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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

why are old routes so hard? e.g. Kingdom Come 6-Nov-2008 At 1:59:54 PM shiltz

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I have to agree with Wendy, the more you jam the less it hurts. I used to rip my hands up jamming, mostly because I was desperate and not very skilled. I still have this problem when I get rattled - I end up shoving my hands in without looking and ripping them out again at the wrong angle.
The biggest problem I've had learning to crack climb is that most of my climbing partners don't enjoy it much. As a result I've had to glean the detailed technique from books and videos rather than having them demonstrated.
A trip to the US would probably help a lot I think. Genuine crack climbing with no surrounding features is pretty rare in the areas that I have climbed. Even at Buffalo you get a lot of friction from the surrounding rock and often find crystals to stand on rather than relying completely on the crack.