Skills

Use this expert advice to never lose touch with your partner on a long route.

Climbers must build strength, encourage flexibility, and practice proper movement patterns—throughout the body—to prevent injury.

When we talk about our training, we usually default to talking about how much we do. We talk about hours spent under the hangboard, or how we climbed late into the evening at the crag. Yet the thing we tend to miss, and that is a bigger key to progress, is quality: What, precisely, did we do with those hours and how focused were we?

Some love a nice cold beer after a long day's crimping. Others worry it will limit their strength gains. Who's right?

Instead of spending your climbs untangling a rope, learn a few simple methods that will help you spend more time sending.

Most of us train using unscientific and unproven methods. Here's what the experts say you should and shouldn't be doing.

Kathryn Perkinson, a 5.10 climber, set herself a goal: climb her first 5.12 in just seven months. And she achieved it. Here's how.

“At a certain point, your muscles can only produce the strength they use when you’re doing a weighted hang when in the presence of that extra weight.”

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.

Trigger Warning, dear reader: the following is a humor piece on everyone's favorite topic—chipping. 

How moving sideways has pushed me up.

Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of climbing physiology and then discuss training takeaways. This is Part I of a science-based series on how to train smarter to climb better.

A classic case of miscommunication could have spelled disaster.

Even if caves and steep routes aren't your thing, one can never have enough core strength.

Don't know how far it is to the next rappel anchor, and/or your rope is too short to make it?

Check out Bennett Slavsky's author page.

How you hold the rope is just one aspect of the belay—no more or less important than vigilance, rope management, how and where you stand, and communication.

Honnold is famous for (among other things) cramming as much climbing as he can into each day. To do so, he's developed some efficiency tricks that the rest of us can imitate.

Check out Delaney Miller's author page.

Climb long enough and you’ll have a close encounter ... or several. Of the myriad ways to kill yourself climbing, rappelling is the quickest, but also the easiest to safeguard.

Learn to simul-climb and short-fix for faster ascents

Matt Samet describes his experience in using the MoonBoard to train for his multi-year project in Colorado.

The projecting process is hard enough. Here are five mistakes I’ve personally made on more than one occasion. Do as I say and not as I do. 

Branched-chain amino acids are popular in weight rooms, but are they for climbers?

Even the most dedicated of rock climbers can lose their outdoor-stoke mid winter. Learning to ice climb is a great way to climb outside, but making the jump to the sharp end is a big decision. Here’s how to know if you're ready.

Build long-term finger strength with structured hangboarding

Climbing is hard and so is training. Here's how to exert minimal effort and still succeed.

Many climbers struggle to know what to do during downtime, especially on vacations when they’re away from their usual training facilities. Here's how to keep the ball rolling.

“Should I tie in through my hard points or through my belay loop?” she said. “Tie in through your belay loop,” a boy climber responded with conviction.

Good footwork is a skill that must be carefully cultivated. While it’s not always the most fun or flashy technique to develop, it is arguably the most helpful to upping your climbing game.

Studies point to stress itself as the culprit for accelerated fatigue; not how hard you grip.

Because good friction and warm weather have very little in common.

Too much of a good thing won’t do your climbing any favors. Slow down this winter so you can speed back up in the spring. 

With the right type of supportive weight-lifting routine climbers can work to avoid injury and in many cases climb harder, too.

Basic self-rescue knowledge should be a priority of any aspiring multi-pitch climber. Knowing and practicing these skills beforehand will save you lots of headache on the wall. Being self-reliant is the responsibility of each person—you are responsible for your own safety!

"Her son was still on the wall, suspended about 20 feet up. The only thing holding him up was a Grigri chained to the floor."

A proper warmup will help you make the most of your climbing session and prevent long- and short-term injuries. Here's how to get started.

To climb longer and stronger, it’s important to understand our hand anatomy and how pulley injuries happen, as well as how to prevent and treat them, and to restrengthen an injured digit.

Moonboards are great and all, but training for hard, weird, outdoor moves sometimes requires something a little different.

As our chest becomes tighter, the shoulders and back become more rounded, and a forward head posture can develop. While not inherently harmful, these traits can put climbers at higher risk of shoulder or neck injuries.

5.12 climbers generally share certain strengths and skills that aspirants to the grade often need to consciously train.

Climbing training is hard and boring, and often requires expensive, specialized equipment. Here's how to get more swole for less work and even less money.

Double down on your efforts to lower inflammation in the body with these powerful anti-inflammatory supplements

Feeling drained? Your lifestyle could have something to do with it.

For such a common ailment, the misinformation and paucity of research available is staggering.

We’ve all seen videos of pros hanging one-handed from tiny holds. But when is this something the rest of us can train? And what does the progression look like? 

Studies indicate Vitamin D impacts recovery, mood, immunity, and more. And chances are, if you're like over half of Americans, you're deficient.

Climbing is dangerous even when you know what you are doing. It's outright deadly when you think you know what you're doing but don't have a clue.

The climber having the most fun is the one still cranking at sunset. Here's how to keep your energy levels high.

Coaches are easy to find these days. Good coaches are harder to find.

Sport climbing trip coming up? Dreams of long trad routes? Here are 9 tips to help you achieve your rope-stretching, enduro-climbing goals.

These three hangboarding exercises work strength, endurance, and injury prevention, and can be adapted for climbers of all levels.

It seems simple in theory—throw your heel around a hold or feature to use those powerful leg muscles to pull you into the wall—but it’s much more nuanced in practice. Here's how to perfect it.

Training takes time, effort and dedication—it might not be worth it.

We’ve gathered experience-driven tips and tricks to create a foolproof recipe for success on pumpy layback pitches.

You can train long or you can train hard, but not both—which is probably why so many of us train power so incorrectly.

The author, a V3/V4 climber, tries to break out of a multi-year plateau by signing up for a training program.

“I think we’ve forgotten that in order to be good at climbing, you have to climb.”—Jonathan Siegrist, who is a nicer guy than you or me and climbs harder, too.

If I'd hopped off the ledge or tried to weight the sling, I would've fallen a few hundred feet to the ground. I felt sick to my stomach for a couple weeks after that one.

I asked the old man for advice, and he came through with five tried and true panaceas.

Here's what you need to know to get stronger without getting injured.

Climbers, particularly climbers who boulder, are at increased risk of knee injury. Here's how to come back from such an injury.

This new climber didn't know how to belay or even lower from a fixed anchor, bungling both in unimaginably awful ways.

"Female climbers are often less confident than their male counterparts, but it’s nurture, not nature. And that’s something we can beat."

Casual cragging is anything but—the law of gravity still applies. Use this four-part checklist to beat complacency and prevent accidents.

Eating the right foods, staying hydrated and active can keep you out of the sick bed and climbing all season long.

Aid climbing is the one sure-fire way to accelerate the trad climbing learning curve

CRACK! The jolt back onto the bolt, into which you are still quickdraw-tethered, stuns you. You only fell two feet, but your neck is stiff and your innards feel like they’ve been kicked by a mule.

The key is to increase your training volume but decrease the difficulty. Here's how to do just that.

In recent years, there has been an uptick in indoor-bouldering injuries among newer climbers. Use these tips to help you boulder safely without getting injured.

Although the correct process to cut a rope is very simple, there are two things to keep in mind when you’re done.

Endurance can’t be built quickly, yet at some point most of us find ourselves in a jam, with a trip booked and only a few weeks to prepare. What are the best, quick strategies for making the grade?

This climber was experienced, too. Just shows that you can't be too careful when you climb.

Heidi Wirtz describes how to use stretches to warm up for and recover from a climbing session.

Gyms are great and all. But you can get just as strong by consciously training during your outdoor sessions.

Front levers are just plain hard. And mysterious, because they are complex movements that involve so much more than just having six-pack abs.

Violating the rule "never take your brake hand off the rope," is bad enough, but this belayer took it to a whole new level of danger.

After a near-death climbing experience, I was inspired to dig deeper into the psychology of fear and learn about its effect on performance, how it wells up in the first place, and what we can do to deal with it. What I found will take your climbing to the next level—and could save your life.

Not all climbing sessions are equal. Pick the wrong one and you'll waste time and not improve.

Hard climbing brings out the best in people. It also brings out the worst. If (when) things go south, here's how to turn it around.