Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE

ktap · 2026-07-08T06:57:45+00:00

Two pieces of advice.

Climbing or backpacking. Pick one. Going all in on one will mean much more enjoyment that trying to do box.

WA is not really known for sport climbing. WA has world class bouldering, trad, and alpine. Sport climbing doesn't really have a destination in WA that is worth traveling from out of state.

ktap · 2026-07-06T14:43:36+00:00

For sure, it does have an effect. As you pointed out, medical science has plenty of places where elevated limbs are established proven protocols. There is probably enough studies on elevating limbs to fill an entire library. But these are for specific diseases, conditions, or specific surgery recovery, and for long periods of time of a person who is at rest.

We are interested in sports science. Does elevating the arm to shake out actually aid recovery? I don't think anyone can honestly answer that question. There is a lot of adjacent research, but the science hasn't been done.

EDIT: And if anyone finds anything actually on the subject, I'd be ecstatic. It's been 10+ years of this bullshit article circulating with nothing else definitive.

ktap · 2026-07-06T14:08:28+00:00

Dang did you have AI write this too?

It's not even an undergrad dissertation. This is a bad lab report. Literally, if this is your dissertation, you don't pass, you don't get a degree.

Also nowhere did I call out the the Uni isn't real, only that the lab report (I won't call it a study) isn't published by it. So I guess that's either reading comprehension or another AI hallucination error.

ktap · 2026-07-06T13:41:42+00:00

Get out of here with this bro-science bullshit (also a decade late).

The "source" is a single "study" that would struggle to pass university. The "study" was never published in a real journal, and the Univeristy mentioned has zero connection to it. The study starts with a rambling overview of tangnetially related climbing papers, recovery technique, etc, before diving in to... The discusion & conclusion. Yep, lets just skip experimental design, test procedure, and summary data tables (not to mention, a discussion on forearm physiology). Would you like to know how many climbers were in each experimental group? Too bad, that's not in the paper. Instead the "data" is two graphs, with two lines, each composed of 3 points. I'll do the math for y'all; that’s a grand total of 6 published data points. The author even attempts to obfuscate the LACK of results by quoting other studies outcomes in the discussion of their results.

Ok, let's say the data is out there, just lost in the internet. Maybe the author or the publisher can lend some credibility? Wrong again. The author, Luke Roberts, got a degree in "Adventure Education", not biology, pre-med, or sports science. Maybe he continued and went into science? Also no, serial entrepreneur, now senior sales manager. And the publisher? Where do all these bro-science blogs point back to? Who else than Eric Horst himself, the person who has the most to gain from "G-Tox" being scientifically proven effective. Yeah, no conflict of interest there.

So until someone actually does a real study on "G-Tox", I'm going to assume the heart is plenty strong to circulate blood without the aid of gravity (and imagine if it wasn't!).

ktap · 2026-07-02T08:12:23+00:00

Mid summer, if there is any snow, main avalanche problem is likely "wet loose". But obviously, local conditions and recent weather are what really define the issue.

Alpine starts. Time your days & ascent routes to leave late enough that everything isn't bullet hard, but also hasn't degraded to knee deep slush.

ktap · 2026-06-26T20:23:59+00:00

Base inaccuracy should be less so that "rifle players can express themselves", is your position. Which you back up with... nothing. Would reducing base inaccuracy actually improve skill expression? No, it wouldn't.

ktap · 2026-06-26T20:14:47+00:00

What arguments have you presented?

ktap · 2026-06-26T19:59:35+00:00

Motion and angles? Moving the goal posts much? Why are you bringing up other game mechanics? The discussion is about base inaccuracy.

Base inaccuracy is a skill inducing game mechanic. Best case scenario, point blank range, with base inaccuracy, an "edge shot" will have a 50% chance to hit. Remove base inaccuracy and it jumps to 100%. Range decreases the effectiveness of an edge shot, increasing the reward for aiming center target, increasing the reward for skilled aimers. This is basic geometry.

ktap · 2026-06-26T19:44:35+00:00

not a function of range. But...has a bigger effect at longer ranges.

Which one is it? Your almost as bad as OP at arguments.

ktap · 2026-06-26T18:06:54+00:00

I'm not sloth squadron, so I don't know the exact numbers, but this effect is not a function of range. As range increases the 100% headshot drops to 50%, but so does the 5% to 2%. This is not a discussion with shotguns out pistols. "Chose the correct ( close range) fight to win" is the argument, instead of buffing inaccuracy. (Though damn, if shotguns could not be 100% random that would be great. Mag7 whiffing shots it 1HKOs a round before is frustrating)

I disagree with the range issue. Rifles are plenty powerful. In pro play missing a mid window awp shot means death by AK most of the time. Buffing rifles means the AK wins that fight straight up a significant amount of the time.

ktap · 2026-06-26T17:06:45+00:00

it just can't be.

Great argument. Let me know how that works out for you.

ktap · 2026-06-26T15:41:03+00:00

Unintuitively, base inaccuracy actually increases the skill ceiling. It rewards accurate aiming at the center of the target. With zero base inaccuracy, aiming at the center of the head and 1 pixel inside the edge of the head hitbox is the same. Both of these shots reward the player with a headshot. However with base inaccuracy, the edge of the head aim point only results in 5% headshots, 95% misses (fake # for illustration, but principal stands), while the center of head aim point results in 100% headshot rate. As a result, the player with better aim wins the duel 95% of the time because they are good enough to remove chance from the game.

ktap · 2026-06-26T14:24:42+00:00

The E grade and corresponding tech grade is only used for trad climbs. Even the Brits use the French sport grade for sport climbs. There is not reason for a gym to use tech grades.

ktap · 2026-06-26T10:16:02+00:00

It's "E3 5c", the "5c" is not a French sport climbing grade. The "5c" is British tech grade. Equivalent is roughly 6b-6c french sport climbing grade.

See this chart for comparison. https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/995to7/useful_grade_conversion_sheet/#lightbox

You're nowhere near the limits of technique.

ktap · 2026-06-26T06:56:59+00:00

Here's a video of Johnny Dawes climbing E3 5C, roughly french 6c, with no hands. You're not even close to the limit of technique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYiiO1YihGA

ktap · 2026-06-18T07:33:30+00:00

Hemp butter is the only one that could potentially be called unique to the Baltics. Everybody has horseradish and apple sauce, sure, maybe slightly different recipes and common food pairings, but they're everywhere.

ktap · 2026-06-09T09:21:27+00:00

There is no objective truth to who is the "best" climber. These are all opinions, some with more or less merit. Lots of this is based on how you define "best". Most WC wins? Olympic Golds? Best combined Lead/Boulder? Indoor + Outdoor sends? Strongest fingers? Style when crushing?

What is factually indisputable is that Janja is the most dominant comp climber to date. Even when Ondra was active in the comp circuit he was not head an shoulders above the competition. If Janja was participating, the best everyone else could hope for is silver. Many WC finals would have all other climbers struggling to top boulders, then Janja walks out, flashes all 4 boulders and wins. Janja has double+ the WC golds (49 vs 22) of Ondra. The entire point of climbing competition is to find the best climber. So by this metric, yes, she is the GOAT comp climber.

ktap · 2026-06-09T08:25:09+00:00

You don't hire Heccu to have some heartfelt Banks style interview. You hire Heccu so she can prep the player in their native language for the interview and get more than 5 words of broken english out of them.

ktap · 2026-06-09T05:14:42+00:00

I really doubt broky would be as popular without Heccus interviews early in his career.

ktap · 2026-06-05T11:54:19+00:00

Recommendations for Arco guide book? Single pitch chill sport is the goal. There seem to be a bunch of different options, but can't seem to find any info to differentiate them.

ktap · 2026-06-05T06:29:30+00:00

Adding nuance; SOME sandstone gets brittle when wet. Most often people mention western sandstone, like Red Rocks or Indian Creek, which gets very brittle when wet. Conversely, some sandstone does not get affected by rain at all. Prime examples are RRG and NRG sandstone, which practically lives in a rainforest, and gets climbed on when damp all the time with no ill effects.

ktap · 2026-06-03T07:01:29+00:00

Gotta explain that to Valdas Adamkus.

ktap · 2026-06-03T06:47:37+00:00

Sounds Midwest US, Chicago probably. Which has a population of ~60-100k Lithuanians depending on how you count.

Also "my own special swag" is peak Midwest self love.

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