So my friend convinced me to try the groupon deal for TRC two weeks ago and I didn't think I'd even be able to get up the small wall when we walked in because I've had issues with heights in the past..

But I'm hooked now and have gone four times. Did the biggest wall in Morrisville last night (60 ft?), which walking in there was something I never thought I'd do.

I'm bit the bullet and just bought all the gear I need and I'm going to get a full membership and will be trying to go at least once a week if not twice. Thinking Mondays and Thursdays at least until bowling league starts back up and then I may have to adjust.

Does anyone else still go? Anyone want to meet up and climb sometime? I've already made a couple of friends there - it's really an interesting quasi-hippy kind of culture it seems like - much like disc golf.

Quote :

"A kid I knew in college fell off Mount Olympus and died over a week ago. Really really good kid...it's been extra depressing reading everybody talking about him and post pictures and videos on facebook. He went to Sanderson...so I'm sure there are some t-dub acquaintances."

I went to SHS. Who was it? That's horrible.

[Edited on April 12, 2016 at 2:28 PM. Reason : .]

4/12/2016 2:24:02 PM

That's awesome! If TRC offers a movement class I'd highly recommend taking it. You'll learn proper technique such as using your feet not your arms, proper weight balancing, etc. I took one at our local climbing gym and the girl had us climb the routes with tennis balls in our hands so we had to do the majority of the work with our feet. You really learn to balance if you're unable to effectively use your hands. Once you get comfortable with top roping you can try out lead climbing. It's a whole new level of scary.

4/12/2016 2:40:25 PM

^lead climbing looks intense, especially on the 60ft wall but the benefit is that you have way more room to yourself since not a lot of people do it that I've seen.

I'll check out the movement class - I actually got really painful aches in my elbow that radiated up my arm after the second time. Might have something to do with it. I do tend to "muscle up" with my arms but I'm getting better at trying to consider the footwork out of necessity. Last night I stretched my elbow out a ton beforehand and iced it afterward and I feel fine today.

4/12/2016 4:24:57 PM

I am very interested in this hobby but don't know how to start without dropping money on guide service/classes

4/12/2016 4:47:39 PM

Yeah when I first started climbing my arms killed me. If you're mostly climbing vertical walls (even slightly angled toward you) then the majority of the work is done by your legs. The process should be: step up then grab not grab then pull yourself up.

One great tip that helped me immensely is always keep your arms straight when you're climbing. You don't want to be supporting yourself with a bent arm because all the energy then goes into your arm muscles. Instead straighten your arm and then all the energy goes into your skeletal structure which can take the force. When you rest it's good to lean and extend your arms for practice. Learning to rest at various points in your route will help a lot in developing your foot placement and where your arms need to go.

^Most places offer a free first visit or a free visit with a member. I would just go (you can rent equipment) and just start climbing easy routes. You don't need to take a class to start climbing. It's surprisingly a very natural movement. Just let your legs do the work and extend your arms!

[Edited on April 12, 2016 at 4:48 PM. Reason : s]

4/12/2016 4:47:46 PM

I'll meet up & climb some evening. I'm not particularly great right now, not in the best physical shape. I've been climbing 5.7s lately, where I was starting to break in to 5.9 when I was climbing more regularly. We're getting ready to move soon so I should get the most out of the membership until then. Feel free to message me anytime.

4/13/2016 5:45:12 PM

I should be at the Morrisville location Monday's and Wednesday's. I do 5.7-5.9 since the ratings are so subjective.

I ponied up the cash for the full membership and also got my own gear so hopefully I'm in for a while.

My non-dominant elbow has been killing me lately - any advice for that?

[Edited on April 16, 2016 at 10:09 PM. Reason : .]

4/16/2016 10:08:03 PM

Hey, glad to see this is back up. I've been going to TRC Morrisville about 3x a week since November and I'm doing 5.8's and 5.9's toproping and V2s on the bouldering wall now. I don't have a regular schedule but I'm usually in there Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. I can meet up with y'all whenever if anybody wants to.

4/19/2016 10:05:22 AM

Prob going to head up there tomorrow night with a friend. Hope I don't make too much of an ass of myself. Anyone been going to their yoga classes?

4/20/2016 6:15:16 PM

haven't tried yoga yet but it's on my list. I've had the past couple of weeks off in between my old job and my new so I haven't been in town as much. I plan on doing Monday and Thursday nights starting next Monday.

5/1/2016 5:20:38 PM

Have any of y'all been climbing at Rocky Face?

5/7/2016 8:05:12 PM

that looks really cool. how high are the routes? I'd need to buy rope or go with somebody that has some.

I climbed a 5.10- at TRC last Friday - I was pretty proud of that. I've also been doing well in the 5.8-5.9 range. Not bad for two months or so of climbing

6/20/2016 9:48:18 AM

When I first started I got all the way up to 5.12s and then took a movement class and realized a lot of my climbing techniques were wrong. Just make sure you're focusing on leg/feet movement and getting that right before advancing to a more complex route. The biggest mistake beginners make is using brute force to climb routes. Climbing a 5.8 with perfect form >>> climbing a 5.12 with brute force.

6/20/2016 12:42:57 PM

yeah I definitely think I just muscle up a lot of it. I try to ask other climbers for advice and pay attention to what better people do. I've gotten better but I'm definitely not graceful. I should try to go to one of the climbing clinics or something

6/20/2016 1:21:38 PM

Yeah take a movement class. Helped me a ton. I started thinking climbing was about arm strength but in reality the majority of climbing you're doing is with your legs. Try to always think about placing your feet before your arms and using your legs to stand up instead of using your arms to pull you up. Climbing 5.9s and below are easy if you muscle up but once you start getting into more complex routes they become very hard to do unless you're using your legs a lot.

Also think about your center of gravity. You want it to be closer to the wall so try to avoid hanging unless you're resting (and always keep your arms straight when you're hanging!!).

Some good stuff online:

https://www.guidedolomiti.com/en/climbing-techniques/

Biggest two tips I would say are keep your arms straight (hang on your skeletal structure not your muscles) and climb with your legs. It's very counter to the way most people start climbing. Most people use their arms way too much and have their arms bent. You end up putting all your weight into your arm muscles and you tire very quickly. You can't tire your skeletal structure so use it to your advantage.

6/20/2016 1:34:23 PM

my girlfriend and i have been to the local climbing gym a few times now. We're enjoying it a lot and debating on joining full time. As much fun as it is i'm burning through my forearms each time because i'm not using my legs the way i should be. The first couple times i think i was just rushing to climb, climb, climb as much as possible both on the boulders and the top ropes where i pretty much fried myself and was having trouble topping out. The last time i tried to pace myself and actually climbed less but tried to climb better, smarter. I still ended up giving out pretty early. For those of you that climb regularly, did this happen to you and then you finally started seeing results and improvements?

2/27/2017 11:05:30 AM

I'm fairly convinced that climbing really wrecks your body if you start late in life. Stretching helps but only so much. I'm not sure about your weight/bf% but I started climbing when I was bulking for weight lifting (~200lbs) and as I came back down into the 170s during my cut it made things noticeably easier. Like exponentially so. You'll also improve as your technique gets better and your fine muscles get used to the movement and your grip strength improves. You know the little peg board thing? When I started I couldn't do a single peg and then after a few months I could do the entire board (up, up-right, down-left, down). It's a lot of fun although I wish it wasn't so expensive. Once my climbing partner got married and quit, it just pretty much put an end to it for me.

2/27/2017 11:35:25 AM

^^You should expect incremental improvements over a long period of time. I'd spend the majority of your time climbing routes that are at the upper end of what you can achieve and occasionally try out something a little harder. I wouldn't just crash and burn over and over on routes that are way too hard.

Like ^ said, improving your technique will help you make those small jumps that feel like huge successes in the grand scheme. Also as ^ said, losing weight helps a ton. Over time, you would ideally get in better shape (ie drop some pounds), improve your technique, and just get generally stronger, which should have you seeing improvements.

I'm no expert though so this is all just my opinion as a casual climber.

2/27/2017 1:30:32 PM

Couple things on grip:

-nothing, in my experience, prepares your forearms for climbing except climbing a lot. So to some degree you just have to approach climbing with some patience and an understanding that once you get pumped, your climbing grade is gonna drop off with a quickness. Even Pros are actively managing their forearm pump during their training sessions. Climbing more and more often will increase your forearm strength and more importantly stamina (with some rest time too btw).

-as everyone above has already mentioned above - technique, technique, technique. That means keeping your arms relatively straight, feet underneath you, and hips close to the wall (except when you need to break all of those rules, which can be often depending on the climb). That should minimize weight on your hands.

-You might be overgripping. Do you get a little scared when you start to get really high on the climb? Start to get sweaty palms? Lots of folks tend to tighten up as they get higher in the climb and tend to CLING to the wall with all their might. This will wear you out in no time. Instead, when you feel yourself start to tighten, actively take a couple deep breaths, find a good rest spot on the climb, shake your arms out, loosen your grip as best you can, and then keep going.

Things to try in the gym

-if your arms are just failing way too early (like 3-4 climbs in) then make sure you take long breaks between the climbs. If you've not climbed a lot, then what you need to improve is really volume. So that means maximizing the number of climbs you can do in a session. Sometimes this means taking a 10 min break between every climb (its lame, but it should mean you can finish those last 2-3 climbs instead of losing grip and failing on the last 2-3 climbs).

-Once you feel your grip strength and stamina starting to improve, I would try taking one of your climbing sessions a week and just run laps on a climb that is relatively easy for you. For me that typically meant finding a 5.7 or 5.8 (or 5.6 sometimes lol) I liked and knew I could style up, and I would just climb it, down climb it, rest for 15 secs, then climb it and down climb it again.

-If you think you are overgripping then I would climb to near the top of your favorite route, look straight down at the floor, make sure your belay is paying attention, and then take a practice fall - just jump right off the wall (this is actually really difficult for a lot of us to do). Do that a couple times, pretty much everytime you go to the gym. I'd say this was the single most important factor in improving my ability to climb for longer.

2/27/2017 3:39:25 PM

thanks for the tips guys.

Quote :

"-as everyone above has already mentioned above - technique, technique, technique. That means keeping your arms relatively straight, feet underneath you, and hips close to the wall (except when you need to break all of those rules, which can be often depending on the climb). That should minimize weight on your hands. -You might be overgripping. Do you get a little scared when you start to get really high on the climb? Start to get sweaty palms? Lots of folks tend to tighten up as they get higher in the climb and tend to CLING to the wall with all their might. This will wear you out in no time. Instead, when you feel yourself start to tighten, actively take a couple deep breaths, find a good rest spot on the climb, shake your arms out, loosen your grip as best you can, and then keep going."

it's definitely technique and some overgripping. I've got a couple blisters on my dominant hand where I know I was overgripping to stay on the wall near the top of some climbs. I'm also bad about starting out too fast, using my arms to get up the first portion of the wall instead of my legs, then near the top it's all i can do to maintain grip so that my legs can catch up. Those are things i know i have to work on. I plan to spend more time bouldering with breaks in between to work on my technique.

Things to try in the gym

Quote :

"-if your arms are just failing way too early (like 3-4 climbs in) then make sure you take long breaks between the climbs. If you've not climbed a lot, then what you need to improve is really volume. So that means maximizing the number of climbs you can do in a session. Sometimes this means taking a 10 min break between every climb (its lame, but it should mean you can finish those last 2-3 climbs instead of losing grip and failing on the last 2-3 climbs)."

definitely this. we've been going with another couple who have been climbing for years so they're all about giving us the walls and belaying for us, which is really just burning us out a little faster. Once we start going on our own we'll be able to control the pace a little better with more rest in between.

Quote :

"-Once you feel your grip strength and stamina starting to improve, I would try taking one of your climbing sessions a week and just run laps on a climb that is relatively easy for you. For me that typically meant finding a 5.7 or 5.8 (or 5.6 sometimes lol) I liked and knew I could style up, and I would just climb it, down climb it, rest for 15 secs, then climb it and down climb it again."

good idea!

Quote :

"-If you think you are overgripping then I would climb to near the top of your favorite route, look straight down at the floor, make sure your belay is paying attention, and then take a practice fall - just jump right off the wall (this is actually really difficult for a lot of us to do). Do that a couple times, pretty much everytime you go to the gym. I'd say this was the single most important factor in improving my ability to climb for longer."

the height factor really hasn't been an issue for me. and i'm someone who has always had a slight fear of heights. hell i still get weak knees walking over the bridge at Grandfather Mountain. but at the climbing gym it's not been an issue at all. I know my belay has been keeping the tension tight so that when i do slip i'm not falling very far at all. Maybe I'll practice some falls next time so that i can also be forced to recover and redo parts of the climb.

2/28/2017 8:54:18 AM

#1 way to get better at climbing: climb with people who are better than you. or if you have the money, pay for sessions with a coach.

3/14/2017 3:14:49 PM