Rock Climbing

[ScottThornley]

Scott, where are you at? S. sempervirens in the sierra foothills??

jp

Yep, I live in the foothills, but my mom is down on the SF peninsula. I'm down there about 3-4 days a month for work and to see that everything is going smoothly for her.

Scott

 

[wiley_p]

I stopped rock climbing around 97' funny the other day I went to eyeball this beauty again would sure like to call rock climbing done after bagging this classic.

 

[sotc]

wheres that? very impressive

 

[wiley_p]

Liberty Bell and Early Winter Spires, North Cascades in the Okanogan.

 

[darkstar]

Liberty bell way up on my hitlist.
As some of you know i quit rockclimbing for 10 months, this break came after a life time of climbing about 4 days a week.I was just tired of it. Still it was one of the worst mistakes i made in my life.
I gained 30 pounds lifting weights all the time duh.
I somehow thought it would replace the climbing addict in me.
So now i finished my fith day back climbing again. It sux because im so incredibly out of shape , high stepping makes my legs sore for two days and i am out of breath climbing a fifty foot 11+.
Oh well i might take breaks again but I pray never ten months.
Its like starting over.

 

[SeanKroll]

Who's actively climbing?

 

[Dave Shepard]

I'm not in shape to climb anything without a handrail, but I've been watching some YouTubers. Magnus Midtbo is the one I watch the most, amazing strength.

 

[flushcut]

Nope, not I.

 

[canadianclimber]

Use to climb a ton. Still regularly hit up some simple ridge climbs in the 5-5.6 range. I like them I can move quickly and cover some ground. Usually it's only a few hard moves between scrambles.

Started getting back to the climbing gym a bit this winter. I'd like to get back to climbing a bit harder.

 

[cory]

I am very fortunate to have an excellent rock gym 2 miles from me. It has an excellent regular gym with pretty much every machine, device, and weight you need, and excellent top rope and lead routes and excellent bouldering.

I learned leading basics there in the gym but I greatly prefer top roping. 5.9 is my usual limit and tho that is nothing to write home about, I'm completely fine with it as I'm climbing for the fun and exercise of it.

I love the balance involved in climbing- not balancing like on a tightrope but balancing in terms of body position involved in holding yourself to the wall and advancing.

Lately I've gotten a bit more into bouldering because it is a bit more minimalistic and simple- no rope or harness needed, just shoes.

Climbing rocks.
Now that I'm retired I'm looking forward to more rock climbing both indoors and out, as well as more tree climbing.

 

[pigwot]

Climbed mostly in the 1970s, New River Gorge and Seneca Rocks in W VA, the Gunks in NY, etcetera out here.
Most of the time went climbing with two friends... one who lived out West, where we left all our gear one year.
He was the friend with Bi-Polar issues and thinking the world was soon t end, he sold 'all' of our climbing gear in a manic phase way back then!!
The other two of us really never went back to it after that.

Two of our daughters and our son climb though the older daughter and son slowed down a lot once they had children.
The younger one who is an ASL interpreter still climbs on a regular basis, and has rock climbed with deaf climbers in NH and ice climbed in NY to interpret for another group of deaf climbers.

With my progressing osteoarthritis my climbing days are over, other than trees...

 

[cory]

Good post Pat but sorry to hear of your OA. Where is it striking you.

 

[pigwot]

OA pain, in decreasing order: hands, left ankle, neck, shoulders, left hip…

 

[Burnham]

My hands are the worst of it, too. Shoulders, wrists, come next. Hips, sometimes.

Hand strength is also an issue, even without considering the pain.

None of which make life as an active person as fun as it used to be, from time to time.

 

[Burnham]

Ah well, Pat...we all end up with aches and pains of some flavor if we work and live long enough. Not really sad, in that I'm still getting things done, just with some differences from years ago. Pretty much like you .

 

[cory]

OA pain, in decreasing order: hands, left ankle, neck, shoulders, left hip…

Are any of those sites of former injuries?

 

[SeanKroll]

Day trip to Index, WA. Granite goodness!

A bit damp.

I led 4 routes easier routes starting at 5.7 sport, 5.9+ sport, 5.8+ with mixed protection of bolts and gear, another sport route. Then, I top-roped one 5.10d, at a place know for stiff grades. Took and tried on the last one.

Jumping on something hard on top-rope is a help to see what's possible, what sticks and what slips. Leading easier routes after that becomes easier.

 

[cory]

So Ive been thinking of solo top roping some large boulders/small cliffs near my house. My idea is to use some friction device that will easily take up slack and also catch me if I slip/fall (duh). I've done very little tree SRT but tons of tree DdRT/MRS with a zig zag. So I experimented and put my zig zag on a single line attached to pull up bar and tried descending and it seemed to work fine though I'd anticipated it locking up due to what I've read online. I capiche that using a ZZ SRT with no rope wrench in a tree would not be ideal but do you cognoscenti think using a ZZ srt to solo top rope a 35' rock climb would be ok/safe?

Thanks much for your input.

 

[pigwot]

Cory,
What rope are you using and what is your anchor point? Do you have an abrasion pad?

I bet there are tons ofrock heads near you given all the granite in the greater Northeast!

And I bet you could find a ragtag, weekend climb crowd based out of:
Rock Climb Fairfield.

 

[flushcut]

Me personally I would use a grigri and pull slack to tend.

 

[flushcut]

Any climbing gyms near by you can visit, meet some peeps, and see if you can join them for an outing? Give a call into IME up in North Conway NH they have a climbing school and I’m sure they know or have groups you can join in your neck of the woods.

 

[cory]

Cory,
What rope are you using and what is your anchor point? Do you have an abrasion pad?

I bet there are tons ofrock heads near you given all the granite in the greater Northeast!

And I bet you could find a ragtag, weekend climb crowd based out of:
Rock Climb Fairfield.

I have both 1/2" tree rope or the skinnier, bouncy rock rope. I would use an abrasion pad if needed. I would anchor to a tree in line with the climb. Yes the gym you linked is a great gym which I go to fairly often. I should check into it with them but was leaning toward something quiet and solo.

My main question here was that I thought I'd heard a ZZ will lock up in descent in SRT mode if not used with a RW or similar yet my gargage experiment shows it work ok in descent.

 

[cory]

Me personally I would use a grigri and pull slack to tend.

I have a gri gri but feel like a ZZ will more easily pull slack to tend

 

[flushcut]

I have belayed may people with a grigri and never found slack tending an issue, 10.2 mm was my preferred line size. IMO a lot of tree gear isn't suited for the dynamic energy created during a fall while rock climbing.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

About the ZZ alone in SRT, It works well for me. I use it all the time on my secondary climb line (66'). It doesn't lock in the descent and it's even a bit touchy. The Akimbo is on my main line (130'). Both are used at will in SRT and DRT mode, up and down, sideway too.