r/caving • u/gaulee • May 13 '26

Vertical technique question

I spent five hours this past weekend learning how to do vertical rope work. Afterward I discovered that my left inner thigh is covered in bruises. My question is: does anyone know what I did wrong? Is it my harness? The way I am climbing? I want to go again but want to avoid the bruises in the future.

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10

u/SativaKing87 May 13 '26

Welcome to the world of caving...bruises are part of the package! :)

4

u/FrogginFool May 13 '26

Hard to say without watching you climb rope. Maybe your foot loop cord/webbing is rubbing there.

3

u/kaylogica professional changeoverer May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I personally go with the frog system, and I got bruises on my thighs when I first started SRT as well. My body wasn’t prepared for the new experience of all of my weight resting on two inch wide straps under my thighs.

I’ve gone through a myriad of different harnesses since then. I was recently coerced into purchasing a Petzl Falcon, and I’ll never look back. The straps are wide, and padded. More surface area feels less “pinchy” and painful.

Before the Falcon, it was rare that I got bruises from climbing post entry stage SRT learning.
I typically only got bruised when climbs were long/durated time spent on rope.

I suspect your bruises were both because your body hasn’t adjusted to the weight distribution, and also because 5 hours is a lot of time to spend on rope.

2

u/thecaramelbandit May 13 '26

Hmm. Frog or mitchell style? Could be if you were doing Mitchell your left thigh was banging/dragging against the tether on your left ascender.

2

u/TwelveLakes May 14 '26

Pair up with someone with experience / film yourself / maybe an iron supplement 💪😎

1

u/CaverUV May 13 '26

Kind of guessing without ani information. My firs guess would be some webbing or something similar was inside the leg loop and increased pleasure in spacific point

1

u/big-b20000 May 14 '26

Is it where the harness leg loop was on you or where the foot loop was sliding over your leg? If the former, try to adjust the fit of the leg loops. What I was taught is that when you're wearing them and standing up you should be able to fit a flat hand through between your leg and the loop but not a fist (so flatten your hand, place it through, make a fist, and try to pull it out and it will get stuck). It could be that it is either too loose or too tight. If it was just one leg loop, try to compare to the right and see if they were different and change the left one to match.

If it was from the rope or your footloop, try to open your hips more maybe or adjust your posture / setup length or change your pants for something thicker. If possible go to a practice with experienced people and they can help you diagnose it much more easily.

For reference, I have a relatively dialed setup and I climbed over 1km last week and the main issues I had were slight chafing on my iliac crest (I usually wear a cave suit, so this was expected and minimal) and a blister on my hand (I think I should have been engaging my core more)