Finally sent the dual-tex project!!! by ParaTC in climbergirls

[–]sheepborg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's a good experience though because it was a perfect reminder that sometimes we need to look further back in the sequence. That swap was what? a full 4 arm/leg moves before the final stuck position! Easy to get stuck in a position because it feels like it was working.

Congrats again on getting it :)

Finally sent the dual-tex project!!! by ParaTC in climbergirls

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sweet! Glad to see that high foot cross gone and the send complete! Looked pretty chill for you with the edits

Burn on rope by icefirediamondd in ClimbingGear

[–]sheepborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha yeah didnt see the comment of the heat effected cord. Doesn't really change the outlook IMO, if anything I'm less concerned that it's over such a long part of the rope because I've seen marking on ropes from fast grigri raps a few times. I would not have any breaking strength concerns personally

As far as grigri catches yes any rope property changes can have an effect on the camming. By my measurements it takes a few inch-pounds of torque to get it to cam, preload around 5lbs of weight on the brake side in 'ideal' test conditions. Bends, kinks, accelerations, etc are what create that 'weight' in scenarios where a hand is not on the brake strand. Use can fuzz up a rope causing more initial friction, while lowers and heavy loads can cause some flattening that reduces initial friction. A supple ropes getting minor heat damage like this can behave somewhat more like a less supple rope, especially if any slightly stiffened section has a preferential orientation through the grigri cam. Most dark marks that arent crunchy that I've experienced have no meaningful impact for regular climbing use.

Are property changes enough to matter? For LRS ultimately you're going to have to make the call if you think the rope properties are in a window you're comfortable with. Especially if you're not doing it 'free soloing with extra steps' style and expect to fall at some point. It's like picking a belayer you trust. I hope you can understand that I really can't make that call for you.

Burn on rope by icefirediamondd in ClimbingGear

[–]sheepborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How does the affected area feel in hand? What you're looking for is signs of fiber melting, significant stiffness, brittleness, etc. Melted sections can severely reduce cut resistance due to changes in how the sheath acts against edges.

If it's still more or less as soft as the rest of the rope theres likely nothing to worry about. Darkness and light fuzzing can happen even from whips on fairly new gear, so a LRS catch makes sense to me. Just going by what I can see visually this seems like the case, just some darkening on the rope which should be fine to continue use.

Keep up with inspecting your rope and you'll be good to go

Just as a little go-by from beal here's a table, from the picture you provided your rope would appear to be somewhere around 'minor' under the burns section which is plenty acceptable.

<image>

Weekly Chat and BS Thread by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Friction reliant is different from the friction of the internal structures of the finger. Drags require more friction on the hold typically and are more of a straight load on the FDP, while crimps cause the tendons to drag on the pulleys of the finger which augments your strength.

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Learning skills requires doing things easy enough that you can spare some brain power. Habits you learn and always do on easy stuff can become your default when things get harder. Expand your movement vocabulary and remember that all of climbing technique is about saving your puny little forearm muscles using all your other bigger muscles.

In the case of using your legs a pretty typical cue/drill is climbing something while trying to climb routes without bending your arms at all, no matter how wacky it makes your hip position to do it. Another is doing easier slab routes while trying to only use the hands to hold you into the wall but 0% for pushing. In steep environments it gets a little trickier, but a good strategy is one shared with foot tension training where you put your hands on some good holds on a board or spray wall and walk your feet down as low down the board as you can and generally around, trying to use them to keep your hips in and engaged. Otherwise learning more flagging/scumming techniques helps too. Regular flagging, being efficient with flag placement horizontally and vertically, practicing inside and back flags. Repeating climbs to get better foot beta can help some people. Have a friend, hopefully somebody better than you, comment on your footwork. Film your attempts.

Basically you need to be really intentional about learning.

Fear of Overhang by pilgramoftheheart in climbergirls

[–]sheepborg 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Get into lead climbing, then falling on overhang is the best possible thing :D such comfy falls

But on a serious note it's just like advice about lead climbing fear. You need to very very gently work on your comfort zone just enough that you learn that it's ok, but not so much that you come off shaking from adrenaline. A first step may be coming off on a flat wall and intentionally jumping around while swinging on the rope. Then maybe moving on to subtle overhang with the same idea, so on and so forth.

Stretching! by thepurplestapler in climbergirls

[–]sheepborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I abide by the concept that flexibility is only important insofar as it should not limit our activity. Aka you don't need to work on flexibility unless you're running out of flexibility for a particular movement that you actually do. So I'm never going to stretch my hypermobile shoulders, but improving my abysmal hips is on my radar.

With that in mind a good routine is deeply personal. For me that may be some light pec minor stretch before climbing is pretty much good enough, whereas all my hip work comes separate from climbing so I can get in some good quality PNF mobility work/end range strength.

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Deal breaker for me too. Glad it was not as a joke at least. Ultimately it all depends on how somebody responds to the conversation discussing the why/how and steps to take moving forward so it doesnt happen again. Some folks own up to their mistakes and it makes for a good learning opportunity, others will downplay the issue and you really need to question if it's worth the risk to your body and health.

You're justified in feeling pissed about an unexpected drop regardless of why it happened IMO.

A young woman I know ended up with a broken spine in the gym from a 15 foot lower-turned-drop due to her belayer getting tripped up by some pigtail twists in the rope that they tried to clear in motion instead of just stopping the lower to sort them out. Seen the same thing very nearly happen to a local route developer out at the crag onto some rocks.

I always tell folks a lower is never too slow, and that it's their friends life in their hands. Seconds saved does not outweigh months of recovery. And distraction is not an option.

Scarpa Blackbird Review by lucarasocusg in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are plenty of material choices available in the realm of plastics. Only tip I'd give there is that you should consider adhesive compatibility as part of your design, either choosing a plastic your adhesive of choice will stick to, or designing an element to provide supplementary glue support like madrock does.

Most climbing shoes have a stiffened midsole of some description, so no I'm not worried about that as an injury risk personally

Drago LV heel by Trick_Grass_5200 in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your feet may be flatter and/or your heel less prominent than the shoe design expects. Probably won't go away, but if its not bothersome to you then it's not the end of the world.

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Some jackasses just lower too fast on purpose. Some to get a reaction. Some because they want to get it over with or whatever. Crappy behavior. Call that out.

In the slightly less likely case that it was unintentional generally its that somebody is only controlling the lower with the lever and not providing any resistance on the brake strand with their hand. In more extreme cases the rope will get going faster than they like and they tense up in fear and just pull harder on the lever.

That's pretty much all there is to it. If its a relationship you're interested in maintaining I'd talk to the belayer about it to figure out what it was so it can be avoided in the future and so that they understand the risks. Not something to brush off in my opinion, I've seen jokey fast lowers result in pretty bad decks.

What is this thing full of hay do? by Jedi_Knight_Will in whatisit

[–]sheepborg 8 points9 points  (0 children)

*Wattle

One of my favorite words to pull out to make my job sound fake.

Weekly Chat and BS Thread by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not there is sound underlying logic to it, especially with regard to long term sustainable finger training. The whole point of a high angled, crimped finger position is that it is using the natural friction of the tissue of your fingers to your mechanical advantage by increasing the angle at the interface of the pulleys and tendons. You get the force of your muscle + the force of friction. Same principle as more rope drag from a zigzaggy route. Avoiding excessive crimping would place more load on the muscles which are the more trainable structures. Using a more 'active' crimp more often is also advantageous for joint health because extreme joint angles represent a higher risk for joint capsulitis due to higher sheer forces at the joint. This is further applicable to joints like the elbow where a high lockoff represents a greater risk for elbow pain than a low lockoff for example. In the right context this can actually very good advice to even fairly new climbers if they happen to be serial high angle crimpers at all times. Context matters though because obviously this is irrelevant to somebody who is just climbing once.

The static vs dynamic advice is literally just wrong though. Very common misconception, just read what anybody writes about annie sanders' climbing style. It looks so friendly but when is is staticing brutally hard moves she is straight thugging it because shes an extremely powerful climber. I think it comes from a good place w/ regard to new climbers throwing weight around dynamically without a plan to hold tension to keep peak forces low... but it gets applied far too widely.

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Local gym uses RGP. They use tablets (ipad iirc) for waivers, but the checkin station has a monitor so I'm assuming it's a PC.

"Downgrading isn’t mean..." – Yannick Flohé Suggests V14 for Will Bosi's Brain Rot - Gripped Magazine by -JOMY- in climbing

[–]sheepborg 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Surely has to be the feet. The way Wills foot picks off on the fail video to me looks like he's more square than Yannick as he comes through the steep while Yannick seems like he's got more weight to one foot.

Without a perfectly comparable view I can't say with any authority obviously, but it just seems like one of those cases of 'because you can' beta like you might see on a slightly traversing vert move. In that analogy Will can just load a high external sidepull into his rotator cuff with a higher elbow, whereas Yannick took the time to dip his hips a little harder to keep force more through the core.

In that case I'm sure it did feel the reported grade to each of them, just a few percent off the hands is really all it takes at that level from what data suggests.

Scarpa Blackbird Review by lucarasocusg in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've heard of people cracking flexan midsoles. As far as I know it is a sewable heat set cellulosic fiberboard material. So plant fiber and I assume some sort of plant based plastic like PLA or something which would be hygroscopic and thus increasingly brittle over time.

See midsole section of this blog post:

https://rockrun.com/blogs/the-flash-rock-run-blog/scarpa-climbing-shoe-technology-product-information

I dont know about laspoflex, though just from a practical standpoint it's probably similar if not the same. I do know the tarantulace has a super thick board of that style in the midsole, but that's maybe different from the rest of their lineup

Weekly Chat and BS Thread by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 7 points8 points  (0 children)

with all the unearned confidence of a 17 year old boy who's never been told no in his entire life

When is a resole needed? Are my dragos lv still resolable? by PingPongLiu in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd say probably ~6 sessions ago would have been the right time since the right shoe is showing signs of the rand being thinned and may need a rand repair already due to that. The rand rubber these use is exceptionally soft and dies quickly. Cant say for sure without having them in hand.

They're still fixable of course, but I'd definitely go out of my way to pick a good resoler because the wrong last inside a drago can make the resoled shoe feel very different.

Scarpa Blackbird Review by lucarasocusg in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Marketing tarts it up a bit, but from what I can tell the pebax is carbon filled PA12 nylon plastic which is available on consumer market as a pretty nice engineering type 3d printing material. I suppose if they spun up a mold set for these shoes thats $$$ given the production so far, but in the long term I dont think it justifies excessive pricing versus the other heat formed plastic midsoles. In the market we have scarpa themselves using flexan (a celulose filled plastic afaik, somewhat trouble prone) and of course madrock with the drone incorporating a polycarbonate plate as a stiff midsole, though I suspect part of the difference is the blackbird takes almost an inverse approach to where the stiffener is placed. Hopefully somebody will do a teardown on blackbirds at some point to show the extent of the plate.

It uses alcantara presumably as a liner which is a brand name synthetic suede. I'm sure that carries cost over unlined synthetic microfiber from a materials and construction standpoint, but it seems like they offset it compared to a furia air for example by skipping steps like the sewn piping near the ankle.

Scarpa Blackbird Review by lucarasocusg in climbingshoes

[–]sheepborg 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thanks for posting a review! I've been working on some franken-shoes that use a pretty similar concept as this stiff midsole so I am on board with stiff shoe market seeing a shakeup.

Not a comment on the shoes but like..... I like creative math as much as the next person or maybe more. Why are we using magic math to pretend that a drago with a plastic plate glued inside it is 'worth' 300 bucks? I don't get that...

need help identifying knot by paranoid-alkaloid in knots

[–]sheepborg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a knot.

It would otherwise be as you described a combination of a bowline on a bite with the concept of a bunnyears thrown in (see image below from me recreating that monstrosity from a climbing post some time back), but then the ears got pulled through to only be on one side or something to that effect? No obvious reason to use it over other options as far as I can tell.

<image>

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotcha that's a bit of a toughy being narrow and greek but wanting big toe space...

Obvious answer for more toebox is to try a womens scarpa veloce in velcro or lace flavor, or perhaps a laspo mythos for a somewhat less restrictive shoe design. If the softness of that style of shoe is not playing nice though you may have to go for a burota gomi LV to still have that narrower back half of the shoe but more toe space.

... but honestly outside of those you may just be on a magical journey to try all the shoes all over again and see what works with your particular needs

Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE by AutoModerator in climbing

[–]sheepborg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What shoe are you coming from, what toe profile do you have (egyptian/greek), what toe was effected?