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Tech Tips
Get that extra edge you need to suceed on your dream climb with Climbing's Tech Tips - Aid, Alpine, Sport, and Trad Beta for the vertical world. Illustrations by Mike Clelland, Mike Tea and Kieth Svihovec.
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 Tech Tip - Alpine - Stayin' Alive
By Dave Sheldon - The pitches flew by on Polar Circus, our one-day Canadian Rockies winter objective. So when my partner said he’d forgotten his headlamp, I didn’t sweat it. Then, a few hours later, I dropped our shared thermos (bummer). But when my crampon’s toe bail snapped and a falling rock halved our ropes, our day climb morphed into a grovelfest replete with unplanned bivy.  Tech Tip - Sport - Welcome to the Jungle (Gym)
By Krisitn Bjornsen - YOU FEEL EYES UPON YOU — is that panting you hear? You flee to the bouldering cave . . . but you’re cornered. Any second, the lone, roving male will pounce, turning your once-pleasant session into a socially awkward morass.  Tech Tip - Trad - The Lost Art of Downclimbing
By Mic Fairchild - Whether it’s backing down a runout lead, navigating a sketchy descent, or merely exercising the unlikely (I will sometimes climb up and down the same route, just for fun!), the ability to downclimb (DC) is a skill worth polishing, especially for budding trad leaders.  Tech Tip - Alpine - Of snowfields and glaciers
By Martin Gutmann - A descent through a whiteout is usually remembered in two ways: over a cold beer with friends or as a bestseller written by the sole survivor. In fact, descending a snowfield or crossing a glacier in a whiteout can be a complete horrorshow: the ground and the air blur into one, leaving you disoriented ...  Tech Tip - Trad - Extending an Anchor on a multi-pitch route
By Molly Loomis - As the adage goes, speed equals safety in the mountains. But this doesn't mean speed instead of safety. Maintaining constant visual and vocal contact between you - presumably, an experienced climber and/or guide - and a neophyte under your tutelage will yield easier passage through terrain otherwise known as time-suck territory.  Tech Tip - Alpine - Hauling sense
by Matt Samet - On steep alpine free routes, where you need to have extra clothing and food along, but can’t be burdened by climbing with a heavy pack, there’s an easy albeit time-consuming solution: hauling.  Tech Tip - Big Wall - Super dooper
By Mike Clelland - You’ve decided to do whatever it takes to go light on your next wall. Everything is laid out nice and tidy on the ground. You and your partner scrutinize every item that goes into the haulbag. How many hooks? Which jacket is lighter? But what do you do about that homemade PVC poop-tube?  Tech Tip - Sport - The 10 essentials of sport climbing
By Matt Samet - If you’re a crusty old dinosaur like me then you probably remember being taught the importance of the 10 Essentials upon your introduction to climbing and the mountains.  Tech Tip - Trad - Storm's a comin'!
By Matt Samet - It happens to the best (and even the fastest) of us. Hundreds of feet off the deck, you suddenly find yourself trapped, pinned down by an ugly beast spitting white-hot lightning and drowning the rock.  Tech Tip - Training - Cheater's Banquet
By Matt Samet - Because I work 9,000 hours a week and — fattening with age — am increasingly cowed by real, outdoor rock climbing, I’ve become an unrepentant gymrat. But a wondrous thing has happened since sport climbing’s Dark Ages (the 1980s)...  Tech Tip - Aid - Topstep Mania
By Chris Van Leuven - After several seasons in Yosemite, tallying sloth-like aid lead after sloth-like aid lead — as does many a big-wall nOOb — I finally got it: if I efficiently highstepped in my aiders by using the top rung/s, aka topstepping, I could drastically reduce lead times and clip those oh-so-distant fixed pieces. (Revelation!)  TECH TIP - Trad - HIGH EXPOSURE
By Mark Synnott - We left the Black Canyon’s North Rim Campground a little before 9 a.m. — fine if we weren’t climbing Stratosfear (VI 5.11+ R), on the Painted Wall. Come dark, we still had three pitches left, including the crux.  TECH TIP - Sport - SPACE CADET
By Lee Sheftel - We all have one: a climbing partner so lovable that we put up with with his intractable spaciness. Take my friend Dave, who’s always losing his keys and often has at least two or three Grigris (only one his own, of course) floating in his climbing pack.  Tech Tip - Sport - The Month
By Andy Raether - My training schedule comes as a result of eight years of focused effort. When I train well, I can redpoint climbs like Stockboy’s Revenge (5.14c FA; Rifle), an 80-foot limestone power-endurance route, but I can also tap raw power, say that required by the Rocklands’ roof The Vice (V13/14).  Tech Tip - Alpine - Alpine Groveling
By Freddie Wilkinson - With my back against a smooth granite wall and both feet planted across from me, I stare into an 18-inch-wide runnel of WI5. It would be great climbing… had I brought screws, ice tools, and crampons. I shimmy up several inches but slide back down a foot. |
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