Saw there were some other threads posted previously in other forums (with little activity), was hoping I could get some bites in OOT.

Anyone rock climb here? I recently got into this sport and love it. Fantastic exercise and loads of fun.

Post any strategy, tips, cool places you've rock climbed or bouldered, trip reports, etc.

Here are some pictures of me bouldering in Rock City, Kansas. It's a cool small park with a bunch of 12-16 foot rock boulders that are great for, well, bouldering.








Post any cool trips/etc you've gone on.

I was into rock climbing for a short time, but have since given it up. I think its an awesome sport though. Since you're into it and are a poker player, you should probably go to Thailand... great rock climbing (and everything else). I actually climbed for the first time in Thailand, pictured below. No tips or anything from me since I probably now top out at 6b+ or so!

Schmitty, Thanks for the pic and suggestion. It's funny that you mention it because I'm actually going over to Thailand this summer. What are good spots in Thailand to climb?

Krabi, around there are the world-class spots I believe...

http://www.railay.com/railay/climbing/gallery3.shtml

Most key tip is that it is all in your legs. No matter what you are climbing (even severe overhangs) using your legs for most of the upward force is key to being able to do long climbs.

Outside of this, I would def advise learning lead climbing as quickly as possible. Although top roping is safer, there are many great routes all over the world that you simply cannot climb without leading. Go to a good gym that has leading bolts in place, or to France (Fontainebleau has some great small lead routes and is a boulderers paradise), or try and find a parnter who is experienced so you can do the second lead a few times and see how it all works.

Being the first lead is quite unnerving at first, due to the rope haging between your legs, but is much more rewarding when you complete a big climb than anything you can ever feel top roping imo.

Oh, and youtube 'Dan Osman' and copy his technique and nothing else about his climbs - guy was one crazy sob

I've done a few 400 foot cliffs in Bon Echo, Ontario, its pretty fun and somewhat nerve wracking. I did it in a group of 4 ldo with ropes otherwise count me out.

I like watching other people rock climb.

I absolutely love rock climbing and have been doing it for several years now. I've been to Hueco Tanks (the mecca of bouldering), J-tree, Joes Valley, pretty much all over Utah, etc.

I prefer bouldering to sport or trad climbing, I think its just a lot easier to get into, the people are cooler, less dangerous, more communal.

As for advice, use your legs, keep your arms as straight as possible most of the time so that your skeletal system does the work and not your muscles, keep your butt over your feet, and make a point of getting in the habit of using good footwork, new climbers climb with the sloppiest feet in the world, and then never work on developing their footwork since they all just focus on getting their upperbody and fingerstrength, so lots of decent intermediate climbers still have ****ty footwork. You want to use "quiet" feet. Put your foot where it belongs right the first time then dont move it until you have to place it on the next spot.

I used to work at rock climbing gym when I was younger. I also used to be really damn good at it after working there for a bit because, well, I was 16 and my frame was ideal for it.

After leaving there I never did it again and I've never done outdoor climbing. Since it has been 8 years or so, I'm going to start taking a rock climbing class at the local gym here in Austin. I'm sure I won't be as good as I used to be because I can really only devote 1-2 days per week to it, instead of 40 hours a week like I used to.

Still, I imagine it be very fun. I don't really have a ton to add here but I look forward to reading more in this thread.

What's the best way for an absolute beginner to get into it? What is the minimum equipment that I should have?

Just look for an indoor gym in your area and grab a friend and go down and give it a shot. You wont need any equipment since you can rent it there. You can also check out a local college if there is one as usually lots of them will offer a rock climbing class. You can also see if theres a local mountaineering group, typically they offer safety and instruction courses geared to the absolute beginner. Definitely get some kind of instruction before you do any kind of rope climbing outsid and go with someone experienced as it is extremely dangerous if you dont know what you are doing, you literally are placing your life in someone elses hands, and hold their life in your hands, so its not a responsibility that should be taken lightly. You dont really need to worry about that in a gym tho (assuming its a decent one) as they are geared towards total beginners and its going to be pretty safe.

I was pretty serious about climbing for a while, but I've been once in the last year. I knew a lot of climbers and places to go in Austin, TX. Since moving to MN I've been completely removed from the culture.

I am very afraid of heights, so becoming comfortable lead climbing was a pretty big accomplishment for me. My fear never really kicked in if I was bouldering or top roping. I had a friend that I'd climb with who would really push me. This was crucial in improving my technique, strength and most importantly my mental state for when me fear of heights kicked in. I remember him making me lead a 5.10 over and over again that had this huge move with a big fall. That was the route where I really started to get comfortable leading.

Anyways it's an awesome sport, I'll throw in a few pics to add to the thread. I don't know who took this picture of me, but at first it looks pretty cool, until you realize the angle the camera was held at. It's a pretty straight forward 5.9


Here's another one I have from Seismic at the Green Belt in Austin, looks like maybe this is a little dyno:

Cool pics. I don't think I'm quite good enough to get my Lead Cert yet, at least in the top rope gym setting. I'll hopefully get more intune with it when I go to Thailand though.

For noobs, building the strength and endurance for your forearms is a fairly long process (for me, it's taken me about 3 months to acquire the strength to do a 5.9 or so). I think you definitely see improvement though, depending on how often you go.

I climbed a bunch back in high school with two friends. We were in West Texas so done Hueco Tanks and a bunch of sport stuff in NM. I have only led a couple easy routes, but have at least done it. I actually climbed with a friends Dad who was really good and had a brother who was world class. The brother, Jim Logan was on the cover of Life maganize in the 1970's climbing. The buddy's Dad had climbed "El Cap" trad with him, and I saw Jim's son blind redpoint a multipitch 5.13+ (can't remember exact difficulty).

Long story short, gained 45 lbs to play college football and had not climbed in 5 years, but was recently back in Southern Colorado and now back light again did some bouldering. Definitely going to be doing it anytime I am in CO at our families house.

+1 to this. It's a very easy sport for beginners to get into. Having a friend into it helps a lot too, otherwise you will be stuck bouldering. There was an indoor rock gym near my high school, and a bunch of us got monthly memberships that included equipment rentals and we got decent at it. It was a huge rush and the learning curve was great as there were some really easy walls and some damn tough ones, plus doing routes always lead to more challenges and improvements. When I first started, there was one wall that we called "the box", it was basically a box cut out of a wall, so you have 3 walls at 90 degrees to each other with about a 7 foot ceiling on the top of it, then you come out of the box and have to turn the corner to get to the top. I will have to MS-Paint it if my description isn't good enough. Every time we went to the gym, we kept trying that wall and never could do it. It was such an accomplishment to finally be able to scale that wall. I never got that good, and stopped once I went to college, but its very easy for a beginner to get involved. Even if you suck, there are generally going to be things you can do and be challenged by, and there will always be challenges you will struggle greatly with no matter how good you get.