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 Tech Tips: Guide's Tip - Protect Your Goggles
Goggles are standard equipment for alpine journeys, but how can you keep them from breaking in your pack? Like this: Get a pair of two-liter soft-drink bottles and chop off the spout ends, creating two cylinders. Put the goggles inside, and slide one container over the other to make a reasonably solid but very light container.  Tech Tips: Big-Wall Tactics
The "hooksion traverse" - Eight pitches the 1988 first ascent of Waterfall Wall—a dry-season-only Grade VI A4+ that follows the line of Upper Yosemite Falls—Rick Sylvester and I were eager to get to the first good crack of any length we had seen in four pitches. A slanting dihedral began about 15 feet to right, but a pendulum would leave us too low.  Tech Tips: Speak Up!
Choose your words to climb harder - Attitude affects your climbing, and the right attitude can be worth two letter grades or more. The solution to a performance plateau may be as simple as rephrasing the things you say—out loud or to yourself—so you apply energy toward your goal, instead of allowing your words to create doubt. Climb harder by “speaking up,” not down.  Tech Tips: Swing Time
Protect your follower on traverses - Pitches that traverse sideways can be as dangerous for the follower as for the leader, exposing both climbers to the risk of long, swinging falls. When leading, a climber naturally seeks pro before the crux; after the difficulties, however, he may cruise across easier terrain unprotected. This leaves the second dangerously exposed. Tech Tips: Dirty Little Secrets
An alarming new study tests the strength of soiled cord - The old adage “the person who steps on the rope buys beer” took on new meaning at the 2010 International Technical Rescue Symposium (ITRS) this November. We all accept that dirt reduces a rope’s strength. Presumably, grit inside a rope cuts and abrades the fibers as the rope stretches and relaxes during use. But to what degree is a dirty rope weakened?  Tech Tips: How to (Politely) Extend a Quickdraw
When climbers “fix” quickdraws on a sport route, they often link one or more draws to make the clip easier to reach from a convenient stance. Standard procedure is to clip a second quickdraw, minus one carabiner, to the existing draw. While this is a great technique to know for lengthening draws while leading, it’s not ideal for fixed draws.  Tech Tips: Avoid Finger Blowouts
Protect your pulleys by taping right - Taping to support finger tendons can help prevent injury, but studies show the most commonly used taping method doesn’t do the job. Here’s a better way. There are two main flexor tendons in each finger: one that flexes the middle phalanx, and one that flexes the fingertip. These tendons are supported by a system of ligament-like “pulleys” that hold the tendons close to the finger bones and give them the mechanical advantage needed to flex the fingers.  Tech Tips: Rescue Insurance
What do you need? - One of the beautiful things about climbing is the ability to see the world on the cheap. But be warned: Rescues—especially internationally—are the opposite of cheap. A helicopter ride out of some hairy situation can cost $10,000, depending on your altitude and position. If you’re climbing in the U.S., rescues are often free to the victim, but it’s still wise to have some basic insurance. If you’re headed out on an expedition overseas, rescue insurance becomes critical.  Tech Tips: Run For Your Life
Stay off the deck with a ground-runner belay - Your buddy has toproped his gnarly new headpoint 317 times—blindfolded, barefoot, and singing the national anthem. Despite all the rehearsals, now and then his foot still pops on that desperate last move. But the season is winding down, and the air is crisp—today’s the day. He brushes the 30-foot mini-monster one last time and calls his mom for an awkward “I love you.”  Tech Tips: Escaping the Storm
Guide's Tip: Preventing snags during rappel retreats - The single most important thing when retreating in a storm is to maintain steady downward progress. Foremost, this means avoiding a stuck rope. As you descend, be mindful of rope-eating blocks or flakes. If you encounter a rope-eater, set your next rappel anchor on or near it, instead of continuing down to a lower stance. This way, if the rope does snag when you pull it, you’ll be right there to clean up the mess.  Tech Tips: Rodeo Clipping
A clever climbing cowboy realized some time ago that he could avoid hazardous soloing to a preclipped first bolt if he just “lassoed” the hanging quickdraw. Instant toprope—without looking like a stick-clipping ninny. The “rodeo clip” is simple enough in theory and very stylish, but if this is your first rodeo, I advise practicing when no one else is around. Here's the method...  Tech Tips: Ropework 2 - Relaxed-Fit Rapping
A friction-hitch is popular among climbers who desire maximum control and safety while rappelling. The most common back-up is to link a harness leg loop to the rope with a prusik hitch. Your brake hand holds the friction hitch to keep it from locking while you rap, but in the case of lost grip—due to injury from rockfall, lightning, or simple fatigue or pilot error—the knot will lock, keeping you from sliding down the rope.  Tech Tips: Ropework 1 - Single-Strand Backpack Coil
Tired of repetitively flaking out a backpack-style rope coil before starting each new pitch? Here’s how to make a single-strand backpack coil that you can unwrap, drop, and then immediately start your lead. Instead of grabbing both ends of the rope to begin coiling, start your coil at one end. Coiling single-strand takes twice as long as the two-strand coil, but you’ll make up this time and more by not having to detangle the rope at the base of the climb.  Tech Tips: Gear - Happy Feet
By Kate Nelson - Shoe and foot care for climbers - It's this simple: sore feet and neglected shoes lead to poor performance. Climbing your best means paying attention to footwork before the rubber touches rock. Revive your footwork in three steps: get the right rock shoes, treat those shoes like your firstborn, and give your feet some TLC along the way. See? Your edging is looking better already.  Tech Tips: Sport Climbing - Flight School
By Arno Ilgner - Practice falling for more consistent sending - Just because you don’t actually feel afraid to fall does not mean you are completely comfortable falling. It’s the uncertainty that gets us. We know we might fall, so at committing cruxes we hesitate, second-guess, slap lamely for a hold, or simply let go. What we need is more practice with the whole falling process, so we can commit 100 percent to hard climbing. It’s important to dial down the stress of falling a little at a time.  Tech Tips: Technique - The Heel-Toe Cam
By Chris Van Leuven - Extend reach and stave off the pump - You've dogged your last project for the last three weeks. You’ve got the moves, but each time you get into the steep finale, the pump forces you to succumb, and you whip. One member of the peanut gallery below has stated that your Tourette’s cursing is “harshing his mellow,” and your long-suffering belay slave is threatening to bail. Now what?  Tech Tips: Be Prepared - The What-if Plan
By Kate Nelson - Eight bases to cover before the big climb - I knew what I was signing up for when I married a climber. So when I crawled between the cold sheets on a September night alone – again – I wasn’t particularly concerned that my husband wasn’t home yet from the Diamond’s Full House. I had learned that “I’ll be home around eight” translates to “I’ll be home, uhhh… sometime after dark.” And quittin’ time isn’t hard and fast when you’re on a remote big wall.  Tech Tips: Climbing Photography - Light, Camera, Action
By Jeff Achey - Photo Basics for the don't-wannabe - As a Climbing reader, you trust us to bring you the best in climbing eye candy. You know as well as we do that nothing kills the buzz quicker than a climbing photograph that’s drab, cluttered, boring, predictable, or obviously posed. You’re not a pro climbing photographer, and probably don’t want to be, and you’d rather spend your cash on cams or gas than on expensive camera gear.  Tech Tips: Photo Motive - Buttshotphobia
By Andrew Burr - Tips for Beautiful Butt Shots - Sure, we've all had a good laugh when a friend proudly shows us the classic, horrid photo of his buddy’s derrière hanging above you. While the “butt shot” is not always the first-choice angle for climbing photography, sometimes we just don’t have a choice. Here are a few simple tricks to keep the demeaning laughter to a minimum.  Tech Tips: Photo Sharing - Photo Nation
By Julie Ellison and Randall Levensaler - Tips for Online Photo Sharing - The best thing about digital photography today is how easy it is for anyone to take good photographs. Another great aspect is the virtually limitless number of images you can take. The downside to this digital revolution is that most photographs rarely make it out of the memory card. After all, what good is a picture if you can’t share it and show it off? |
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