Posts tagged trad-climbing
Subtag of climbing
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
This is a follow on from my answer here. I took this photo of my belay and shared it on Facebook, where I friend of mine (A qualified climbing instructor) pulled me up on it as I'd made one or two...
Climbing anchors usually have 2-3 redundant protection points, which distribute weight. So if one point breaks, this will not be a catastrophic failure. However, what should I do in practice if th...
I'm a beginning trad leader, having done about five easy fifth class leads. I've had some formal instruction, but don't currently have access to a teacher or mentor. I'm finding that I'm extremely ...
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 have climbed indoors and outdoors for several years, both top rope and sport, and I somewhat recently took an outdoor trad climbing class. In the class, we placed protection while on top rope and...
What is the difference between Sport Climbing and Traditional (Trad) Climbing? Is it just that Sport Climbing uses bolts?
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
At the moment I have a sport harness which is not ideal for trad climbing. I might buy a trad harness for outdoor climbing only, however I for the moment, I've been focused on Grivel Lynx and have ...
If the leader has had to resort to pulling on a piece of gear to make it through a crux on a pitch how can the second pass this point while also cleaning the piece that was used for aid. Assuming t...
I was looking at buying some cord to make a three point cordelette (I am American, after all). I see that REI sells a pre-cut length of 7mm cord that is 6.4 meters (21 feet), but one of the review ...
My late husband died 7 years ago & I still have his gear. I'm not comfortable leading (and I've lost half my shoulder tendons anyway), so I won't use it. I think the ropes, etriers, etc shoul...
On a multi-pitch route when all climbers have reached the belay point, what is the best way/what considerations need to be made, in order to swap lead? Obviously the leader will need to be tied int...
I'm planning on doing some Grade III scrambling/low grade multi-pitch climbing this weekend. Normally just me and my girlfriend would do this kind of thing, I'll lead she'd second. But I'm thinking...
Sometimes when I'm trad climbing it seems really tough to avoid an awkward belay, and a common type of awkwardness is when the belay device ends up too low. Below is a drawing of a situation I was ...
I bought my first set of cams and I've been curious about what happens when the slings start to wear out. Are they user-replaceable? The ones I purchased seem to be very un-user-replaceable: How...
I was reflecting on how different disciplines of climbing help you become a stronger climber in other disciplines. Like how bouldering makes you a better sport climber, because it teaches you beta ...
I've recently started making my alpine (or "trad") draws by girth hitching one end of a sling to the gear side carabiner and then clipping and passing the rope side through as usual. The girth hitc...
If you're on a multi pitch route and you decide to abandon the climb and retreat(say the weather has turned unexpectedly). What is the minimum amount of gear you should leave behind as a rope ancho...
When you're following a pitch on a trad climb, what is a good method for racking and handling the nut tool? My goals are to be efficient but not to drop the tool. My current system, which I'm not ...
Last year, I learned that you could thread the wire of stoppers/rocks/hexentrics through tunnels in the rock if threading cord or a sling through them would be too difficult. As a reference, see th...
I have been practicing trad climbing and I've run into some difficulty managing and handling the gear. Specifically, I'm awkwardly taking cams off my gear loops, fiddling with them, and finally pla...
Different countries and rock climbing disiplines have different grading systems, for example the the British trad grade system (e.g. grade HVS 5(a)) and the US point grading system (e.g. 5.9) If ...
Everyone knows an undercammed piece is bad. Does any data exist on how bad it gets? In other words, how does the strength of a cam placement change with the retraction angle?
I have never used a Rappel Ring before but I am told they are really useful. Apparently, if you're trying to rappel in a situation where you have to leave gear at the top to get down safely: use a...
What method would I used to calculate the likely force placed on a piece of protection if I were to fall onto it. Using knowledge of my weight, distance between myself and the gear and the amount o...
Commonly when setting SARENE-SA trad anchors on multi pitch routes the only protection available are nuts/wires. Additionally, there is very rarely an option to place a nut to protect against an u...
For trad climbing, I normally carry shoulder-length slings racked on my harness, set up in Alpine draws at 1/3 their full length. When I'm leading and need to extend my protection, I either use the...
Tri-Cams have a reputation for fitting where other protection will not, and they are light weight and inexpensive compared to SLCDs. Unfortunately they also have a reputation for being hard to cle...
