Cheating?!?!?!

[charlie]

[Myke Dronez]

And remember kids....



Next time your send is thwarted by a tough move give it the finger!

[Lander]

meh, they are no more cheating than tape gloves, which offer their own advantages over the hand condoms.

But seriously, who really gives a damn? I sure don't. So long as the way someone climbs doesn't endanger me or mine or take away from my experience, they can cover their body in the stuff and use gear for footholds for all I care.

That's the difference between style and ethics in a nutshell. Sometimes people use the word ethics to describe all climbing behavior but it's not accurate. Here's the difference. The more you rely on gear to get up a piece of rock, as well as prior knowledge of it, the worse the style. The less you rely on those things, the better the style. Ethics only comes into it when your actions affect the experience of others on that particular climb, like say altering the rock. That's not to say that style doesn't matter but only in the context of your own self esteem or the admiration of others. Ethics matters more because it has to do with right and wrong. There's also etiquette. That has to do with the socially accepted norms of a community. For instance, around here, hogging a climb all day is bad etiquette, not bad ethics or bad style. At least that's how I see it. Anyway, using hand condoms seems kind of weak.

[512OW]

I was given a pair, and I was interested to try them. I thought they might make throwing for hand stacks a bearable technique.

Not so.

They're harder to climb in, so they're kind of the opposite of cheating.

[michaelarmand]

I have no jamming skills...so I would actually consider trying these. Then again maybe not, since climbs that require jams scare me...

[pru]

Lander, we agree.

As to tape gloves or these hand jammies (even the name is dumb), if you are jamming properly, in theory, you don't need either. I used to subscribe to this approach religiously until I lost a pile of skin peeling out of a roof jam and my wound bled for nearly 3 months. Bad technique hurts, pass the tape.

[512OW]

pru, you're not fooling anyone. We know you never climbed.

[ynot]

I was given a pair, and I was interested to try them. I thought they might make throwing for hand stacks a bearable technique.

Not so.

They're harder to climb in, so they're kind of the opposite of cheating.

I can see that. I tried stacked fists once or twice. it was so wobbly that I didn't trust it.

[pru]

pru, you're not fooling anyone. We know you never climbed.

I've been found out. I suppose you've seen my picture then?

[krampus]

at least they caught your good side pru