What climbers fear most isn’t heights, falls, or mangled toes—it’s finger injuries. And with good reason: While climbing is a full-body exercise, fingers make the most contact with the rock, thus taking more abuse than other limbs, especially from pockets.
The repetitive motions of rock climbing and training are hard on the body, especially when done for years on end. Our sport involves lots of pulling down and in toward the body, and the required muscles become well developed at the expense of other muscle groups. Add common daily activities, such as sitting hunched over a desk or driving, and the potential for problems gets even worse.
It’s a picture-perfect October day of climbing with a cool breeze and just enough sun filtering through the changing leaves to keep you warm while belaying. Perfect, that is, until your climbing partner takes a looping whipper that ends with a grunt, a snap, and a wail. You lower her to the deck and find her lower leg is obviously broken. Now what? The walk up the trail was easy, but a return trip is not happening on that leg. Here’s how you can create a litter out of just a climbing rope to evacuate an ailing partner.
Any time you have to utilize self-rescue techniques, you’ll more than likely have to deal with an injured rock climbing partner. The most useful first aid skill is assessment of injuries, a critical skill for all medical personnel as well as anyone who recreates outside, including climbers. These skills are pertinent, whether you’re at the local crag or on a remote ridge in the Himalayas. There are many effective methods to assess a climber who is injured, and below is one of these accepted techniques.
Any serious climber knows the intense stress of a sun-up to sun-down climb. To maintain flexibility, power, balance, and muscular endurance, you need good nutrition and hydration before and during your climb. Making smart food and drink choices can help you move quicker, tame those screaming muscles, and achieve better mental focus (read: less risk of injury). Here’s how to fuel the machine.
Deciphering what you can and can't do on the rock when you're pregnant is no easy task. Few scientific studies even mention rock climbing and pregnant women in the same analysis. We sought general advice from Long Huynh, an ob/gyn doctor and climber practicing in Boulder County, Colorado.
I've found that finger yoga helps keep my climber fingers from becoming painful claws after hard climbing. Of the many possible stretches and "poses," the ones described below are my after-climbing favorites.
My physical therapist, a triathlete, recently told me that climbing puts more intense stress on my body than any other sport does. "Your lats are overdeveloped, your shoulders pull forward, your neck is strained, your hamstrings are tight," she told me. "Just stop climbing." Of course, I won't stop climbing. So what to do? Yoga.
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.
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. 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.
These eight tips, garnered from rescue volunteers and experienced climbers, can add life-saving speed and clarity to a rescue effort. So before you throw your rack in the truck and set out for the walls, have a cozy chat with someone who likes you and write down all the details below so there can be no mistake.
You can train long or you can train hard, but not both - which is probably why so many of us train power so wrongly. (By “power,” we mean the product of strength and speed, i.e., the explosive force recruited any time you use momentum, or “go for it.”) Properly training power allows you to get stronger—to muckle through otherwise impossible cruxes.
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