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Alright so now I would like just to explain some things about rock climbing to you guys, the ways you can do it, etc.
**This sport is not just for fit people, hard rock climbing is one of the best full body work outs around, and is a GREAT way to get yourself into shape no matter what your body type, just expect to have to put in a lot of time and effort to get your strength to weight ratio where it needs to be**
Okay lets start off with a great introductory video. This is a trailer to a film starring the worlds best climber - Chris Sharma, it just really sums up the mindset behind professional climbing which is VERY different than other sports, in fact you find absolutely NO sex advertising from climbing companies.
Heres link:
So heres some information now...
When climbing you can do a few things.
Top-rope This is what you will likely be doing. Whether in a gym or outdoors, this is when the rope goes from you the climber, up to the top, and back down to the belayer. If you just show up to a gym you will probably end up doing this.
Belay This is when you are the anchor for the climber, you ensure that when the climber falls, the rope will hold them up.
Bouldering - is when you have NO ROPE, you stay low generally under 10' although high ball boulders can be 14'+ which is DANGEROUS. Bouldering moves are generally MUCH harder than rope climbing moves, and focus on technique + power, rather than endurance.
Lead - This is like top-roping, but it is what has to be done to set the rope up on top outside in the first place. This is where the rope goes straight from the belayer to you, IE you LEAD the rope up the wall. Throughout the route on the way up bolts are put on the rock (or wall) and from this you hang 2 carabiners which you clip the rope through as you are climbing up. This is also refered to as sport climbing. It is basically how people climb in the outdoor world. It focuses on strength and endurance as you must hold on with 1 arm as you clip in up various times up the wall, which can be very tough.
Trad This is crazy. This is similar to lead, except it is done around cracks in the rock where you shove this devices called Cams into the crack and they expand and then you clip in to that as you climb up. It is dangerous as the cams dont always catch.
Theres also a couple more like soloing, which is for the truely insane, where you climb rock faces with no non human power, IE just your self. As you can see from the movie there is also deep-water-soloing which is nuts.
So if you are looking to get into climbing, I would recommend getting a friend, looking up your closest rock gym, chances are you can find one, I mean I live in Vermont and there are about 4 or 5 within 40 minutes of me, and get some rental gear and a belay lesson and try out some easy routes. What you will see in a gym is a bunch of walls with holds on them and tape under the holds. The tape signifies a route, and thus you should only use the holds of that route when you are on it (marked by the tape). I've noticed that a lot of new climbers tend to just climb on whatever the fuck holds they want, and well I guess thats fine, but if you want to learn anything, ask for an easy route and stick to the tape.
Route ratings are based on difficulty of the moves. For rope climbing they are labeled as v5.# and generally it doesnt go below a v5.5, so at the gym look for 5.5s or 5.6s.
Also bouldering is a good option in gyms, its what I do generally since I dont always have someone to belay me. Bouldering problems are also taped up, although some gyms have boulder looking formations with holds on that you "top out" meaning finishing the problem is getting on top of it. Generally speaking boulder routes are taped with shorter tape that has 2 colors of tape, or tape in the form of upside down T's coming off the holds.
Boulder problem ratings are different, they are just v#. So easiest is a v0, which will have moves on it similar to a v5.10 in climbing, which sounds hard, but v0's are fuckin easy, they are so short just about anyone can pull off the 5.10 moves on them. Rope route moves dont start getting hard till 5.11 anyways.
I've been stuck in the gym all winter, but just this weekend I hit up my first outdoor rock yesterday and today and it was nice. I cant wait to go outdoors this summer, I'm planning on spending my summer at this spot that is right on the shore of Lake Champlain and features a plateau coming out of the water surrounded by deep water HELLO DEEP WATER SOLOING! Actually it is more like bouldering over water, but w.e
Outdoors is really where its at. Theres nothing like taking a trip with your friends outside, hiking to a spot, gearing up and climbing outdoors. It really just puts you into these amazing locations with beautiful natural rock formations. AMAZING!
I will update tomorrow with some pictures of me, my friends, and some pro's climbing.
Guys I highly recommend looking in to rock climbing, dont pussy out it gets you into serious shape and its easy to start!
Lastly here is a link to my friends ghetto rock climbing site: www.climbvt.net Check out some videos and pics there if you want, also youtubeing "Chris Sharma" "Dave Graham" or "Emily Harrington" always brings up some very entertaining videos.
PS- If you do rock climb post some pics, videos, or tell us what rating you climb, or some show us some pics of outdoor spots you've hit up. For you climbers out there I climb 5.11's and boulder at around v6 although I could probably work a v7 and get it eventually, it took me about 7 months to climb 5.11 strong, then I stopped focus on ropes and went to bouldering, just for comaprison it took Chris Sharma one year of climbing to reach 5.12 outdoors which is CRAZY. This means he learned how to lead 5.12 in that year, not just top rope plastic holds in a gym like I did to get to 5.11 in 7 months
(although I am still very proud of myself!)Pictures-
Here is me at Rumney, NH which is arguably the best sport climbing on the east coast(and only 45 minutes from me
) , and pioneered by Dave Graham himself
^ This route is called the underdog, and is a v5.10 that I top-roped my first run up, it is a VERY long route, I would say 70 feet but I dont know for sure.
Heres another of me on the underdog, below me is my friend who went to WORLDS for Speed climbing (back when they actually did that) although he didnt do to hot there:
Heres one of me at a climbing competition, that I didnt do so hot in >< mostly cause I spent too much energy on this damn v6 I'm trying in the picture:
Here is Chris Sharma being crazy: http://www.flickr.co...N03/2216590283/
Dave Graham working a CRAZY overhang: http://www.utahclimb...satis.sized.jpg
And lastly, for now, here is my summer project:
And a link to a pic of the surrounding area: http://image12.websh...67RHKmaO_ph.jpg
Post your own pics!
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