Missing: Pinky

How would missing most or all of one pinky finger affect one’s climbing - especially jamming for tight hands and smaller cracks?

Asking for a friend. 

D Bauman wrote:

How would missing most or all of one pinky finger affect one’s climbing - especially jamming for tight hands and smaller cracks?

Asking for a friend. 

Tommy C lost a much more important finger and he climbs okay. 

I was hoping this was going to be a nice story about our beloved Camp 4 hostess... 

I thought it was another pink tricam poem.

D Bauman wrote:

How would missing most or all of one pinky finger affect one’s climbing - especially jamming for tight hands and smaller cracks?

Asking for a friend. 

I blew up my pinky finger once, climbed like I was holding a teacup for a year, kinda wished I just cut it off, would be a better story.

Depending on how low the amputation is and how much soft tissue coverage there is over the 5th metacarpal, it might make fist jamming tough. 

Rattly fingers might be harder.

If you're gonna lose a finger as a crack climber, that's a good one to lose I guess.

A hand surgeon wrote this really interesting article explaining why losing your index finger really isn't so bad (rock climbing not discussed in this article):

Why I Hate the Index Finger

Lost my left ring finger phalange on Fingers in a Light Socket. 

Left hand, thumbs up finger jams in 0.3 size cracks is difficult: this jam is primarily on the ring finger. Everything else is fine. 

These are helpful insights.

Though of course my recreational crack climbing will not be the driving factor in making this decision, as climbing is one of the main areas in which the inconvenience plays out, I’ve been curious about the subtleties of potentially losing that digit.

Certain jams will likely be affected or maybe even eliminated - and perhaps a greater question is grip strength generally. As things currently stand however, the finger isn’t much use - kind of unincorporated, tea party style, as Tradiban mentioned. For a little background, I had a bone cyst develop randomly in the most proximal part of that digit. Surgery removed it, replacing it temporarily with cadaver bone, but left it fat with limited mobility; nine fingers and a claw.

Finer crack climbing, as well as putting on gloves or putting hands into pockets, became less convenient than average. I hadn’t until recently considered that fists, in addition to tighter cracks, could similarly be affected. I wonder how much discretion one would have in such a procedure, as to where exactly it would be removed. 

DB, the pinky on my left hand is useless and permanently bent in an awkward shape. It has never hindered a life of climbing. I have discussed having it removed with multiple doctors and they ALL say 'keep it,' for a plethora of reasons to the health of your hand. Yes, wet glove donning and doffing blows chunks and when I tried to learn how to play the guitar, it severely got in the way. But short of the occasional beating from a first crack it has held up well. I find that the other fingers learn to compensate well and finger stacking (in extreme cases) can help with being one finger short. Well done tape application is an art you will learn, well when the rock bites back. 

   High end tea parties, pinky picking (of certain things) and flipping people off with your mini-digit... are NOT in your future, but climbing certainly IS. Go get yourself some rock. Inform those fancy 5 fingered people to suck-your-pink and just climb past them. : - ) 

* a left handed digitus minimus manus was not used in the formation of this communication. 

If you want some inspiration on climbing hard with messed up fingers, watch Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey.  In his older years, his fingers were an absolute mess of various deformities, but it didn't seem to slow him down much.

Sam Skovgaard wrote:

If you want some inspiration on climbing hard with messed up fingers, watch Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey.  In his older years, his fingers were an absolute mess of various deformities, but it didn't seem to slow him down much.

Au contraire, he was moving pretty slow in that movie. I thought it was a sad depiction of the man’s life, almost a warning.

OP, I charge $100 for amputations, HMU.