Posts tagged climbing
I am looking for a way into alpinism. The most common route I've found is signing up for a multi-day guided group course in a place like Chamonix, culminating in a small summit like Petite Aiguille...
I love rock climbing and I try to go to my local gym and boulder as often as possible (usually 2-3 times a week). But it's really hard for me to climb for any extended period of time because my arm...
Both effectively do the same job, grip a rope as an auto bloc or an ascender. What are the pros and cons of each? Why/when would I choose one over the other?
This is going out primarily to those who have been climbing for 20yrs + Back in the day, helmet use was optional and not particularly popular. These days, things seemed to have taken a dramatic cha...
Sometimes when clipping in people who are rappelling, or setting up anchors in some places from above or showing people how to get onto a fixed line, I need an adjustable tether. I often carry a n...
I have two half ropes from Camp that are basically unused, but are slowly getting old, and I would like to know their age. Is there a way to do that? I know the name of the model: Camp Plekton 8....
The Distel Hitch and Prussik both appear to be slide and grip knots, used for ascending a climbing rope. I have heard of people using Prussik many times more often than Distel Hitch. Which is a b...
In Dean Potters and Sean Leary's 2010 attempt to take the speed record of The Nose at El Capitan in Yosemite, Dean Potter has something white on his legs (and arms?): What could this be, and whi...
I'm looking at improving (actually starting) my training regime. My local climbing Gym has just installed various campus boards. How do you use these to train effectively? What's the technique p...
I am climbing for quite a while now and would consider myself a beginning-intermediate climber. I feel my technique has significantly improved over the last year. I am very heavy (1,80m and ~100kg)...
What are the practical aspects of using good quality hiking boots (e.g. ones shown below) for climbing? Arguably, an outdoor enthusiast might be involved in various sorts of activities from hik...
I am wondering if anyone else has experienced fear/panic that gets in the way of bouldering, and what their tips are for dealing with this. (There is a prior question on fear in lead climbing, but ...
I had been a regular climber half a decade back. And, then I got off the routine. Now I am trying to get back into climbing. For that, I go to a local climbing gym kind of thing managed by a frien...
In this excellent answer to Ideal and Minimal Rope Diameter for Lead Climbing it is shown how the falling weight affects the drops a rope is expected to survive. This led me to the following ques...
I resumed climbing a couple of months back after a gap of a couple of years. After spending a month of quality time at the wall regularly in order to get back in touch, I have started to try differ...
I have a climbing rope (Maxim, 11mm) that I bought back around 2008-2009 (so it's about 10 years old now). It has never been used, it's been stored properly, and the sheath and core appear to be i...
Alpine slings are usually 60cm long and while they can be slung over one shoulder, it's much easier to carry them on your harness at 1/3 of the size in an alpine quickdraw. How would one shorten t...
I have been piling up carabiners, cordelette loops, webbing, ATC devices, Gri-Gri, etc., and it is all now hanging from my harness. This adds a considerable amount of weight and becomes a bit unwie...
I used to really enjoy climbing (almost all indoors). I was bouldering around V2-3 and leading at 5+. The mismatch was all down to fear of falling - I would repeatedly bail or fall from routes th...
I have a 120cm nylon runner that I want to use to tether me to an anchor bolt while cleaning the anchor. The runner has a small fray (pictures below). Is it safe to use?
If you want to walk on a glacier you usually do this roped together as a team. How to walk as a roped party on a glacier? What I have to pay attention to when knotting the rope? Related ques...
Is it safe to girth-hitch nylon webbing through my harness tie-in points and then shorten the webbing via an overhand loop (assume it is too long) and clipping the non-bight part to the bolt in the...
My girlfriend often complains that a route or boulder was created for tall climbers. In my experience that sometimes is true: I easily get a hold, she has to jump. However, Lynn Hill proved that a ...
Obviously by anyone's definition, you need to reach the top to successfully climb a mountain, but after hiking to the top of Guadalupe Peak, where the peak is at 8,751 ft, but with a prominence of ...
What is your opinion: Does it make sense to train rock climbing wearying a weight vest or a small backpack carrying a small amount of weight (let's say 1-3kg or 2-6.5lb) to mimic the actual weight ...
We have a number of questions dealing with how start climbing, how to learn it (and how not to learn it) - e.g. Is it realistic to teach yourself rock climbing?, What to teach someone who wants to ...
I recently wanted to climb that mountain because I literally love pushing myself and it looks fun. Information about me I am a 15.9 year old male teen (14-12-02) I live in İzmir Karşıyaka (30 me...
I want to rappel off of 10mm dynamic rope. The rope will be fed through both sides of the ATC device (parallel). Is it safe to use a 4mm cord for my French Prusik auto-block knot? There is a simil...
When comparing dynamic ropes (single ropes) for climbing, which properties do really matter? I'm thinking about weight per meter and price, maybe diameter for very special belay devices. I'm goi...
Recently we were climbing up a glacier with the ice at an angle of around 80°. We were placing the ice screws angling slightly upwards with respect to the slope of the ice wall. However, one from...
We went climbing on a glacier recently. There was one issue which I couldn't find a solution to. While belaying from below (on the first pitch), it was pretty much impossible to protect self from r...
What products and process should be used to clean a climbing rope when it gets sufficiently dirty? How would I remove as much dirt and grime as possible without negatively affecting the strength o...
I did my first via ferrata this weekend and noticed there were often long vertical distances separating the cable anchors. At times this length was around 10m. This meant that a fall before reachin...
I am aware that the statistics regarding a 40ft climbing fall, which result in "decking-out" are not favorable. I survived such a fall only recently. Major injuries seem to have only been a broken ...
One person I regularly climb with uses a belay technique that I was taught to be unsafe, so I would like to know just how unsafe it really is. With a classic tube-style belay device, after taking i...
It is often said that when using two carabiners at the same point, such as an anchor, they should be opposite and opposed. What exactly does this mean?
I am wondering what is the best way to progress from being a consistent V4 and on-sight/redpoint 5.11 climber? I seem to have hit a plateau in my progression and it is super frustrating. Indoors, ...
Rock climbing and bouldering tours are classified e.g. Sierra from 5.2 to 5.15c or Fontainbleau 2 to 8c+. As you advance in your climbing experience you achieve higher grades and learn new move...
After I've been climbing for a while, my finger joints are very sore. Is there anything I can do to relieve that pain?
I occasionally place slings on rock spikes as trad climbing protection. If the spike is not very tall or thick the slings can become easily dislodged as the rope passes though the quickdraw/carabin...
I am trying to learn some history about rock climbing. I know initially rock climbing was purely an outdoor activity, and according to this article in the 1990s indoor climbing gyms started to spri...
I work in ecologically sensitive areas in NZ and my ropes routinely get soiled. I have been asked by the Dept of Conservation to clean and disinfect my ropes to minimise the chances of accidentall...
I mostly climb at a rock climbing gym, and I can climb for hours until my forearms run out of gas. However, when I climb outdoors, usually the reason I have to stop is because the skin of my palm...
I was reading this question and the first thing that popped into my head is what do you use to mark the middle of the rope? I was taught not to use any kind of marker on the rope (because there's ...
I have got this annoying issue when bouldering: a sheared callus on the small finger: I would like to tape this and continue climbing (with extra caution). I am not an expert in taping, and any ...
A friend was asking about grappling hooks the other day, apparently they'd seen a mountaineering program where the guy carried a grappling hook. We couldn't quite figure out why, I've never seen an...
Inspired mostly by this question, where a person was asking what the climbing rating of a brick wall was. Compared to all of the varied climbs in nature with the many different rock features and t...
After rappelling near waterfalls, or during the rain, the harness often becomes wet and hard to remove -- particularly for inexperienced people. How can I instruct someone in how to remove the har...
Note, I am not asking how to tie three different types of knots, but rather one knot that goes by three different names. Its a knot that can be useful in building anchors especially at the top of ...
The defining feature of a climbing rope (arguably) is its dynamic properties, i.e. it stops your fall gradually to decrease the peak force. Not exceeding a fixed peak force is a/the integral criter...
