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.

I used to be big in to rock climbing in my younger days. It's an awesome sport but it can be quite stressful. My one piece of advice is, if you want to go beyond bouldering and gym climbing, find a very experienced and trustworthy mentor. There are great books about how build solid anchors and place gear but there is nothing like good teacher.

As far as places to go, for easier (5.10 and below) multi-pitch trad climbs try Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas. Spring and Fall are the best times obviously. The rock is beautiful and there are many routes where you can get in to some hair ball situations w/o being in over your head. For sport climbing I always liked the Owens River Gorge near Bishop, CA. The rock is super solid and the routes are steep but not extreme overhang type stuff. Joshua tree is cool but the rock will shred your fingers and many of the routes are, imo, very intimidating.

I've climbed since 1997 until 2006 or so. only a few times since then.

the thing about equipment, it evolves, wears, so you need to know a bit about the whole setup to be comfortable with it. take such basic things as a harness and shoes. there's no right or wrong way to fit yourself for them, except to climb with them and see if they are comfortable. shoes too tight and you'll be dying every time you put them on. too loose and you will struggle on climbs you should dominate.

as far as other equipment, i started with a top-rope setup first. The first thing you buy is an ATC belay device (a grigri is good, but marginally less safe and less versatile). Then I bought some carabiners (6 non-locking ovals, 4 locking), a 65m rope, and some webbing. 1" tubular webbing is good enough for top-roping, but not as strong as Spectra slings and runners, so make sure you know where you are climbing. rough edges on the rock can wear it down quite a bit and it will become unsafe. i also have a 20m static rope that i can use to anchor to just about anything. That lasted me for years. I also eventually bought 16 quickdraws of a couple of different sizes. These are necessary for lead climbing which you will eventually have to learn how to do. the last thing i bought was a rope bag. i accumulated these over 3-4 years towards the end of my climbing career. it is not necessary to get them all at once. in the meantime, i went from a complete newbie to climbing 5.11c and 11d on a fairly regular basis. i never had or used any trad gear. everywhere i went always had enough TR or sport climbs that i never needed it (this includes yosemite, castle rock area, the gunks, some places in shenandoah).

i hate to sound preachy, but please do not ignore the following paragraph.

once you get a piece of equipment, allow yourself plenty of time to practice with it. it is often NOT intuitive what is SAFE! if you are planning on doing a top-rope with a rappel, practice at home. anchor to a chair, or your deck or something. practice the knots, practice communication with your partner, practice for any problems that arise. have your partner setup incorrectly and you try to identify what is wrong.

good luck. i am jealous because i no longer have the time to do it.

not to nit up your nice post, but a grigri is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay safer than an ATC for belaying top rope. If my belayer is some relative noob I dont mind letting them belay me on a grigri, theres no way in hell id let that same person belay me with an ATC.

you are probably right to the extent of the belayer's performance. there are ways of screwing it up on both devices, and the grigri protects against certain things.

but it is worth mentioning that sometimes the grigris malfunction because of poor mechanics even if used properly, while the atc never malfunctions when used properly.

btw, i'd feel comfortable climbing and belaying on either device, but i myself chose to purchase/own two atcs.

We used ATC's at the gym I used, and I never had any problem with them. I went on a cruise and they had grigri's. They paired us up, most everyone doing it was a total novice, but there was someone in charge. I had a fairly challenging climb, and used all the strength I had to get to the top. As I approach the very top of the wall, I hear my belayer say "wait, I don't remember what to do.". I had no idea they had grigris and was used to ATCs, and thought surely I was going to die. I tried to hang on as long as I could as the instructor came over and helped him out, then finally let go once the instructor was there. Damn that was scary.

Another time I took a girlfriend climbing at the gym with the ATCs. I tried to teach her myself how to do it and skipped the belaying class because I was cheap and didn't want to pay the $5 and belaying is easy. I climb a fairly challenging wall there and she starts to let me down. As I'm decending at a faster pace them normal, all of a sudden she drops the rope and I fall to the ground at full speed. Fortunately I was only about 10 feet up when she let go, the ground had gravel under carpet so it was somewhat padded, but I didn't expect it and landed flat on my ass and hit my tailbone and it hurt like hell for a week. She let go because "she was scared her finger was going to get sucked into it and cut off". Needless to say, she wasn't a keeper.

Some indoor halls in my town dont allow grigri because of this. Btw if the grigri fails, cant you still just hold the rope to avoid climber falling? I would guess rope going through the grigri would make it like a bad ATC?

Found a very good climbing dvd few weeks ago "Improve your climbing with Neil Gresham" for those wanting some climbing technique pointers.

thats pretty stupid imo, grigri dont really fail like that and watching the way new delayers belay, id be terrified as a gym owner if they were using ATCs because people will 100% end up getting dropped. Most gyms ive been to they all use grigris for this exact reason. The only gyms ive been to with ATCs are like lilttle gyms that are basically climber gyms. The knock climbing snobs have against the grigri is that it makes people bad belayers, since they dont have to pay as much attention and do as good a job, which is completely true, but if I ran a gym I wouldnt care if people werent good belayers out in the real world, id just want them to all be safe so I dont get sued.

now for leading grigris are terrible because of the way you have to do it and are way less safe than an ATC, but for top rope grigri is the way to go for beginners imo

Isn't that why you have waivers for everyone in the gym and mandatory belaying classes? Seems like it covers your ass quite a bit.

actually waivers in general are pretty worthless, or at least according to the lawyer I dated for several years.

anyway Ive tarded this thread up enough with grigri talk, I cant find any of my hueco pics of vids so ill just post a couple of pics I found on my HD


western view from the top of one of the multi pitches in Cochise Stronghold


couple pics of Joshua Tree




and my hands after 3 days on in J tree

Not sure how its over in the states but we (norway) all have to pass a safety test before belaying on our own (gonna assume belaying means holding the rope). I have never heard anyone being dropped by a bad belayer, im sure it has happened.

To get the certification you have to pass both lead climb and top rope belaying (and you have lead climb once yourself).

Ill share a pic as well, will try find some better ones later (loc:Bergen/sotra):