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General Climbing Discussion

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30 degree Wall at Burnley. 29-May-2006 At 3:07:20 PM climbingjac

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Ahhhhhh the age-old question. It's rather difficult to answer really, so I'll try to answer it with an "in general do this and it will probably work" type of response.

Climbing gracefully and with minimal effort is achieved by combining lots and lots of techniques. The most important thing to know however is where your centre of gravity is. Imagine a line that gets drawn from your waist, directly downwards towards the ground. That line is where you will feel the gravitational pull. In general, it would be best if this line could also be located roughly halfway between the handhold you'll be relying on when you let go with the other hand, and the nearest footer to it. So basically put your waist there by means of bending knees, twisting your body etc. In the picture, the little girl has let go with her left hand. So speaking in horizontal terms, her waist should be somewhere halfway between her right hand and the nearest footer (or possibly even directly over the nearest footer). How convenient… her waist is located where it should be. Added benefits are that she can now use her right leg to "kick" herself in a rightwards or up and right direction. Also she has twisted her body, which also reduces power needed to hang on. Why? Her waist is closer to the wall, thereby putting all her weight on her foot, rather than hanging out in space sucking her off the wall.