RRC Archives

yep.
matt, leslie and i are going.

I think I am going to start climbing routes after aaron more
good luck with that cam

fucking cam rotated and got hooked behind something in the crack. first piece ive ever gotten stuck.
whatever, just a trango cam.
my new rack comes in tommorow.

Wes wrote:Thumbs up is best when you can get it, as you can lock it off low. Thumbs down is good for reaching way up. In a corner, one hand thumbs up, one thumbs down, works well. That is for hands. Fingers, thumbs down is usually easier to lock.

Wes

Everybody has pretty much covered it so it will be difficult to add anything worthwhile. And Wes here laid it out pretty good from the start. Comfort and how secure you can get the jam makes as much difference as anything else but...

A lot of times I will get a high jam thumbs down at first, move up on it and then switch it to thumbs up.

Which way the crack is leaning makes some difference as well. For instance, if the crack are leaning left then the left hand will be thumbs down and the right will be thumbs up more often than not.

If you are wondering about thumbs up or down, you may also find the following to be helpful...

You almost always want to rotate your hand one way or another inside the crack, and most often towards your thumb - pressing your thumb muscle against the wall of the crack - as you lock down. This will make the jam more secure and relieve pressure points on the bones in back of you hand. Moving your jam a few millimeters can make it infinately more comfortable, so be sublte. Most importantly, consciously try to move your thumb in front of your palm. Even if the crack is too narrow you still want to be making the effort. This is what holds the jam in place, not pressing your fingers against the wall in the cupping motion you so often see people mimicking when they talk about crack climbing. In a "textbook", secure, wide-ish hand jam, your fingers dont do any of the work and you should be able to freely wiggle them around inside the crack. Of course, in flaring, tight and other non-textbook situations, a combo of open-hand crimping inside the crack and jamming may be needed.

an easy rule of thumb is above yer head, thumbs up....below yer head, thumbs down....and then the exceptions take hold...lol..but what the hell am I talking about.? I am a sport climber....but I think I read that somewhere...just like the rule "if the back of yer hand touches the rock, it ain't climbing"....

pigsteak wrote:an easy rule of thumb is above yer head, thumbs up....below yer head, thumbs down....

That is kinda backwards.

I like to go thumbs down really high, then cross to a thumbs up, then repeat. You can cover a lot of ground like that. Shuffing also works well. One really good drill is to do laps on a nice, easy, splitter crack, forcing yourself to use only thumbs up, or only thumbs down, or left high, or right low, etc.

Wes

lol...sorry wes..you are exactly right.....hey, even my reading is dyslexic (sp?)

sport weenie

kirkbrode wrote:You almost always want to rotate your hand one way or another inside the crack, and most often towards your thumb - pressing your thumb muscle against the wall of the crack - as you lock down. This will make the jam more secure and relieve pressure points on the bones in back of you hand. Moving your jam a few millimeters can make it infinately more comfortable, so be sublte. Most importantly, consciously try to move your thumb in front of your palm. Even if the crack is too narrow you still want to be making the effort. This is what holds the jam in place, not pressing your fingers against the wall in the cupping motion you so often see people mimicking when they talk about crack climbing. In a "textbook", secure, wide-ish hand jam, your fingers dont do any of the work and you should be able to freely wiggle them around inside the crack. Of course, in flaring, tight and other non-textbook situations, a combo of open-hand crimping inside the crack and jamming may be needed.

I was wondering if anyone was going to mention how to use the thumb when it is up or down. I guess no one posting uses anything but the hand jam, or they don't realize what their thumb is doing... probably why your climbing harder than everyone else.

One really tight hands, I use the "thumb knuckle" as the main contact point with the rock on that side of the hand.

Wes