Long stiff draw

I'm starting to lead harder routes (for me 10.c) but sometimes I feel kinda insecure when trying to clip a bolt on certain routes that have one super power move kind of crux. I have a bum right elbow that doesn't go straight anymore so I loose a few inches of reach and I'm already only 5.3. I was thinking of buying one or two extra long stiff draws for this occasion but I can't find anything at the local shops in town. Can anyone recommend one to buy or should I just tape up a extra long skinny draw to make it stiff? Or I guess I could just work on getting stronger too.

make the next move, and clip the bolt with it closer to you....
if you pitch while clipping here vs. a long arm full of rope the fall is virtually the same... make the next move then clip!
or....
backcountry.com/petzl-djinn…

Make a stiff draw using a piece of coat hanger and white athletic tape(most frugal method)
. You may save yourself a considerable fall by using this system. Many people who put in bolts place them according to where it is comfortable for them, as high as they can to protect a hard move. This does not play well for shorter people. The next bolt below you may be 15+ feet away and if you blow the move entering a hard sequence you can save yourself 30+ feet of falling simply by using a stiff draw.
Be careful and good climbing!

I feel your pain. I’m just slightly taller than you, but I’ve also found some bolts are hard to clip for us hobbit folk. In theory, you’d fall about the same distance clipping overhead vs. clipping at your waist, so you should clip at your waist whenever you can. But in the real world, most bolters place the bolt overhead when there is a good stance. Clipping at your waist often means you are not clipping from the best holds/stance. Not a problem when you’re climbing easy stuff when every stance is a clipping stance, but when you’re climbing at your limit, it’s very noticeable. Especially if you’re dealing with a bolt protecting the crux move, that means you may have to clip in the middle of a crux sequence, not fun. There are two ways I’ve used to deal with it: 1. Most often I just pull harder, shake a lot, cry a little, and silently (or openly) curse the bolter for their ape-like reach. 2. In rare instances, I’ve used a trad draw (with a shoulder length sling) to make the clip easier. I would extend the trad draw from a comfortable stance, clip the rope-end biner to my rope first, leaving the bolt-end biner on my gear loop. Then I’d move up to whatever crimpy/crappy/slippery hold I can use to reach the bolt, and clip the bolt-end biner to the hanger. This does mean you have a much longer draw on the bolt than usual, so make sure the fall is clean.

If your intention with the long stiff draw is so you can hold the dogbone to make the clip, you would have to fix the bolt end biner to the draw and that’s a bad idea with regular biners. Look into the Kong Frog, that would be a safer alternative to stiffen your draw for the long reach.

Sometimes you just have to work around the way a route is bolted. There is a route that recently got rebolted and has added probably half a grade of difficulty to the climb for me. It went from a barely reachable climb with possible ground fall to now I have to do an extra traverse to climb than reverse the traverse to get up the route.

And all of this at the pumpy crux of the route, kinda sux and wish people would take this into consideration when putting bolts up. I really wish I could just climb through the crux and than climb the bolt but with a 2ft ledge fall under it that isn't going to happen.

In the case of this route if I pre-hang draws I can run through it easy, I just personally hate pre-hanging the draws. (stupid negative ape index)

KayJ wrote:I'm starting to lead harder routes (for me 10.c) but sometimes I feel kinda insecure when trying to clip a bolt on certain routes that have one super power move kind of crux. I have a bum right elbow that doesn't go straight anymore so I loose a few inches of reach and I'm already only 5.3. I was thinking of buying one or two extra long stiff draws for this occasion but I can't find anything at the local shops in town. Can anyone recommend one to buy or should I just tape up a extra long skinny draw to make it stiff? Or I guess I could just work on getting stronger too.

Just pre-hang the draws, this is sport climbing, clipping shouldn't be the crux of the route. You can pre-hang the draws either by having someone who is taller than you lead it first and leave the draws hanging, or you can hang them with a stick clip.

kennoyce wrote: Just pre-hang the draws, this is sport climbing, clipping shouldn't be the crux of the route. You can pre-hang the draws either by having someone who is taller than you lead it first and leave the draws hanging, or you can hang them with a stick clip.

Pre-hung draws is so climbing-gym. For those of us who just like to just climb from the bottom to the top, pre-hanging draws is counter to climbing aesthetics and is an extra hassle. And any onsight would require someone else to hang the draws and, therefore, give up her opportunity to onsight.

So I found another way to cheat... oops, I mean reach those bolts that only tall people can.
The longer stiffie is made from two 15" flexible metal rulers facing each other and wrapped lengthwise with 1" tubular webbing. The webbing tightly captures a Stubai Genius auto-clipping carabiner (that's about 25 years old) and a short loop of Spectra cord that can hold a carabiner for a low clip. Duct tape holds it all together. The shorter stiffie is a ~6" wooden ruler enclosed with a mountain-bike handlebar grip and wrapped with electrical tape. I found its Genius in a consignment shop. Edit: I forgot to mention the 6" X 3/4" sewn sling that wraps the ruler lengthwise. The rope-bearing biner is held in position by a Petzl wide rubber "String." The Genius is cocked open and will snap shut when pulled down gently inside a bolt hanger. Because finding a Genius may be difficult, a good alternative may be a biner that has an easy gate and less of a hook shape. A pronounced hook shape to a biner makes you have to reach higher to make the clip. And you have to hold the stiffie at more of an angle in order to tease the biner into the hanger.

George Bracksieck wrote: Pre-hung draws is so climbing-gym. For those of us who just like to just climb from the bottom to the top, pre-hanging draws is counter to climbing aesthetics and is an extra hassle. And any onsight would require someone else to hang the draws and, therefore, give up her opportunity to onsight. So I found another way to cheat... oops, I mean reach those bolts that only tall people can.

I'll let you cheat George with no heckling even, I like them long and stiff too. Arie may heckle though.

Stiffy long clip draw

Make sure you put in a second proper draw once yr able

;)