Tips For Rock Climbing
Victor Epand
Rock climbing is rarely about actual strength. Of course strength helps but
the better and more experienced you get you'll find that balance and
technique are FAR more important. Climbing well does not always mean
getting to the top. Climbing is about being in control, moving
decisively and fluidly up the rock and not thrashing and scrambling.
Work on balance and overall strength and not on building large muscle
groups. Build your heart rate and work on finger strength.
There are three types of climbing. Trad (traditional) climbing is
identified as routes where you must place you own safety gear. You are
free climbing and using combinations of stoppers, cams, hexes and even
pitons as protection. Sport climbing is usually short face climbs
(though they can be multi pitch) using all bolts. Bouldering is done
without ropes and done on free standing boulders. These routes are
between 3 and maybe 20 moves; they are practice for sport climbing and
often involve gymnastic or dynamic moves. The rating system in the US
is called the Yosemite System and goes from 5.0 to 5.14. Ratings at
5.10 and above also include letters 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.10d, and
5.11. Boulders are rated with V1-5 based on difficulty.
Question on leading a trade route - say you start a route placing gear
as you go. You get halfway up and can't get past a crux, so you drop
down. Now, how would you get the gear out that on the in the wall?
(i.e. the top piece that you came down on.)? You don't. Unless, you can
walk to the top and rappel down to retrieve your gear. Be careful when
lowering off climbs on one piece of equipment, that fails, you die!
Better to lead trad routes several grades below your ability level.
Why does most mountaineering guides require you to have plastic boots
instead of leather? Simply, the warmth, plastic boots have several
layers and are quite a bit warmer. Most guide services do not want to
deal with any frostbite problems while guiding. As a
beginner/recreational climber...find a size that is snug...but
comfortable. If you could not wear the shoes for one hour without
discomfort....then the shoes are too tight.
I have been climbing 5.10/11 since 1977. In my experience, a little bit
of tightness may give you a slight advantage....you get up a 5.11a when
normally your limit is 5.10d...but I would much rather enjoy my
recreation than climb at my ultimate limit.
RP's are a brand name for artificial chock stones. Like Stoppers,
Rocks, Walnuts, Offsets, etc, it is the name given by the manufacturer;
Pacific Crossing. Typically RP's were small to micro sized brass alloy
nuts, similar to the Black Diamond copper/steel nut made today.
RP's were used, almost to the exclusion of any other micro nut, in
Yosemite to push the frontier of what was possible with clean aid
climbing in the late '70s, '80s, and early '90s. With the huge growth
of the sport of climbing in the 1990's, many other companies began
producing micro nuts similar to the RP.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for
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