What's the secret to crack climbing???

So what are the top secret techniques you use to save energy climbing cracks, especially when you stop to place pro?

Same as all other climbing: put as much of your weight on your skeleton as possible, especially onto your legs.

learn when it is best to seek face features to ease up the jamming, but also be solid enough on jamming that you don't get pumped seeking out face features where none exist. Get good at incorporating stemming and laybacking when necessary. Learn how to both place pro from a lockoff, but also how to hang straight-armed. Perfect your foot technique, but also get good at cruising through crack sections with no feet.

And practice.

Think of a tri-pod and how to balance that. Body position in a nice C shape.

Use your hands/fingers and feet as cams would work. Heels low drives more rubber into the feature.

JohnL crack master -- mileage. I think my best days are working techniques, but then having people around to talk about what works and what isn't; people on the ground can see your in-balance out-of-balance movement.

Love the pain

I know one thing that took me awhile to realize was to recognize where better stances are on a route to place from, and unless you absolutely need to get gear in for safety; climb a little farther to a better stance.

Gotta know your sizes; that needs to be hard-wired.

Looking at a constriction and pulling the right piece, placing smooth and solid, clip and getting your other hand back on is crucial to saving energy and not getting pumped.

Fumbling around looking for the right piece is both physically and the worst part for me, mentally taxing.

Richard

Chris Miller wrote:So what are the top secret techniques you use to save energy climbing cracks, especially when you stop to place pro?

I'm not sure how hard you're climbing, so this may be obvious, but I remember it was an important tip when I first learned it.

Do you know when to use a thumbs-up jam vs. a thumbs-down jam? There was a good article/photo-spread a few years back in Rock and Ice with Peter Croft demonstrating what I'm talking about. The main idea is that thumbs-down jams tend to be a little more solid with a little less energy, but you are limited in how far you can reach off of one. You can't really bring a thumbs-down jam below about shoulder height. But a thumbs-up jam can be brought all the way down to your waist. This allows bigger moves, so you race up the crack (time=pump), but might also allow you to reach past a section that would be a bad size for you and would tire you out more.

In a truly perfect hand-crack you won't notice the difference in security of the two styles. But when you get to either side of perfect, this really shows up. What I often end up doing is using thumbs-up jams when I'm moving, and using a thumbs-down jam when I'm placing gear. If you engage your shoulder when hanging straight-arm off a thumbs-down jam, you can get a decent rest that is less pumpy than doing so off a thumbs-up. When resting on a straight arm, climbers often let their shoulder relax. On a face hold, this makes sense (although it is apparently pretty bad for your shoulder). What you should play with is how little forearm energy you have to use to engage one of these thumbs-down jams when you use your shoulder to twist your arm, thereby camming your hand into the crack.

Don't try to place gear just anywhere you want it. Place it either only when you NEED it, or from the most restful stances.
If every move only takes seconds, the body doesn't burn out particular muscle sets. The longer you stay in any particular non-restful stance, the greater the flame-out.

I wish I were better at practicing what I preached.

To reinforce what johnL and camhead said, seek out routes that require a lot of pure crack climbing. If you can cheat your way out of climbing a crack, you won't learn.

I've been getting spanked on cracks repeatedly lately. It's slowly making me better.

Good thing about cracks is it's easier to push on lead because there is usually good gear.

Chris Plesko wrote:I've been getting spanked on cracks repeatedly lately. It's slowly making me better. Good thing about cracks is it's easier to push on lead because there is usually good gear.

Depending on the crack, its often much easier to dial the technique while bouldering or on lead, but if you toprope, make sure you're on a loose line. A tight line can seriously interfere with your ability to get your hands in the crack.

liebacking

It's all about having the right shoes.

Thanks for all the positive input. I think there are a lot of good tips here, especially the tips on finding good rests, stances, and jams. Those seem to be my problem areas. I really like crack climbing, they are just soooo exhausting.

There's no way in hell I'm using my man-part, it's already been traumatized enough in the first forty.

wait, what am I saying?

Jeremy H wrote:It's all about having the right shoes.

Jeremy has a good point. Footwork is super important in crack climbing, as it is in face climbing, slab climbing, etc. I'm a fan of thin cracks, and the Mythos are great for those since the toes are low profile.

If you find yourself on a fat crack, try to get knee jams where possible - they're great rests (hopefully you're wearing pants).

When not in the zone, I'm always amazed at how much more relaxed I become once I get a good piece of gear in. It always says so much about how much energy and movement I waste at times. I've been partnering with (read: largely following) some really great crack climbers lately (who are also great partners that don't judge when I flail or hit mental obstacles) who have helped make pushing my comfort level rewarding. I think setting yourself up mentally to truly enjoy the movement goes a long way. Variety and attacking weaknesses and thinking in a long-term manner has real merit.

Get as much weight on your feet before you clip the bolts.

Don't learn how to jam cracks in jagged, shallow, uneven, flared, megacrystalline granite. You will be frustrated by the pain and more than likely get discouraged before you pick up any technique muttering "why do people do this?!"

Learn on smooth, uniform, deep cracks with a small crystalline structure from rapid cooling or sandstone comprised of very fine particles. It's easier to figure out what works, more comfy, and more enjoyable as you progress. Fake gym cracks are usually suitable for this.

Once you learn the basics, then you can go back to the nasty cracks and they will seem much less nasty.

few points:

learn the sizes you hate until you love them. (learn to love the colors purple, green, and red) you wont learn good technique on say, ring locks if you only search out the "golds"...

place pro at your chest unless you have a good stance. (you are leading, not just setting many mini topropes.)

set your jams (hands/fists/fingers/feet/toes etc) so they dont cause pain.

thumbs up fingers are also safer on your joints long term, even though they may feel less secure. (similar to open handed crimping). besides, you can reach higher to the next one.

climb with a crack guru like johnL to really learn the subtleties of good technique.