures of anchors. Long first says that: when belay anc...
Hoping to ask a couple basic Q's before my order arrives, I suspect I may've gotten insufficient gear.. 1 - Is doubling-up ropes, or hardware, ever acceptable in climbing? IE, my 8mm prusik cord ...
Being a climber one aim is to toughen up your hands (related: How to toughen up hands?). Building up callused skin is important but how do you keep it? Having dry hands especially from the climbing...
I'm going to make a bosun's chair to lift me 40 ft in the air to a tree platform (with at least a 6' clearance, so closer to 50'). Of course I would like the right type of rope with the right tensi...
There's a lot of talk in the media about Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell's free ascent of the dawn wall of El Capitan. This wall has been climbed before, but this is the first time it's been fr...
I've been watching "A Line Across the Sky" which is a short-ish movie about Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold doing the Fitz Roy traverse. During which Tommy Caldwell mentions Alex doing a 1000 and ...
I have always been very careful while handling climbing gear. Last year while returning from an expedition, I met a group that was returning from a tough-looking climb. They were selling off a few ...
I am a long time gym climber, and I climbed outdoors for a couple of times. I fail to understand why climbing outdoors is more appealing than climbing indoors. If the goal is to climb harder, whi...
I came across an interesting looking device on the Petzl website. As per the description, the mobile fall arresters follow the user automatically as he moves, whether on an inclined or vertic...
I'm planning to go deep water soloing in Majorca as soon as weather conditions will allow it, I don't mind cold water as long as it's reasonably warm outside (~20°C). Since I'll probably be travel...
I am always interested in the history of rock climbing. Lately, I tried to collect data about male and female first ascents to visualize progression in rock climbing over time (I have a small blog ...
If you tie a figure-8 knot while rock climbing and fall a few times (especially if they're dynamic lead falls), the knots will become so difficult to untie that you sometimes have to use a carabine...
the "politicised" debate of female clothing not having pockets (it is especially about skirts and dresses) left aside, I wonder if there are any cotton climbing pants left on the market that have a...
In principle, it is known that full body harnesses are useful for situations where the center of gravity is higher - e.g. for children, or for Alpine situations involving carrying heavy loads. A fu...
I did a few sport climbs this week, and on two, it seemed that the area between bolts was just blank, and if I went to the side it was easier. I could still reach the bolts, but I was afraid I was ...
Twice now I have been out winter hiking with a guide and another person and I'm trying to work out what knot they used to tie the middle person onto the rope. Let's say the guide is in front, my c...
An answer to a related post mentions that: It's worth pointing out that these are assisted and not auto belay devices, you can't just not pay attention and expect them to work. Does this mean...
Sometimes when setting up rock climbs for people you will have climbers of various abilities and yet not have enough resources to set up enough climbs so that everyone has something that is hard en...
So there's this limestone quarry that looks like a beautiful place to rock climb. It's about 40 feet high, and the top is easily accessible and has many trees that look like they'd make fine top-r...
I would like to understand if skills/experience gained in rock climbing are going to be useful in climbing steep ice/hard-snow. Of course the gear as well as techniques involved in either are diffe...
I have been climbing for more than 10 months now. I had been climbing regularly for 6 months before, unfortunately, I had a 2-3 months break from climbing. When I have gotten back to it now, I find...
So just questioning some advice I received once: When in guide mode when belaying a second from above, is it ok to take the locking carabineer and attach it to your belay loop? The primary benefit...
On longer climbing sessions I like to keep my cell phone close by, but most of the time I have no backpack with me. So I would like to pack the cell phone in a little case that I can put on my clim...
One of the hardest routes on El Cap, The Dawn Wall, was done by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in January 2015. What are some of the reasons to choose to climb such a hard route in winter, when ...
I've had now a couple of days when going rock climbing while the temperatures are below the general comfort zone (meaning below 6 °C/ 43 °F). When starting to climb, my fingers got cold rather fas...
I've been having a problem where my hand skin starts to crack and peel on extended climbing trips and I can't get it heal, even by taking several rest days in a row. Instead, it just gets worse and...
I started to track my finished routes and I cannot find anywhere a definiton of an attempt. Of course if I try to send the route, give up in falf, go down, have a snack and then go again and finish...
I am interested in hearing how people take their dslrs (digital single lens reflex camera) onto multi-pitch-rock-climbs. I have carried mine up in a small pack, but I end up taking hardly any pictu...
In the last years, there were a few occasions when companies would put out recalls on their climbing gear due to manufacturing defects. For example, Black Diamond recalled some improperly riveted c...
A guy I'm talking to about buying some rock climbing gear is getting rid of his stuff cause he hasn't used it in five to eight years. He said it wasn't used a lot, maybe 5 to 6 times, and he said n...
I plan to visit a summit which involves a few hours of easy scrambling, with a slightly more technical part at the end, which is very short (2-3 m) but exposed. I expect no problems on the way up b...
I have never found a good answer to this one: How do you clean rock-climbing shoes, without ruining them? Let me be more specific. I have a pair of modern leather-and-fancy-rubber climbing sho...
I am relatively new to climbing, and so far I have only done bouldering climbing. The hardest route I have climbed is a V5, and I am a solid V4 climber. My question was, to anyone who has climbed E...
When learning to sport climb, I was taught not to pass any of my fingers through the gate of the carabiner when clipping into a quickdraw. Lest any of my fingers get stuck and degloved in the case ...
It has been suggested to me in a comment, about an answer of mine that suggests using a hip belay, that: There's a reason ATCs, plates, GriGris, etc got popular: they're safer. I know I stopp...
Some of my climber friends are pretty fast climbers with a speed of about 20s for a 10m long route. The really fast ones use auto-belaying-systems seen on speed climbing competitions. Those auto-...
I have been writing my initials onto the dogbones (webbing connecting biners) of my quickdraws with a sharpie (permanent marker) so I can tell them apart from everyone else's. Recently, one of my c...
If a climber completes a route without using their protection that is called sending. What is the term if one completes the route but had to depend on the rope either for a rest or for a fall? Le...
Assessing potential lead climbing partners for competence and safety asserts that a lead climb belay is more complicated and has higher potential for a serious accident over a top rope belay. I...
Having just completed my Boulding induction at a local rock climbing gym, what requirements should I look for in a pair of my own climbing shoes? Assume here cost is not a primary factor.
I've been going climbing (indoor bouldering) for about six months, using shoes I rented at the gym, and wearing socks (and everything was fine). I've recently got a pair of climbing shoes, and want...
Why do climbing professional use less than 5 fingers on some holds? From https://www.lagrimpe.com/abc/le-mono-ou-bi-doigt/ I mean, why don't they put the other fingers, even if they don't quite...
When preparing for a trad climb, I usually divide my rack into separate groups where each group is connected to a single carabiner. So for example all the small nuts go into carabiner 1, middle ran...
When climbing multipitch, what is the cycle of things you do when climbing each pitch, and what are the associated voice signals?
Based on comments on this question. If the moving cam on a Gri-Gri is prevented from engaging (perhaps by a belayer firmly holding onto the device), can you still brake effectively? By "brake eff...
I'm a beginning climber and am trying to resolve conflicting instruction related to tying into my harness. During a recent outing a friend (an experienced climber, but not an instructor) was show...
Disclaimer first: The brake-hand principle (always hold the braking strand of the rope) always applies to assisted braking belay devices, including the Grigri. This question is in no way targeted a...
