59
votes
Accepted
Should overweight people ever climb?
Should overweight people climb? If they want to, then yes of course they should.
I don't have any hard fact to back it up, but I do know a few climbers that are slightly overweight and have ...
- 21.8k
38
votes
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At what angle should an ice screw be screwed into the ice?
All of the resources that I can find say that it should be done with the screw tip pointing up and the hanger below with up to a twenty-degree angle from horizontal.
Contrary to what you ...
- 69.4k
37
votes
Is there a way to find out the age of climbing ropes?
In the end I have contacted the manufacturer, and received a detailed answer surprisingly quickly.
So turns out, that the last 2 digits of the batch number are the year of manufacture. E.g. ...
- 3,492
37
votes
Accepted
Why is there so much emphasis on in-person professional instruction in outdoor sports?
I was a tennis instructor for about 10 years. Here are a few things from my experience that can become problems for you with learning through videos.
1). You have to retain everything that you watched ...
- 486
37
votes
Accepted
How do I tell if this single climbing rope is still safe for use?
I have always been told that if you are not sure a climbing rope is safe it is deemed unsafe and should be discarded, and many people do it in such way it can never be used for climbing anymore.
You ...
- 4,700
36
votes
Accepted
Why would you climb hard bigwall projects in Yosemite in winter?
I just finished Caldwell's book Push. The big walls in Yosemite are essentially vertical deserts. Even in winter they're in the full sun much of the day. It would drop below freezing at night, but ...
- 3,032
34
votes
How can someone fall 3m to the ground while top-roping & how to prevent it?
If you're top roping on a 14.5m climb, 10% stretch* in the 29m of rope between you will be up to 2.9m. In practice there's less rope than that between you, but if there's a little slack in the rope on ...
- 8,097
34
votes
Why is there so much emphasis on in-person professional instruction in outdoor sports?
I can answer only from experience from learning ice-skating, swimming and tennis.
No video can tell you what you are doing wrong. For that, you need an experienced instructor. And not all ...
- 24k
32
votes
Should overweight people ever climb?
I'm fat, and I climb.
Now to be fair I climb indoors and not up the side of a mountain, but some of the problems I face would tend to be the same. Also I climb for fun. It's a much better workout ...
- 2,800
32
votes
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What are the benefits of learning to climb outdoors rather than indoors?
In your specific situation where it is either start climbing now indoors or in spring outdoors, that alone is reason enough to prefer indoors.
Then there are the following already mentioned benefits ...
- 21.8k
31
votes
Accepted
What is the point of belay glasses?
Like it says in the other comment, these glasses are to be used when belaying so that you don't have to tilt your head up. The lenses are made of a prism-shaped glass that bends the light in such a ...
- 3,492
30
votes
What are the measurable prerequisites of strength and/or flexiblity for starting to climb in a climbing gym?
I am going to say that there aren't any. I have always heard stories of big beefy guys who can a zillion pull-ups getting out into real climbing and then realizing that there are very few features ...
- 69.4k
26
votes
What are the measurable prerequisites of strength and/or flexiblity for starting to climb in a climbing gym?
If you can climb a ladder, you can start rock climbing.
You won't be doing crazy stuff unless you get more practice and go often enough to build strength, but there will be routes you can work on.
...
- 10.7k
26
votes
Should overweight people ever climb?
You could ask the similar question "Most runners I see aren't fat, so is it wrong to start running as a massive guy?"
Of course the good and really good climbers are most likely on the thinner side ...
- 12.2k
26
votes
How to instruct someone how to take off a climbing harness?
Been there, done that, it's far more worrisome when you have to show them how to put the harness on and then have them test that it's tight enough. And like you said, you really don't want to touch ...
- 69.4k
26
votes
Accepted
Can you Rappel with an Old Climbing Rope?
You probably should not use it any more. Old ropes seem to be surprisingly strong. A German mountaineering magazine made tests with old ropes. Of 14 tested ropes, 10 would still have been strong ...
- 7,735
24
votes
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Why does suspension trauma happen?
Most climbing harnesses support the majority of your weight, if freely suspended, around the tops of the thighs. While the waist belt may be designed to take the brunt of loads in a fall once you are ...
- 6,212
23
votes
Accepted
How safe is a chest harness when used without a sit harness?
TLDR:
Never ever use a chest harness alone.
It depends on what you mean by effective: It can stop a fall, there was a time (before the seventies) when chest harnesses (alone) were used in ...
- 21.8k
23
votes
What is the strongest knot using a steel-thimble to make a steel-eyelet at the end of the line?
The absolute strongest? That would be an eye splice.
It's the most effective and strongest form of making an eye in a rope and it's what the thimbles are designed to work with.
It's nigh on ...
- 8,097
22
votes
Is there a way to find out the age of climbing ropes?
The only way I know of would to be to cut a small section off of one of the ends and then dissect it.
Inside of the sheath next to the core strands should be a tracer thread and identification tape,
...
- 69.4k
22
votes
Accepted
How realistic is a ceiling crawl/cling, can it actually be done?
The first is clearly fake - look at the person standing on the ceiling to the left. Not a problem as it illustrates what you're looking for. I have a photo of my daughter in a similar upside-down ...
- 26.8k
21
votes
Why is there so much emphasis on in-person professional instruction in outdoor sports?
@AnoE's answer is pretty much bang on, but there are two main elements that you can't learn by watching videos; stress management and improvisation.
I've taught numerous people to climb outside, and ...
- 361
20
votes
Accepted
What extra gear to take up a multipitch climb?
There are two main schools of thought: the "fast and light / light is right / rope, rack, shirt on your back" camp and the "be prepared / safety first" crowd. When taken to ...
- 4,252
20
votes
What is the point of belay glasses?
Belay glasses are (in Europe) so common that they are basically now part of the standard gym/crag equipment, just like an autolocking belay device. In some places, it can be rare to see someone ...
- 6,879
20
votes
Accepted
Why is the "alpine style" of climbing not as popular in the Himalayas?
TLDR: Because its much harder that way and the extra altitude of the Himalayas makes it that much more difficult.
Alpine style refers to mountaineering in a self-sufficient manner, thereby carrying ...
- 69.4k
20
votes
What’s the main appeal for climbing outdoors?
To me, and I'm no climber, this is about outdoor activities in general. You could equally ask why people kayak in the wilds rather than going to the artificial whitewater centre that's always reliable,...
- 26.8k
19
votes
What are the measurable prerequisites of strength and/or flexiblity for starting to climb in a climbing gym?
One aspect not yet touched on is that for beginner climbers, upper body strength is not actually as important as you might imagine. If we exclude overhangs (which is reasonable for early stages of ...
- 25.1k
19
votes
How do I tell if this single climbing rope is still safe for use?
You should replace your rope. 5 years is a long time for a climbing rope. 6 weeks of daily use in wet conditions (especially if it's a not a dry treated rope) is a fair amount of stress for an old ...
- 4,073
18
votes
If the Dawn Wall had been climbed before, why was the 2015 attempt so difficult?
Liam's answer is spot-on, but I would like to add some details.
"Dawn wall" is actually not the name of a route, but of a portion of the south-east face of El Capitan, which you can see in the figure ...
- 907
18
votes
What are the measurable prerequisites of strength and/or flexiblity for starting to climb in a climbing gym?
I know some amazing climbers who can't even do a single pull up.
Climbing is more about balance and technique than it is about upper body strength. I'm a skinny guy, and one of my favourite things ...
- 53.7k
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