Crag Craft—
A Guide for New Members

Richard Pow

With the recent influx of new members to the club, many of which haven’t been climbing that long and whose experience is largely limited to indoor walls, the committee thought it would be useful to provide an article for these folk that passes on what we hope is valuable information and advice. I have covered a range of things relating to improving your climbing and staying safe.

The first thing to say is that there is no better way to learn and to get better than by getting out there and doing it. There is a lot in the old adage that “good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment” but applied to climbing there are downsides to this in that:

• bad judgement can be fatal (or at least mightily inconvenient/embarrassing) and;
• it puts others at risk (or at least spoils their enjoyment!)

On routes with parallel sided cracks camming
devices are handy. Richard Pow on Gilette, Simonside E2 5C, Photo – J Dalrymple

Most of the senior (aka old and wily buggers) in the club learnt their craft many years ago either with mates, who were similarly inexperienced and lacking in gear, or were lucky enough to be taken under the wing of someone with at least a tad more experience and with the patience and time to bring on their progeny. The advantage of the first of the above is that progression was limited to the level of bravery of ones peers and was normally steady (albeit not necessarily uneventful.) Typically they spent weekend after weekend going out with one rope between three and four bits of gear to local outcrops doing Diff after Diff and eventually Severe after Severe etc, etc. This provided a solid grounding but the disadvantage was that you learnt each other’s bad habits and there was no pot of rich experience readily available to draw on.

The second of the above routes into climbing provided a source of knowledge and experience but brought with it the risk of inheriting your mentors bad habits. (This is one of the reasons why we are encouraging the use of qualified instructors for those looking for the fast-track to good skills and good habits—contact Richard for a list of qualified local instructors). An important feature, one might say ‘safety net’, of these good old days, however, was that there were virtually no climbing walls and most climbers were skint.

This meant that we didn’t have youths with the wall-honed strength and shiny gear to climb themselves into extremis but lacking the experience and skill to get themselves out of it.

Strong climbers were time-served experienced climbers. ‘All the gear and no idea’ was a rarity in those halcyon days.  Anyway enough of this looking back through rose tinted spectacles I hear you say—let’s have the pointers.

If you ask top climbers like Dave Birkett or Steve McClure what they put their early progress through the grades down to, one of the key things they will say is that they just climbed loads. Dave did route after route after route with his uncle Bill (or anyone else he could find)—Severe’s, VS’s, HVS’s, etc—always different crags, different rock types, different angles and never doing a route twice. Steve was the same—from a young age out with his Dad, lots and lots of different routes of different types. This brings two important benefits:

• Firstly, you build up a massive repertoire of moves, gear placement skill and comfort with exposure that stays with you for life and secondly;
• you lay down a solid foundation of climbing fitness and strength, particularly finger strength, that stands you in good stead and helps you to avoid injuries when you move onto harder stuff.

Andy Earl draws this into advice and training schedules as he coaches youngsters in that he will get them to do volume sessions. And I don’t mean problems just using the volumes on the wall! But sessions where you aim to do as many different routes of different types and on different angles as you can, without rushing and climbing the easiest with just as much poise and precision as the hardest. Not only does this build stamina but it also builds up a massive repertoire of moves to draw on and embeds good style and route reading.

So the first golden rule is concentrate on quantity not grade. At least in your early years arrive at a crag with a plan of doing several routes at a reasonable grade for you rather than always trying to do something (too) hard.  Do the volume and go bouldering and the grades will come.

That brings me onto the second golden rule—go bouldering.

Bouldering is one of the best ways of gaining specific climbing strength and improving technique – particularly if you can go along with someone that can point you at appropriate problems. Steve Crowe’s new bouldering guide to the County due out soon should be all the inspiration you need. Like many climbers that started climbing more than 20 years ago, I bouldered without a mat (pad) for many years but I wouldn’t recommend this and neither would those senior members who have had hip replacement operations! So get a decent mat (pad). Also, make sure your boot soles are clean before stepping on to rock as a) your less likely to fall off b) you will minimise erosion and c) you won’t muddy up crucial holds thereby pissing off those that follow you.

Remember to do slab and wall problems as well as overhanging stuff. Something that I remember having to learn myself is weight transfer. What I mean by this is learning to transfer your weight from left leg to right leg before you lift left leg and vice versa. This may sound absurdly obvious but is the main reason why beginners scuffle and scrape and don’t climb with the precision and grace of better climbers.  So be conscious of it next time you climb or boulder. Something else to practice is spending more time looking down to work out foot placements and to carefully place your feet. I remember Steve McClure saying that the best climbers spend most time looking at their feet.

Sport climbing is also a really good way of getting stronger and improving technique—particularly in terms of consolidating the types of moves necessary to cope with steep terrain like flagging and dropping a knee. It’s also fun and gives you a break from the normally psychologically more demanding trad.

The third golden rule is to get warm and stay warm. You can’t climb well if your body is rigid with cold and your fingers are numb and you are far more likely to get injured if you try. There is masses of evidence in the sports science literature to support the assertion that any sort of physical performance is improved if you are properly warmed up. In virtually every other sport warm up is a routine and accepted part of the activity. It’s not rocket science. First, do something to raise your pulse and make you feel warm (walk up to the crag with a heavy sack, jog on the spot—anything will do). Secondly, do some really easy climbing around on big holds mixed with brief periods of rest and light stretching, concentrating on the muscles you use in climbing. Thirdly, boulder a bit harder (slightly steeper ground or slightly smaller holds) or do a route that you find straightforward but gives you a slight pump. Now you are ready to climb.

Make sure you sustain the benefit of your warm up by sticking on a hat and/or fleece/duvet between routes or boulder problems. Remember beanies aren’t fashion accessories they are performance enhancers!! Also, pay particular attention to keeping your hands warm. Not only will you enjoy climbing more if you are mentally and physically warmed up there is also less chance of injury and more rapid muscle recovery/reduced muscle soreness.

As you have probably picked up, rock climbing embraces three main disciplines—bouldering, traditional or adventure climbing (trad) and sports climbing (bolt protected). Aid climbing has fallen out of fashion as standards of free climbing have improved but you may find the odd aid move as you tick your way through the classics. I sense most new members are keen to improve their trad climbing and this in particular is what you are looking for help with. I accept that you all might not feel ready to lead yet but if you want to get better at leading trad then you need to spend time doing just that, so the fourth golden rule is lead.

It’s is best to start at a grade that is well within your technical ability so you can stand in reasonable comfort while you focus on gear placements. But a useful exercise before you even leave the ground is to practice placing gear in different kinds of pockets and cracks. I remember tasking my son with getting as many pieces of good gear in a crack at the bottom of First Opportunity at Corbys, offering him 10p for each good one. This motivated his imagination and I ended owing him £1-20!

If you are just starting to lead persuade a good climber who you trust to lead the pitch you want to do then pull the ropes and you lead it on his/her gear. Also don’t forget that you can learn a lot seconding routes if you take the time to look carefully at the gear placements and think about their rope work.

Try to get in the habit of placing only good gear and move up in the confidence that it is good. One well-positioned good runner is infinitely better than three crap ones. If you can, get an experienced climber to second the route and give honest feedback on your gear placements. There is a lot more to say on this topic, like getting your rack well organised so you know where everything is and there is the issue of one rope or two and associated benefits and complications. We hope to cover these things and provide pointers on what gear to buy when you are stating out in a subsequent article.
Finally a word on placing gear: Remember that ultimately a runner is only as strong as the rock that it’s in. Northumberland sandstone is soft or friable in places and it is often safer to press on than to waste energy placing gear in creaking flakes or snappy flutings.

So there you go:

• concentrate on quantity not grade
• go bouldering
• get warm and stay warm
• lead.

Remember that the best climber is the one having most fun.

Enjoy your climbing!