ankle osteoarthritis and climbing--crowdsourcing a way forward

Hi there. Wondering if anyone has experience to share with continuing to climb with degenerative osteoarthritis. I have a lot of cartilage missing in the medial talar dome (front of ankle) which has been making long walks and hikes painful for a while. It's only affected my climbing recently, basically when I shift weight onto the ankle and try to stand up. Dr. says fusion does not make sense, as rest of ankle is fine, and ankle replacement is a bad idea because new ankles only last about 10 years now, and success rates drop with each time you do it (so you want to wait until later in life. I'm 49). His basic prescription is "try not to hit the ground when you fall and rest when you're in pain." Which is all well and good (I've never been much of a boulderer), but I find I'm not trusting my feet now when climbing, because I'm a bit scared of the pain. I've tried wearing an ankle wrap, which helps a little, but not enough. Just wondering what others have done with similar issues. Thanks in advance.

I don't have a lot of cartilage either and I have bone spurs so I know how painful it is especially walking up hill or pounding the front of the ankles.  I've tried wraps, braces, surgeries, physical therapy, and nothing really brings back youthful ankles.  I also broke my foot several times running and jumping due to poor ankle mobility caused by arthritis.

I have been able to climb by keeping my body weight down so that the ankles don't have that additional stress, but I am limited in range of motion so foot jams are not in my bag of tricks any more.  Best thing I can say is to stay active, work on range of motion, and don't pound the hell out of the ankles.  Good footwear is essential for hiking also.  And for those days when it just hurts, ibuprofen is my best friend.

I have it in my ankle, end result from a break and in my big toe, both on the same foot. Hurts quite a bit of the time and always bothers me. Climbing is limited to once in a while but I still down hill ski, went today and it is ok as long as I don't hit a bump. Getting the boot off is painful and so is the first few steps after extraction. I find naprosin works better for me than ibuprofen but I use that as well. I have been told I am a candidate for replacement but surgery is not a friend so I will wait. At my age, 67, I will wait till the time between replacement is more like 20 years.Keep active and cowboy up to the pain is the best we can do.

Ive been suffering with a similar condition (arthritis in my ankle joint due to cartilage damage in the talus).  I have a lot of pain walking, and use an Exosym brace to get to the far crags.  I don't climb in the brace though.  Overall, I have found that certain types of climbing are a lot more painful than others. Crack climbing, slab climbing, and long multipitch routes are basically out the question unless I am ready to feel a lot of pain. Obviously no bouldering as I can't run or jump.  However steeper climbing and face climbing don't bug my ankle too much and tend to be low impact.  I would suggest experimenting with different styles and finding the one that hurts the least.

I have also had lots of surgery for my injury, and am probably planning on having more.  If you have generally healthy cartilage, but some holes in it, it should be possible to repair using grafts and other techniques.  The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in NY, as well as Duke University have good experience doing this.  I have appointments with Mark Easly at Duke and Mark Drakos at HSS to talk about further procedures in this direction.  Ive also had good luck with good deep tissue massage, as well as PRP injections to get temporary relief.

Feel free to reach out to me at gregkerzhner@gmail.com.

Old smashed tin fib with a wreck of an ankle. limited Rom, deformed ankle with large floating bone. Minimal cartilage. So what do I do. Periodic prp. Regular use of Celebrex and always use hiking poles when walking for any distance with a pack. Takes a load off and helps a lot. I still climb every weekend and holiday and climb mountains too. I don’t boulder as can’t jump off even onto a pad. I try not falling while leading but if I do then I try for soft catches and focus on my good leg to do more of the work