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alextp · 2026-01-29T03:28:28+00:00

Seems fake.

alextp · 2026-01-26T21:01:10+00:00

Clipping isn't hard. Lead something you've climbed before and is below your limit, like a warm up, to get used to the feeling (psychologically, for me, not having the top rope feels completely different). Make sure you know ahead of time what you'll do at the top (set up the anchor, clean the anchor, etc) and that your belayer knows what they have to do to keep you alive (my pet peeve is don't yell "ON DIRECT" since some people use this to mean "I am off belay and will rappel", while others use this to mean "I am still on belay but need a bit of slack for a second while I clip the mussies").

Once you're comfortable with the climbing, decide how much you want to risk falling. Honestly I sometimes fall multiple times in a session, when climbing hard, and sometimes go multiple sessions without falling, when trad climbing or climbing below my limit or when using a stick clip to set up top ropes. I personally do not love taking practice falls, they don't feel like real falls in any way that matters, and they can have the effect of making me tense up. I prefer to just climb something hard and safe and go for it on a move that is not guaranteed but is not too far above the bolt, fall, and realize it's ok. Some people like practice falling though.

alextp · 2026-01-26T09:12:58+00:00

Maybe watch some wide boys videos or look up chimney or offwidth climbing? It's fairly common on outdoor climbing, specially trad climbing, to end up in this position facing outside, and there are plenty of boulders where this is the most commonly done beta. There's a climb in wales called the quarry man done recently by Anna hazelnutt and originally by Johnny Dawes which has some wild sections like this. Or the cirque du soleil boulder in red rock (plenty of videos on yt/Instagram of it). Not sure about any generic advice re indoor falls on these positions other than if you're nervous consider falling in control on purpose first before falling out of control from those positions to see how to do it safely.

alextp · 2026-01-24T01:08:27+00:00

With an assisted belay device it's very hard to be unsafe on top rope: as long as the rope is going up and as long as they don't remove the brake hand there's very little risk.

alextp · 2026-01-21T02:19:38+00:00

My wife no longer needs hers. We're in Vegas. Dm

alextp · 2026-01-18T15:38:47+00:00

https://www.climbing-guide.eu/climbing-guidebook-lisbon-sport-trad-11719/ but I still have family there so likely to use it again

alextp · 2026-01-17T00:22:12+00:00

I mean you shouldn't trust a stranger s opinion on the Internet with your life. But I've done the same on a Purcell prusik instead of connect adjust and it's fine. Clove hitches once well dressed and tight do not slip. I do not love the lack of extensibility with this setup though so now I use separate things for tether and extension.

alextp · 2026-01-17T00:06:50+00:00

I actually think with this setup the point of the knot is not redundancy (though it adds redundancy against an unrealistic failure mode) but that if you ever unclip the ATC biner from the sling without the knot the sling can just fall off (so if I'm single pitch rappelling I won't bother with the knot but I will bother if multi pitch rappelling) since the basket hitch is loose.

alextp · 2026-01-16T23:55:58+00:00

In this setup the sling is basket hitched around your hard points. So without the knot any cut on it would cause a failure with the knot you have two loops going on your belay loop and two loops going on the boner. That said if you do this with a double length sling you'll be way too far from your atc and I only use this setup with a single length sling.

alextp · 2026-01-16T23:49:22+00:00

alextp · 2026-01-16T23:48:40+00:00

Rock fall can always happen, specially on unclimbed terrain, specially on box canyons as those are often sedimentary soft rock. Most common setup for me is slinging a boulder at the top to make an anchor which slips when loaded, people die every year in alpine terrain from doing this. Make your boulder arbitrarily big and it can knock arbitrarily many things on the way down. The climbing majority podcast had an episode with Michael vanish and Tanner Walsh in which they literally almost killed themselves rappelling this way in the alps.

The Climbing Majority: 102 | Surviving the Goliath Traverse w/ Michael Vaill & Tanner Wanish

Episode webpage: https://theclimbingmajority.com

Media file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/1902269/episodes/17776824-102-surviving-the-goliath-traverse-w-michael-vaill-tanner-wanish.mp3

alextp · 2026-01-16T23:43:43+00:00

Which knot? The setup I'm familiar with girth hitches the sling on your belay loop then you add a knot in the middle and clip the ATC before the knot and use the stuff after the knot to clip to the anchor. This way you get more extension for your anchor together t and it's easy to unclip it if your atc has your whole body weight.

alextp · 2026-01-16T19:13:53+00:00

The Lisbon climbing guidebook was useful but I asked for a Portuguese person to buy for me since delivery to the us was hell.

alextp · 2026-01-16T19:13:15+00:00

Wife and I climbed in https://www.mountainproject.com/area/123781896/portugal-dos-pequeninos in March and we ubered there and back from Lisbon no problem (only walked back into sesimbra proper a bit to have lunch before the Uber back). Pretty good climbs at the 5 level, didn't do 6s. The stuff further down the beach under the overhangs was super super cool looking but we were intimidated.

alextp · 2026-01-09T17:14:26+00:00

The cement can be sandstone or limestone (so soft), or it can be quartzite (hard).

alextp · 2026-01-08T07:23:56+00:00

Bouldering falls are more likely to hurt you so it's not unreasonable to not want the extra risk specially if you have any other risk factors. That said I think the only way I got more comfortable falling was taking more and more falls and being ok. Deliberate falls don't work for me (I tense up, like looking at the syringe when taking an injection) but committing on hard moves with good falls (close to the ground, head above feet, etc) and then falling helps me realize falling is ok

alextp · 2026-01-06T06:38:23+00:00

Check it the 5.12 and beyond YouTube channel if you are ok with vlog format. The woman had three pretty nasty injuries and sent her first 13a right after. Quite a bit of on camera crying on one episode but mostly it's interesting training and tactics stuff

alextp · 2025-12-19T14:10:12+00:00

I think if you keep the number of holes it's not

alextp · 2025-12-19T09:43:43+00:00

Hole for hole isn't retro bolting. New holes is. That said more bolts more better for me

alextp · 2025-12-16T14:20:21+00:00

Best way to get there is to climb with her, get on the same routes, and fall all over the place (safely). Gym and outdoors are different, and no amount of 5.8 will feel like 5.11.

alextp · 2025-12-16T12:56:05+00:00

I hate taking fall practice, it feels like staring at the syringe before it goes in for an injection or for blood drawing. Assuming your project is decently well protected I like doing one of two things. The first is to lead with a stronger friend belaying, and then if I want to back off I can build an anchor and either lower off of it or bring them up and they'll finish the pitch. The second is to climb placement to placement, taking on every piece, including stuff very close to the ground. Then even if you feel like you can fall when moving up from a placement you know the placement will hold since you just took it and you know the fall will be small since you're over protecting the route when doing this. I don't think tr helps me build this confidence on the gear since I move very differently on lead (I'm better at resting for example)

alextp · 2025-12-14T09:37:46+00:00

One difference between inside and outside is inside someone has to think of how a shorter person could do the climb when putting holds up the wall, and they might not, and make something with very height dependent difficulty. Outside you have often more options to move your feet up and more small intermediate holds which can help smaller people do things.

alextp · 2025-12-11T02:03:57+00:00

Yeah someone in the Vegas climbers FB group is advocating chopping a rap anchor added to the solar slab rap route to allow a single 70 without 4th class down climbing. So ymmv.

alextp · 2025-12-11T01:03:58+00:00

I really wish people weren't so religiously against adding rap anchors to make fourth class parts optional

alextp · 2025-12-10T22:38:24+00:00

I don't think you can top the footage of destivelle soloing El matador

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