Is ANY pulley soreness a sign to stop climbing?

I'm exclusively a gym boulderer and been at it for a little over a year. I generally climb 3 days a week, give or take, and I'm experiencing mild soreness on my a2 pulleys on my right ring and left middle fingers. The soreness is very mild -- I can still make a fist easily and experience mild discomfort only on hard crimps or if I squeeze my finger directly on the tendon. The soreness was very slowly worsening over the course of a few months so I recently took 6 weeks off to give my fingers some time to heal. By the time I got back to the gym, all discomfort was gone, but just 2 sessions in, it's flared back to it's usual level. I try to tape my fingers but I think my taping method sucks.

What's the best course of action here? Do I stop climbing again and just give it more time? Keep taping, climbing, and monitoring the pain level? I obviously don't want to deal with a rupture or severe strain, but the idea of taking another 6 weeks (or more) to deal with a little soreness seems extreme.

EDIT: reading some other threads, it seems like PT is a popular answer, but I'm not exactly a rich man and my health insurance doesn't cover PT. It seems a bit extravagant to see a therapist for such small nagging injuries.

Tendons won't fully heal by themselves without sometimes 12 weeks of rest, about 100 days is what I've heard. My tendons have hurt for the past year, but I haven't let it slow me down too much. Focus on not crimping as much, perhaps take some time off bouldering to sport or top rope. Tape your pulleys, but know it doesn't do too much. I would say you can keep climbing, but focus on strengthening your fingers using open crimps and regular, repeatable training regimens so you can know when you're hurting and back off. Maybe a hangboard routine for a while. Good luck

Both of my ring fingers hurt mildly and pop all the time. I haven't found it to be my weak point on a climb unless I do two finger pockets with them included but I try to use the index and middle fingers instead. I've had good luck with doing sets of flexing my hand backwards (opposite of grabbing something) and the pain seems to go away if I stay on it but I only do it once or so a month.

You'll see lots of pros have those little hand exerciser bands. Maybe they're worth it.

I have zero authority on this subject so don't take me too seriously, but I'll just share my experience because I have been through something similar. For my first two years of climbing I mostly bouldered in a gym, and had some issues with tendon soreness but never a severe injury or rupture, very similar to what you describe in terms of pain.

For me, bouldering just simply put a lot of stress on my fingers, especially since muscles can develop very fast and I felt compelled to try harder problems with smaller holds, while my tendons simply hadn't had time to adjust and strengthen.

I solved my issue not by taking any time off at all (which I believe would have made it worse) but by reducing the days I try to do 'hard' bouldering at my limit to at most once per week, and taking up roped climbing more extensively, therefore doing longer routes with less stressful moves. If that's not an option for you, maybe try just lowering your intensity significantly (2 grades) and getting a lot more milage in your sessions, while focusing VERY hard on not using a full crimp but remaining open-handed.

Most climber docs I've read say to stop crimping when you feel a tweak coming on. Use an open-handed grip only for a while and see if they feel better. You may be climbing too hard a grade for your pulleys - tendons develop much, much slower than muscle. You may be outpacing your fingers! But climbing open-gripped will ease the stress some according to what I've read. IF you actually pop one, then you are actually hurt and you'll need to stop completely, so try and take it easy (as hard as that is.)

climbing friend,

if pain is minor and not worsening, you must continue climbing and must not be afraid. However you must be cautious and stop if it is getting worsening.

You must not put the cock rings pictured above on your fingers, unless you are wanting to appear quite silly, or maybe you look for the very unusual partner for the doing of the sexual acts.

hand/fist/offwidth cracks, chimneys and friction slabs are all doable with finger issues

fortunately theres tons of slabs in squamish

we have a saying ... slab is rehab

;)