Rock Climbing.........?

[Adam K]

Who has done this or is about it? I recently watched a couple documentaries on rock climbing and it looks ill as fuck. So many different styles of climbing. Different terrains to see and accomplish. Looks like an awesome sport to get you outside an exercise and play on some mountains. I think on tomorrow I might go to a rock gym here in town to see what is up. Anyone do this shit?

Here on those documentaries if anyone cares:

Beyond Gravity: it talks about the different schools of climbing and is very interesting.


http://www.hulu.com/watch/129837/beyond-gravity

Messner: about a guy who climbed Everest and many other places without oxygen. His philosophies on climbing and life are interesting and dope. He is considered the greatest climber ever.


http://www.hulu.com/watch/126230/messner

[Krish]

I did a few times when I was younger/smaller
I attempted to do it again recently, it was not as easy as it was before.. but still fun
requires a good amount of practice and stamina, even if you know how.. if you're arms give out there's nothing you can do

[Adam K]

^ true. I have seen him before on tv. At the end of the first doc they talk about free soloing and they guy that are with just devours a mountain like Osman it is unreal. You should watch those documentaries they are sick for many of reasons.

[Adam K]

I did a few times when I was younger/smaller
I attempted to do it again recently, it was not as easy as it was before.. but still fun
requires a good amount of practice and stamina, even if you know how.. if you're arms give out there's nothing you can do

True. I hate it when I am arms and give out.

[Krish]

True. I hate it when I am arms and give out.

eh I was tired, more used to adding the punctuation than not
y'all know what I meant

[Adam K]

^ ahha I was just fucking around. Were you talking about climbing in a gym or outdoors?

[avichai_from_israel]

My younger brother is a beast at rock climbing, he is 18 and he just got back from worlds in Scotland!

[ift]

Climbing is tight. There are parallels to skating in that you're using your mind and body together to achieve goals, you become involved with a new subculture (but in this one there are hot girls), it changes the way you look at things, climbing videos are made with the skate video format, and climbing gyms feel a lot like a skatepark. I've only been to the Tally gym once, but I really liked it. Give it a shot, Adam.

* good stretch - extend your arm out and rotate your palm facing up. Grab your fingertips with your other hand and pull them down/towards your body. This stretches your finger/hand flexors, and you can also use this stretch to open up your shoulder while you hold the forearm stretch.

[Matthew Shannon]

I used to do indoor rock climbing. not really the same as actual rock climbing but it was soo fun. great work out to, really need a strong core to do well.

[CovertOps]

I am more of a climber now than a skater... I need something less impact and safer... as I have kids. Its two totally different beasts... Currently, we are filming a project that I started last year, and I have spent 25 days working on the same 65 ft. of rock.

I am a trad climber mostly, but I do all styles. I used to solo a lot, but once I had children, it seemed juvenile and selfish... (for me)

Look up:

Chris Sharma (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlcQ3mxlNfs)
Micheal Reardon (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dojDFsoZ0ms)
First Ascent (Sender Films) ( avi torrent: http://1337x.org/torrent/88746/0/)
Big Up (http://www.bigupproductions.com/)

[jonPOOLER]

i like to go climbing like i like to go skating these days.

[RollerBatioNation]

rock climbing is the shit! I advise you to get hella swoll so you gotz that upper body strength.

[cool guy]

what kind of gear do you need to get started?

[shaneschommer]

any one see this dude?

[CovertOps]

To get started, you need a pair of shoes (60 bucks for a cheap pair, 150-200 for high end pairs). Then you can boulder, which is low height climbing. For higher bouldering, you'll want a crash pad (100-200 bucks) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouldering

Then, for 300 (400-750 for a nice set up) bucks you can get a harness, ATC (belay device) Locking carabiner, two anchor draws, and 10 quick draws and a rope. With this you can sport climb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_climbing

Then, you start spending money on your trad rack. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_climbing

This costs a LOT of money, but gets done over a period of years. You'll start with a few pieces of passive protection. (40-60 bucks for 6- and slowly start adding camming devices (60-90 bucks a piece), ascenders, daisy chains, blah blah blah. Right now, my rack is very similar to this one... without the ice axes and ice boots.


You'll probably spend roughly 4k on your trad rack.

Then you get into AID climbing, or Mixed... Or Ice... and either of those will tack on a thousand. Oh, and during this time, you'll be having to replace worn gear, worn shoes, worn ropes...

to sum it up. its cheap to get started, but, the more into it you get, the more expensive it gets.... fast.

[CovertOps]

Taken from rockclimbing.com

So, you've seen the videos: Tom Cruise pulling off crazy unroped stuff on massive cathedrals of rock in MI2. Stallone showing off his bulk dangling on some razor-thin chunks of rock... You're stoked and want to give it a try... But...

Why the hell would you want to pick up climbing anyway? If it's to impress the chicks with those buffy pecs you'll be disapointed. There's lots of easier ways to work on those instead of groveling through gruesome bloody crack climbs. You'll occasionally rip up your hands and generally scab various body parts. Occasionally you'll scare the wits out of you. So why do people climb anyway? Not for the hardman image of pure force portrayed in the media.

Climbing is not all about strength anyway. Many a strong man has been humbled by the feminine graciousness and apparent ease of a woman moving over rock. Climbing is all about balance, knowing your body and being able to reposition it in space. It's about creativity, learning to adapt to what the rock has to offer. It's a whole-body exercise and though your upper body gets a fair share of grunt work, your legs and feet are your most important instrument for upward motion. It's about concentration and overcoming your fears for the void.

You don't need to be young or extremely fit to pick up climbing. Many people start later on in their life, and there are excellent climbers of all ages. I personally know some climbers well over fifty that still can compete with the young sharks.

For me personally it's all about discovering the natural world around and within you. Climbing will bring you to lots of lovely places and will definitely give you a unique perspective on the world below you. You'll learn a couple of things about yourself and the people you climb with.

Climbing is both an individualistic and social sport: when you're on the rock you can only count on your skills to get to the top. If you do fall however, you'll have to trust your climbing partner with your life. Beyond question. No mistakes allowed. This often makes for very strong bonds and relationships.

Learning to climb is very much like learning to ride a bike or ski down a snowy slope. You'll never forget the basic moves, but will need years of practise to perfect them.

Climbing styles come in many flavors. The basic games include: bouldering, indoor climbing, free rock climbing, trad rock climbing, solo climbing aid climbing, ice climbing and alpine climbing.

We'll handle bouldering next week, indoor climbing and toproping in week 3, basic free rock climbing in week 4 and advanced techniques such as trad, aid and alpine climbing in week 5.

This series of articles will pinpoint a couple of fundamental principles but was never meant to replace proper instruction. I simply hope to give you a taste of the sport and some guidelines to get you started. Make sure you learn from more experienced climbers or in a climbing school. Trust me, you'll love it.

Bouldering addicts climb short jumbles of rock, often only a couple of feet high. The key here is linking the moves: because of their short height bouldering problems tend to be fairly intense and technical. It's hundreds of feet of difficulty compressed into 5-10 moves. Unless you're climbing so-called highball problems you'll climb unroped and close enought to the ground to be safe to jump off from. During the nineties there's been a renewal of interest for this game. Thousands of bouldering areas have cropped up worldwide.

During the late eighties and early nineties climbing on plastic, aka indoor climbing became of fashion. Most competitions are on plastic nowadays. Indoor gyms are excellent places to learn rope handling techniques and to work on the basic moves. However, most of the diehard climbers agree that there's nothing like natural rock.

Free Climbing is the art of climbing a rock without using your equipment for upward motion. You can only use your arms, hands and other essential body parts to climb. The gear is used for protection only. This is where ethics come into play. A climb is said to be onsighted when a climber leads the climb for the first time without having watched other climbers do it and reaching the end without falling or pulling on gear. If you don't meet these criteria, you have to start over from the ground up to complete the climb.

In Trad Climbing, climbers use their own gear for protection whereas in free (aka sport) climbing pre-drilled bolts are clipped with carabiners. Trad climbers use friends, chocks, stoppers and other passive and active gear instead. These are devices of different shapes you can stick in cracks or holes for protection without damaging the rock. This is called clean climbing and is the only acceptable way of climbing in some areas. Due to the technicity of this kind of climbing it is mostly reserved for advanced climbers.

When Aid Climbing the above rules no longer apply. Because of the sheer difficulty of the rock pulling on gear is often the only way to get up. This kind of climbing involves staying on the rock for several days (Climbs called Big Walls.) and handling massive amounts of gear. It requires an extreme level of technical expertise and a certain sense for logistics. You'll have to haul your supplies up the cliff in special haul bags and sleep on the rock in hammocks or portaledges. For adventurous souls only.

Solo Climbing is certainly the most dangerous game and reserved for the truly skilled only. Since you're climbing without any kind of protection, falling is simply not an option. Most climbers do not climb unroped to satisfy their ego. Or at least, those who do don't last long. Solo climbing is all about knowing your own limits and trusting your good judgement. Only a select few choose to climb unprotected and if they do it's a very conscious choice. Do not try this at home...

Ice Climbers use ice axes to move up frozen waterfalls. Lately mixed climbing and drytooling has gained popularity. This involves climbing mixed faces of rock and ice requiring both excellent traditional rock climbing and technical ice climbing skills.

Finally there's Mountain Climbing and the alpine climbing games. This is where important natural elements come into play. Mountain climbing involves living on ice covered slopes for several days at the mercy of the weather, avalanches and more. A fundamental knowledge of the alpine environment and very advanced technical skills are required. As much adventure as sport, climbers face the inherent dangers because of the beauty of the places they climb in and the pure physical and emotional challenge in these climbs.

For all of these advanced types of climbing proper instruction is fundamental. Go find a local climbing club or school and learn from them. Good instruction will probably save your life some day. I hope I raised your appetite with this short introduction. Next week I'll get you started on your very first climbs.

[cool guy]

tight. so i should start with bouldering? is it a good idea to go to an indoor place and rent their gear?

[ift]

Bouldering and Deep Water Soloing ftw

[CovertOps]

Its totally worth it to go and rent the gear. Here is my gym, and it is normal pricing for a gym: http://www.thecircuitgym.com/

[jonPOOLER]

I hear Oregon climbing is dooope. I'm movin out to Central/Northern Cali soon, we should meetup somewhere covertops, i remember yous aid you had a ton of pro, and i have a mere 5 pieces haha, perfect right?