Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Climbing, But Were Afraid To Ask

[rydra_wong]

This is a post where you can ask all the questions you're always wanted to ask about climbing, whether you've already started or are just beginning to think about maybe possibly kind of giving this a try.

Or maybe you've been climbing for decades, and have always wondered about that one thing, and by now it would be OMG TOO EMBARASSING to admit you don't know.

No topics are off-limit, no questions too clueless, so let rip and get answers from demi-n00bs experienced climbers.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

1) To some extent. Strength-to-weight ratio is inevitably a big element with climbing, so being relatively heavy (whether it's fat or muscle or both) does put you at a disadvantage to begin with.

But then so does being extremely weak (which I am), and I've found that as a weak climber, I can often out-sneaky people with much more strength than me. Technique rules.

So -- it is a factor, yeah. But it's not inherently going to stop you from climbing well and having a lot of fun. One of Britain's best trad climbers is a fairly hefty guy by the name of John Dunne.

2) HUGELY. But it develops naturally as you climb; the tricky bit is pacing yourself and making sure you don't tweak your finger and elbow tendons (muscles get stronger a lot faster than tendons do).

Some of my happiest moments have come when I realize that my fingers have upgraded themselves and I can suddenly use even tinier holds; it's like magic!

3) Nope. I've got recurrent knee problems, and have found climbing (and jumping from the top of the wall) fine at times when it hurt me to walk. If my knees are playing up, I have to avoid pivoting round on a foothold in a way which creates torque on the knee, but otherwise I'm good.

Obviously it depends on your particular knee problems, but it's not necessarily a barrier at all.

You might need to experiment and see whether your knees are happier with bouldering or roped climbing, but either way you don't get the sheer number of repeated impacts that you do with something like running (or walking).

[hivesofactivity]

Thank you! I think the knee thing is the best news out of this lot, because (sans knee replacements) that's the main thing out of my eventual control