Missing digit

My friend is missing part of his ring finger to his left hand...just below the first knuckle. He is left handed. This finger gets super sore when climbing. He is a new climber and doing great...really don't want this to discourage him. Any tips on taping techniques or otherwise that may help? Thanks for your time!

Paging grog!

mountainproject.com/v/accid…

Any "tips" ...

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Try taping it to an adjacent finger. Used to do that for finger injuries.

Frank, your medicine chest is definitely better than mine.

I won't pretend to know that I understand the kind of pain that comes with climbing with a missing finder like that, but I know Tommy Caldwell is missing part of one of his fingers on his left hand. In videos of him climbing, he doesn't have anything on this finger, so maybe it's something to get used to?

Maybe tape would help until it gets tougher/callused. Hopefully Tommy can be an inspiration to your friend!

Yes - tape when / as needed. Cheap athletic tape will do. If you can imagine ...

• start with end at wrist
• run tape up back of hand and back of ring finger
• continue tape over tip of and back down front of ring finger to its base. this is where a helper can come in handy ...
• continue lengthening strip and rip it off the roll at a length that will easily reach to the wrist.
• now split the strip in half from that end all the way back to the base of the ring finger.
• bring one half between ring and middle finger to back of hand and down to wrist. Do the same with other half but on the other side of ring finger.
• lock down the ends at the wrist by running tape around wrist and so over them a couple times.
• llikewise, lock down the tape at front and back of ring finger by running a strip of tape around that finger a couple times - maybe a strip between 1st and 2nd knuckles and another strip on the other side of the second knuckle.

With practice, you will figure how to make it tight enough but not too tight, allowing reasonable circulation, articulation, and protection.

Note: I have never done this but it seems a reasonable way to place and hold a layer of tape between skin and rock. Or double up if one layer there seems not enough.

Thank you for your input! Much appreciated. We will try the taping technique out at the Red next week:)