Posts tagged climbing
There is a notorious kind of crack called offwidths. Several friends of mine stated, that they were pretty devastated at first when they were not able to do 5.8 offwidths in the valley. Later they ...
My main problem when bouldering and sometimes while climbing is, that after some time the skin/flesh of my middle and lower phalanges start to hurt and the skin comes off so further climbing become...
So I climb. It keeps my hands pretty rough, but for my day job I am a desk jockey now. I was wondering, are there exercises can I do to keep my hands rough so they don't get torn to shreds when I d...
I'm fairly new to climbing, I've been climbing just over a year. This is my first pair of shoes. I've worn the soles down, and wondering whether this kind of wear can be repaired or not, or if I s...
A comment: One little thing that I understand differently: Sport climbing did not evolve from trad climbing (at least not in the modern sense), but more of artificial climbing. Using gear f...
I've been bouldering in rock climbing gyms for a while and am able to send V2~V3s. I've never bouldered outdoors before and I wonder what are the differences, and are there any outdoor specific tec...
Aiders/Etriers are standard equipment for aid climbing, what qualities should I look for when purchasing a pair? I have used them before, but they were always borrowed from other people and I am l...
I have a pair of winter /climbing gloves. Each glove has a small loop on the ring finger, top of the glove. Why? What's it for?
This article says that Running shoes only last about a year regardless of mileage. Is there a similar time frame for climbing shoes? I searched the internet and it seems that most climbers wear thr...
In climbing what do the terms Redpoint, Pinkpoint, Flash and Onsight mean? Where does it come from?
If someone "flashes" a climb what does this mean?
It is quite well known that goats are into free solo rock climbing. Is there any evidence (even if anecdotal) of the highest grades they are able to climb?
Say I'm leading on a single-pitch climb, or the first pitch of a multi-pitch. The maximum fall factor I could theoretically have without hitting the deck is 1, but that's with a static rope, which ...
I'm looking into buying a rope for rock climbing, and I know that I need a dynamic rope for lead climbing. However, trying to find information on the elongation percentages of ropes is proving tric...
I just got a sample of Petzl's new assisted braking device, the Grigri+. I must admit I look at it with a lot of disdain, mostly because It's bulkier than the Grigri 2; It's heavier than the Grig...
Could the use of anti-perspirant give benefit in extreme cold climate where sweating can be a significant problem. I've read many articles regarding keeping warm when alpine climbing in the extrem...
Imagine a multi-pitch climbing situation where a lead climber has just finished belaying the second from a hanging belay position. The rope is coiled over the anchor cord (or clove hitched sharp en...
Recently I heard as a general rule of thumb that one should leave at most the width of your hand as space between the knot (a figure eight for instance) and the harness. Its quite obvious that one ...
I am planning to hike a section of the Bruce Trail next year with my German Shepherd. It's mostly low hills but every once in a while I run into vertical ladders. How can I carry my German Shepher...
If climbing shoes are resoled, will they fit differently afterward? If so, in what way does it change (narrower, shorter, tighter, looser, etc..)?
How can I choose the right climbing shoes especially for toe and heel hooking? More specifically: I have been using very comfortable beginner shoes for the last two years. When I started to advanc...
Why are climbing shoes a slightly tighter than the regular mountaineering shoes?
The other day the strap on my helmet snapped. It's not the main strap but the one that sits across the back of you head and has a tightening dial. So the helmet doesn't fall off but it also doesn't...
I've been using the same Evolv shoes for bouldering that I bought for top-roping. It seems like they're worn enough to start considering a new pair of shoes. Since I'm doing bouldering almost exclu...
I was going through anchoring techniques and I came across this well-received question: Anchor without cordelette? How should one decide when to go for a Cordelette or an Equalette?
I am watching a video about a climb of Annapurna. To acclimate the climbers head up from base camp to another camp higher up, stay for a day or two, then return to base camp. They repeat this pro...
I seem to often catch myself holding my breath during a difficult crux, which seems quite bad really. On the other hand, sometimes I actively breathe fast and deep repeatedly before starting a dif...
When trad climbing I have seen many people wrap their rope around a tree and then rappel, and then yank the rope down at the next belay station or tree. I have also seen the scarring as a result of...
When rappelling and using an autoblock consisting of a french prusik knot it seems there may be some options on how and where to attach the autoblock to my harness. Is there a correct placement ...
There is a story I have heard about climbers who confused "take" and "safe" and I am wondering if it has actually happened. The story goes like this, The climber is out of sight of the belayer an...
Climbing ropes are UIAA rated for so many falls of an 80kg weight. After that number of falls–or a specific period of time based on amount of use–you are supposed to retire the rope. But what if ...
I recently started indoor rock climbing at a local spot. I got to the top and (after appropriate communication) my partner started to belay me down. I instantly starting swinging and spinning pre...
It happend to me a couple of times now that I've cross-loaded my carabiner when belaying; the frequent change from slack to tension and back, moving the carabiner up and down and all that, can easi...
I have a belay device that looks like: which I used when I am belaying someone who is top roping or leading. However, my rope only goes through one of those slots. What is the purpose of the oth...
I am learning to rock climb, and I have heard that I will need to belay climbers, so if they fall, my belay will stop the fall and prevent an injury. What do I need to do to properly belay my clim...
When doing a multi-pitch and you reach a belay station (the top of a pitch) you can choose between belaying the lead climber from the body (like you do e.g. indoors where you aren't doing multi-pit...
I've learned several points in rock climbing where one must perform checks, but none that come with a checklist. And there is a serious difference. I passed an indoor belay test roughly as follows...
When rappeling I understand the need for a backup--whether an autoblock below the belay device, or a second person providing a fireman belay. My understanding is that using an autoblock incorrectl...
After learning to climb indoors on top rope and learning to lead sport climbs outdoors I will be progressing into Trad climbing by taking an instruction course as well as climbing with other experi...
There was a question about when a placed ice screw is not reliable. Now I want to know where to best place an ice screw in advance. So what are features of the ice I should look for or avoid when ...
I've done a lot of bouldering, sport climbing and some aiding. Awhile back I went ice climbing with some guys for about a week. I didn't participate much simply because I didn't feel the confiden...
In (probably) most of northern Europe, it is somewhat cold and wet outside. Despite this fact, I'm trying to get as much outdoor climbing done as I can. A backup plan for somewhat cold weather (i...
I've been told that a Figure-of-8 descender cannot be used for SRT (single-rope technique) because the descender must be able to be removed from the rope, without being removed from the harness. Wh...
I seem to have accumulated a good number of carabiners that, while probably still safe, I won't climb on anymore. They might be worn, of questionable origin, or just plain made obsolete by an upgra...
So I was watching this video, and got to the part where this guy and girl are discussing and demonstrating whose method of peeing off the portaledge is scariest. Then I of course thought to myself,...
I am looking for sustainable alternatives for carrying out human waste. WAG bags, though convenient, sadly have to end up in land-fills. I am looking for a system where the non-biodegrading compone...
It is commonly known that loading your carabiner in three directions is bad, as it reduces it's strength. This is apparent when talking about belay stations, as e.g. described in this blog post by ...
A recent question made me wonder how a running belay is really done. Suppose you are climbing an alpine route, maybe of difficulty UIAA 5. You encounter a stretch of 100m of UIAA 1 terrain with n...
I'm a +5 in the ape index, (6'2" tall, with almost a 6'7" wingspan) Buying nice fitting jackets has never been a luxury I could enjoy. My solution for a while was to buy jackets made for ice climbi...
Petzl have a diagram on their website for what they call a Double Mariner. It's identified on the site as having a 7:1 mechanical advantage, but I can only see it as having a 5:1. Can somebody con...
