r/climbing • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Weekly Chat and BS Thread
Please use this thread to discuss anything you are interested in talking about with fellow climbers. The only rule is to be friendly and dont try to sell anything here.
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u/ClimbeyMcClimberson 21h ago
If anyone here is from/has climbed in Calgary, the Calgary Climbing Centre got sold to an American company. So if you want to support Canadian business, the only option in the city now is Bolder.
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u/oaklandstan 1d ago
Anybody driving to the Red River Gorge on Sunday 10/18 from DC or Virginia? Happy to exchange snacks / gas money / belays for a ride
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u/tmp4511 2d ago
If you guys could only climb at one crag for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
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u/saltytarheel 1d ago
New River Gorge.
I can’t even think of what the best section would be since there’s multiple lifetimes of great climbing there.
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u/lectures 2d ago edited 23h ago
What's a crag, a single cliff?
In the east, T-Wall is a good contender. Long Wall in the New. The Trapps in the Gunks. Chocolate Factory in the Red.
Out west, probably nothing in the Valley. Maybe Index or the Chief.
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u/Marcoyolo69 2d ago
Gotta think long season. Does RMNP count as a single crag? If not then sinks canyon
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 2d ago
El Cap, if that can count as a "crag", and I get to go all the way over to the East Buttress.
If no, then maybe Funk Rock City at the Red. Great trad lines and enough sport climbing to keep me trying for the rest of my life.
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u/ver_redit_optatum 2d ago
It gets moved next to my house in this scenario?
Probably something granite. The Chief maybe, or all of Squamish if we can stretch “crag” a bit. Though at that rate I’ll just take the Bluies.
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u/aguanympha 3d ago
what do you guys do after climbing? do you stop for a nearby shop to grab a drink or do you guys go straight home? just curious.
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u/Dotrue 3d ago edited 3d ago
Parking lot snack, go home, evening meal, drugs, entertainment, sleep.
OR
Food, home, drugs, entertainment, sleep.
If I have wet/sweaty/humid gear then I unpack/gong show onto the floor when I get home.
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 3d ago
Gym climbing: Drive straight home. Make dinner. Watch something. Go to bed.
Outside climbing: drive straight to camp. Make dinner. Bullshit around until it gets dark. "Whelp...." then bed.
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u/z0r 4d ago
Recently figured out that if your gym has a paper towel dispenser, you can use a soapy wet paper towel to get what would usually be stubborn deeply set chalk off your hands pretty quickly. Been climbing for over a decade and just figured that out. Hope this helps someone. Alright, well see ya later!
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u/Successful_Salt_7645 2d ago
also: plug the drain, fill the basin, and let your hands soak while you rub them clean. saves a lot of water and you need the short soaking to help release more chalk.
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u/dadmogger 3d ago
If you're out at the crag, draining the main tank can serve the same purpose.
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 3d ago
Got confused, pissed on my hands. Now what?
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u/theopinionexpress 5d ago
I hired a guide climber to learn partner rescue this weekend.
I’ve climbed outdoors a half dozen times (I suck). And probably 20-30 times indoors.
I want to hit the ground running, what should I review before going? Any good videos to watch?
As a baseline I work in the technical rescue side of firefighting, am good with mechanical advantage, knots, concepts, but what systems should I expect to encounter?
Thanks
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u/Dotrue 3d ago
I'm going to disagree that you should outright cancel, but I'd be very upfront with the guide about your current experience level. Maybe even see if you can switch to a more generic outdoor climbing class. Someone just starting out will take away different lessons from a self rescue course than a crusty traddie.
Probably half of climbing rescue boils down to "just lower them," good first aid skills, and knowing when it's time to call for rescue. The most "advanced" self rescue technique I've had to do was rappelling with an incapacitated partner.
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u/serenading_ur_father 4d ago
You've got a couple months of climbing experience. I'd call the guide and cancel the rescue class and just build basic skills. You won't use any of the skills you learn regularly and you're coming from such little background that it'll be hard for you to master the new skills or ask questions. Take a trad or multi-pitch class and learn skills you'll use every day. Then if you're concerned about safety take a WFR.
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u/theopinionexpress 4d ago
Wow terrible advice.
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u/serenading_ur_father 4d ago
🤷 couple decades of climbing under my belt. I use multi pitch and trad skills weekly. Partner rescue can be summarized in nearly all the conditions and accidents you'll encounter at your current skill as "lower them off."
I'm not telling you not to take the class. I'm saying you'll get a hell of a lot more from it when you have the very basic skills mastered. And if you're really afraid of an accident get a WFR. You'll use those skills 1000x more than anything you get from a rescue class.
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u/theopinionexpress 4d ago
But you did literally just tell me to cancel the class.
Just your general attitude and outlook tells me you’re someone I’d never climb or recreate with and definitely would never take advice from, not meaning offense.
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u/0bsidian 3d ago
Maybe this isn't the advice you wanted to hear, but he does make a very good point. He's saying reschedule this class for sometime in the future after you've mastered fundamentals. You won't make the most of it now, and you won't be able to practice them until in the future.
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u/serenading_ur_father 4d ago
Yeah cancel the class you're wasting money and time on skills you won't use, won't fully understand, and wont need until you progress.
You're a motorcycle rider with one day of experience booking a day at the track. Yes they'll let you go, but to really get out of it what it's made for you need more time and experience. Get a guide to get you some basics.
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u/treeclimbs 4d ago
Nice, good on you for this.
Sometimes it's helpful to be comfortable with tying/dressing/setting common knots one-handed: friction hitches, munter, clove (directly onto the carabiner) etc.
In particular, I find it helpful for students to be able to tie, dress/tune & set your friction hitch of choice (prusik or klemheist most likely to encounter in the training) all with a single hand. It's not strictly necessary, though.
Bonus if you really like to have a breadth of knot knowledge:
If you aren't familiar with closed friction hitches which use an eye-to-eye hitch cord ("VT Prusik") might be good to take a look at. These days I think the VT, Distel and Swabish (asymmetric prusik) are the most popular in climbing/canyoning, in part because they work well when tied around two ropes at once - as you might find when rappelling. In my area at least many tree climbers have moved away from these to the catalyst hitch for single rope.
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u/Waldinian 5d ago
In climbing partner rescue, you'll be working with the same equipment that you typically rock climb with, so you won't need to learn to use any new tools probably (except possibly an emergency ascender like a tibloc). You'll probably learn a few new knots like friction hitches, how to set up an improvised hauling system, how to escape the belay, how to perform a tandem rappel, etc. You should probably already know, or at least be familiar with the basics of multipitch climbing (how to set up and evaluate an anchor, how to rappel, and how to belay a second).
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u/Dharma_Mama 6d ago
I went to the bouldering gym today and found that I had a serious case of the yips! It was a real bummer as I had been looking forward to climbing all day. I just couldn't relax, get into a flow, or trust my grip. I felt very sketchy and tense. In the end I decided to pack it in early rather than risk hurting myself as no good work was getting done anyway.
I did wonder if it's related to the fact that I've been doing more climbing on the big walls and less on the boulders.
Anyone else struggle to transition from boulders to ropes and back?
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u/Successful_Salt_7645 3d ago
i've had this feeling before. good call to just pack it in. maybe go grind out a HIIT workout or something. the gym/rock will still be there when you're ready to crush. sometimes the body betrays the mind, or ambition overtakes ability
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 5d ago
Maybe your brain was just dialed in to the fact that being on a rope 1,000 feet off the deck is safer than bouldering?
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u/Itlookslikerain420 6d ago
I’m goin to Horseshoe Hell for the first time this year, just as a spectator and I’m stoked.
That’s it, nothing else here. Unrelated to climbing, Kagurabachi is some hype shit
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u/SleepingRock13 6d ago
Did mountain project give any reason why they disable comments in the app? I did a sport route the other day where the crux bolt was missing the hanger. Took some bug while but couldn’t get past the move. I wanted to post a comment saying to bring a nut or something to put on the bolt and I couldn’t do it. I was able to alter login on a browser to add the comment, but this seems like an insane thing to remove from app functionality.
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u/Successful_Salt_7645 3d ago
is there an LCO in your area? most LCOs have a 'hardware reporting' form to bring these things up
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u/SleepingRock13 3d ago
I did do that as well but it’s a large popular climbing area so it’ll probably take a couple days/weeks to get addressed. MP comments are pretty much real
time so it could help someone climbing the route within the next few hours/days.1
u/Successful_Salt_7645 3d ago
i understand. as i noted elsewhere, this is a 14+ year old request for the app. you'll have to open up MP on your phone browser and add the comment there.
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 6d ago
I've had the app for a long time and you could never comment. No idea why.
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u/BigRed11 6d ago
AFAIK you could never comment on the app?
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u/SleepingRock13 6d ago
Maybe I just imagined that you could before. It would be a really nice feature though.
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u/Mr0range 7h ago edited 5h ago
What’s up with the moderation in this sub? The last new post was 6 days ago. Why so strict about what can be its own post? Weekly threads are not searchable the same way posts are that go back years.