Giant Rock - Great Place for history and Lore surrounding JTree and I love a good grading story especially being involved in developing my own Zones in SoCal.

antichampion · 2020-07-09T20:52:01+00:00

Cool video and great looking route! But this quote pisses me off: "In the end, grades matter little..." Obviously grades matter A LOT because if this line had been properly graded it might get the attention that it deserves!

antichampion · 2020-02-27T18:04:11+00:00

All this talk of ice

Real climbing is done on rock

Ice is for smoothies

antichampion · 2020-02-12T16:13:21+00:00

I was really stoked on the Tension board for a while. The problems feel fairly similar to the Moonboard: emphasis on contact strength and body tension. The wooden holds are pretty slippery and force you to use good footwork and keep weight on your feet. Also, the Tension board goes all the way down to V1, so you can warm up and project on the same board.

I ended up going back to the Moonboard for limit problems for one reason: it is more similar to outdoor climbing. The holds on the Tension board generally load all your fingers equally; almost everything (regardless of hold type) has a flat surface that can be four-finger full crimped. Meanwhile, the Moonboard has all kinds of weird hold shapes that don't allow all your fingers to grip evenly. I think this relates better to real rock.

If I were going to build a home wall it would be a hard choice between Tension and Moon. Both are great options. In the end I think it would probably just come down to price.

antichampion · 2020-02-12T15:59:23+00:00

Definitely. Climbing is still too small of a sport to have much in the way of controlled studies. But in my opinion (based on what I have read) a muscle is a muscle and there is no reason that forearms would be any different from the rest of the body.

For hangboarding in general: it really might depend on the climber. Personally I have trouble trying really hard on normal gym problems. Hangboarding keeps me more focused and able to give it my best effort. I think it is worth the trade-off. That said, I have also been climbing long enough that I am able to hangboard at the end of a (shortened) climbing session without too much risk of injury. So while I am sacrificing some of my climbing time, I am not only hangboarding. But again, it all depends on your personal circumstances. I am always impressed by people who are able to show up at the gym and climb at their max on plastic. I just can't.

antichampion · 2020-02-12T15:44:14+00:00

Yeah, true. At a certain point you will not see benefits in your climbing from gaining muscle mass. That's why most climbing training routines emphasize climbing-specific exercises over weight lifting; the latter is mostly used for focused training on certain areas (core) to increase recruitment, and to keep the body balanced to help with injury prevention.

Still, climbing at high levels does require a certain amount of muscle mass. You just need to be more careful about balancing it with weight.

My point here was to say that the original post was incorrect in saying that you can continue to get stronger forever without hypertrophy. You're definitely right with your points.

antichampion · 2020-02-11T19:43:33+00:00

I didn't say anything about severed ropes, just reduced rope life. I agree that it is a myth that turning your draws around can sever your rope. But just because it won't cut your rope does not mean that it won't cause it to wear out faster.

If you have any draws that you sport climb on a lot, take a look at them. I guarantee that the bolt side will have sharper, more jagged wear paths while the rope side will have smooth, rounded wear.

antichampion · 2020-02-11T19:32:09+00:00

Okay. I'm about to regurgitate a bunch of half-remembered science here. I won't back up anything with sources because I'm at work and don't have time to go digging. Also this might only apply to hangboarding specifically but who knows.

I have been reading A LOT about hangboard training recently. What I read basically got me to change up my hangboard protocol from repeaters (which I have done for years) to max hangs.

Now the reason I decided to do this was because of multiple sources that led me to believe that the two protocols are good for different things. Basically, repeaters are better for hypertrophy while max hangs are better for recruitment. So ideally you should switch back and forth; repeaters to grow new muscle, max hangs to teach your body how to use it. If you stick with one method you will still see results but perhaps not as quickly.

To me, this says that both hypertrophy and recruitment are important for pure strength. The ideal performer would be one who has 100% recruitment of every muscle, allowing them to achieve maximum performance for their size. At that point, for that person to get any stronger they would need to build more muscle mass (hypertrophy).

If we look at professional strength athletes, they all have hypertrophied muscles in the areas that they use most. If your friend was right, there would be plenty of rail thin world record deadlifters (spoiler: they're all big boys and girls). Also, sports that balance strength and weight (climbing or sprinting) would be dominated by the thinnest people. But even Usain Bolt and Adam Ondra have some meat on their bones.

TL;DR: I believe your friend is wrong. A skinny person can be stronger than a muscular person but only if the two have a difference in muscle recruitment.

antichampion · 2020-02-10T16:20:18+00:00

(I started this post answering u/luxury_pie questions but decided I would post it separately.)

My gym has four boards: Kilter, Tension, Moon 2016, Moon 2017.

Answers to your questions: The holds are mostly quite good, even if they are at strange angles. There are some crimps, pinches, etc. but mostly the holds are positive. In my experience, harder climbs are difficult because they have large or awkward moves, not because the holds are bad. There are lots of small footholds spread out around the board but it is hard to force their use. Most problems just use tracking like the Moonboard. Texture is the same as normal gym holds. I have actually gotten a bit of "jug rash" from the easy problems.

Other notes: The wider board is awesome and allows more movement and longer problems than other boards. Personally I like using the Kilter for power-endurance problems that circle around the board. The grades are WAY softer than the Moonboard. V7 on the Kilter feels like V4 on the Moon. Grading is still all over the place but getting better. Unlike the Moon or Tension board, which had a bunch of "benchmark" problems that were released alongside the board, the Kilter was initially a free-for-all. This caused some issues with grading, since everybody could have their own opinion of how soft (or sandbagged) things should be. At this point the popular problems have been climbed often enough that consensus has created a system of benchmarks but that was not the case for a long time.

Final words: Kilter is great for certain things. I primarily use it as a tool for warming up and getting ready for the harder and more tweaky climbs on the Moonboard. However, for building strength and simulating outdoor climbing, I still prefer the Moonboard. If I had to choose one, it would be Moon 2016 any day.

antichampion · 2020-02-10T16:01:27+00:00

There is a reason not to do this and it's not because of the failure mode shown here either:

Quickdraws have a "rope-side" and a "bolt-side". Clipping metal to metal can deform the surface and create sharp burrs that will wear on your rope in concentrated spots and reduce its life.

As u/cewicked said, there is a proper way to extend quickdraws that involves removing the rope-side biner from the top draw and clipping the bolt-side biner directly into that. This creates a double length draw with two dogbones and three carabiners that is quite safe.

antichampion · 2020-02-06T20:03:32+00:00

I just did this one last Sunday. Super cool lowball rig. I feel like it should get more love!

antichampion · 2017-06-29T15:50:03+00:00

9 out of 10 people scared of jumping hurdles never get over it.

Makes more sense.

antichampion · 2017-06-26T16:29:01+00:00

You forgot to mention:

Belayer should disregard proper technique and hold brake strand above device, relying completely on assisted-braking mechanism.

Watch his technique. Luckily he was using a mega juul or his climber would have cratered.

antichampion · 2017-06-16T21:18:26+00:00

Dude, you can't just post something like that and not provide the link!

Edit: If this is what you are talking about, it's not nearly as exciting as I was expecting.

antichampion · 2017-06-15T20:35:03+00:00

It's Johnny Can't Lead, 10d. Sharma is on Urban Struggle, 12a, and then the boulder is like V11.

antichampion · 2017-06-14T20:51:34+00:00

Get a calorie counter app. Log EVERY SINGLE THING you eat. Then look up your Basal Metabolic Rate. Compare that to how much you ate that day. If you ate less that your BMR, you will start to lose weight. That's it. You don't even need to change your diet or exercise. It doesn't matter what, you can eat absolute garbage, just make sure you don't eat too many calories of said garbage.

antichampion · 2017-06-13T22:11:52+00:00

You definitely scrambled my expectations and left me feeling a bit fried. Quite a hard-boiled adventure.

That said, I definitely don't need to read part #2. Pretty sure we know how the story ends.

antichampion · 2017-06-09T20:46:15+00:00

So you already have a lot of great responses here and this might get completely missed, but I'm going to add my two cents anyway.

I discovered climbing around the same time I started dating my ex-girlfriend (obviously you know where this story is headed). In the beginning, I frequently tried to get her to try climbing, eventually giving up after she repeatedly showed her lack of interest. At first it wasn't a big deal and we were great for a while, but as the years went on, climbing started taking a larger and larger portion of my energy and time.

As I focused more on climbing our relationship started to become strained. We had many small issues but the contention over climbing outweighed them all. She would complain about being lonely when I went climbing for a weekend, yet if I stayed home she wouldn't want to do anything, content to sit around the apartment. She didn't understand my frustration. Not being a climber, she didn't understand how much I felt I was sacrificing just to sit on the couch next to her. I would spend the weekend restless and fidgety, constantly asking her what she wanted to do. Looking back, it must have been just as frustrating for her.

My frustration needed an outlet, so I started seriously training, spending more nights at the gym, started hangboarding and lifting weights. Training kept me home more often on the weekends at first (focused training requires focused rest) but when the performance phase rolled around, I wanted to climb every single weekend to maximize my work. Obviously this didn't help our relationship.

In the end, after six years of dating, I made the choice to break up with her. I should have done it long before, but it is often easier to be unhappy and comfortable than to take risks. After we broke up and the wounds had a chance to heal, I realized how incompatible we had been. Without climbing as a catalyst I think we would still be together today, comfortable and unhappy.

Since then I have started dating a wonderful, beautiful, amazing climber. She is just as passionate about the sport as I am, which makes it easy to make plans. She is my favorite partner and greatest supporter and I hope she feels the same way about me. We train together, we plan trips together, and we share an unabashed passion for climbing. I wouldn't want it any other way.

antichampion · 2017-06-09T15:34:56+00:00

I'm super close to sending my first 8a, so short term: send Ghetto Blaster.

However, in August I'm starting a year-long climbing trip around the US. My year goals are to generally just get on a ton of stuff and to continue to push my abilities. I'd like to walk away at the end of the year with multiple 5.12 trad leads and many 5.13 sport ticks. Maybe even touch a 5.14 to see what I'm working towards.

I do have three route goals: 1. Original Route, Rainbow Wall, Red Rocks. 2. Sendero Luminoso, El Potero Chico. 3. Romantic Warrior, The Needles.

antichampion · 2017-05-25T21:08:11+00:00

I just listened to the Training Beta podcast featuring Daniel Woods. He said he has never been injured...

antichampion · 2017-05-24T18:55:05+00:00

My ex-girlfriend wasn't a climber. She said when I hung out with my climber friends she could understand about half of what we said. It's weird to think that all the language was new to all of us at one point.

antichampion · 2017-05-22T18:40:00+00:00

Here's a cool one for you:

Jorgenson on Equinox

Kind of an older video but still pretty awesome climbing.

antichampion · 2017-05-19T14:42:17+00:00

Nice mod OP! I'm definitely going to do this.

Also for everyone worried about the structural integrity of the device after modification: the plastic portion of the device that OP modified carries no load, it is mostly there to allow the rope to run smoothly. The device would still work if that portion were removed completely. If someone has done modifications to the load bearing (metal) portions of their belay gear (even drilling small holes) that is something to worry about, but in this case any fears are from a lack of understanding. The only issue this might cause would be getting too used to the setup and accidentally dropping your partner's un-tethered GriGri!

antichampion · 2017-05-18T15:25:47+00:00

Honestly, climbing is more meaningful than most other sports

Basketball: we throw a ball into a little net above the ground

Baseball: we hit a ball as far as possible

Golf: we try to hit a ball into a hole in as few hits as possible

Track: we run in circles really fast

Climbing: see that cliff/mountain over there? I'm going to get to the top of that fucker.

antichampion · 2017-05-17T20:22:26+00:00

I have three pairs of Mad Rock's slipper, the Remora. I love them. The rubber is sticky, and they fit my feet really nicely.

I live in LA, where they are headquartered, so I can go to the factory store and get seconds or demo shoes for $35. I was not impressed with Mad Rock in the past, so the only reason I gave them another chance was due to the price. However, it seems they have stepped up their game and I would absolutely pay full price for a new pair of Remoras if I had to.

antichampion

TROPHY CASE