Indoor Rock Climbing
How is indoor climbing different from climbing outdoors?
Climbing indoors is different because the texture of the holes is going to be different. The type of holes you are going to encounter are simulations of what kinds of holes you will find in rock climbing but they are not always accurate. Climbing in the gym is a lot more athletic. So it will prepare you in some ways for climbing outdoors but it is a lot different. The grading system indoors is probably not going to translate that well. For instance, if you are a five ten climber indoors you will probably will not want to jump on a five ten outside until you have done things that are probably easier than that. But it is a great way to work on technique and to work on strength training.
What are the advantages of climbing indoors?
Climbing Indoors is great because you can do it when it's dark out, you can do it by yourself, because there's bouldering to do in gyms, generally, that doesn't require a partner. You could probably find somebody in the gym who's already there who'd be willing to belay you. The anchors are pre-setup, you've got routes that are setup and usually changed pretty often by the staff at the gyms. It is expensive, but if you do it often, it's definitely a great way to work out.
At what age can I take my kids rock climbing?
I think kids of all ages can rock climb. It depends on what kind of climbing you're going to do. If you're going to the rock gym I've definitely seen very young kids, five, six years old. I work in a shop so I've definitely sold harnesses, we sell kids harnesses. So it's pretty safe if you have kids on a top rope situation, they're going to climb around in a gym and as long as the belay technique is safe they should be fine. Taking a kid down a multi pitch rock climb, you' re probably going to want to have a little more experience before you do something at that level.
How many times a week should I go to the climbing gym?
Going to the climbing gym is a great workout, but you have to be careful to not hurt yourself because gym climbing -- and the same goes for bouldering and sport climbing -- tend to be very athletic forms of rock climbing. I'm a firm believer of day-on, day-off, generally. If you're in the middle of working on a sequence or a problem and you've got the itch, then you may go a a couple days in a row. But I try not to climb, unless I'm on a trip, more than probably day-on, day-off, depending on how long you climbed before. If you're just going to go by working a bouldering sequence for half an hour, I know a lot of people who go almost everyday and do something like that, but I wouldn't suggest a marathon gym session almost every day.
What are the different types of hand grips used in rock climbing?
Depending on the features you encounter, you're going to want to use them to your advantage for your upward mobility. If you have a crimp, it's generally going to involve putting a lot of weight on a very small hold, with your fingertips. If you encounter something called a jug, you can usually grab your whole hand around it, and it's great leverage, and those are the kind of the holds that you really enjoy finding on a route. On something like an arête, where it might be like a corner, you might be doing a lie back move on it, where you're using mostly the palm of your hand, but you're using your leverage to lean back on it. Those are the basic kinds of holds that you'll probably encounter.
