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Girlfalldown

OMG I'm a Rock Climbing wuffo!

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Ya now if we get banned from one site for postwhoring we can just continue on the other. :P


My thought exactly!
I'll race you to 1000 posts on rc.com...:|

Although good job on the "boobies" post...>:(

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

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now I'm disapointed it is going to get drama-fide by dropzone.com....



Lany,

It's the second time (not counting the times at RC.com) that you've made this comment so let me respond to it quickly. If you're trying to create the impression that "drama" exists only here and not on RC.com then you are either not spending as much time over there as you are trying to have us believe or you are just whining.

Remember, a lot of us have been on that site for many years longer than the 2 you claimed and we know very well what it's like. Drama exists, regrettably, on any community site. Rockclimbing.com has more than its fair share I can assure you.

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guess I won't be on there as much anymore either.


Pity. You can either contribute or you can stand on the sidelines, wave your arms and whine about how your world just got "drama-fide". Your decisions.

I'd be much more interested in hearing what you actually like about RC.com that you think we should keep the same and what you think we can improve either here or there.

A note to others: Be careful about listening to every "authority" about what's going on here and there. The world is filled with cynics. Drop in on the site. There are some really cool people over there and they're having as much fun as we are. :)
Safe swoops
Sangiro

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What's a trad?



Since no one actually answered your question trad is a style of climbing where you place your protection in cracks in the wall and clip your rope to the protection you placed, there are many different kinds of pro and my fingers hurt so I won't list them all.

The other popluar style of climbing is sport climbing where bolts have been drilled into the rock and you clip your rope to them as you go up.

I beleive trad is short for traditional since trad was around long before anyone ever dreamed of drilling a bolt in a wall. I've only got trad climbing once but putting your first rack together is rather pricey so it's mostly sport or gym climbing for me. Amazingly enough it's not hard to spend as much on climbing gear as skydiving gear, I'm guessing I have about $2000 worth pro(I only have a set of nuts), ropes, quickdraws, harness, shoes, ect. then add in the gym membership and it starts to look like not such a cheap sport of course if you climb only outdoors you do save the expense of the gym but you increase the wear and tear on your gear so I really call it a wash.
Fly it like you stole it!

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WTF is a 5.8-10?!? Are we talking BSR's or is this some type of rock climbing richter scale like classes for a river's rapids?

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Yes, in the US it's called the Yosemite Decimal System. it has 5 classes. (The first number indicates steepness) It actually has 6, but I don't want to have to explain it, and it's not really relevant for beginners anyway.
1-Trail Hiking
2- Hiking over rough ground, whihc may include the use of hands for stability
3 Scarmbling that requires the use of hands and careful foot placement
4-Scrambling over steep and exposed terrain where climbing difficulty is relaivetly easy but a long fall would result in injury because of exposure.
5- Climbing on steep and exposed terrain where a fall would defiantely result in injury or death. Only the hands and feet are used for upward progess, no direct or artificial aid is employed

The second number indicates the difficultly rating. This rating comes from the route's hardest move, not the whole climb in general. so a route may be easier or harder then actually rated. It ranges from 0 to 15 (so far). Also because ratings are not absolute, you can add a +/- to show that the rating may be slightly easier/harder then the "average" and becaue the rating may be unclear or still being agreed on.. Also for ratings 10 and above, you can add a/b/c to indicate different classes of difficulty. Most first time climbers can climb a 5.5-5.6 easily because the hand/footholds are large and easy to grab, as you go up in difficulty, the holds get smaller or more difficult moves such as foot/hand jams (just like what it sounds like) are required, or the the holds are very small and require skill and good technique to complete the route.

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Trad climbing?

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Trad= Traditional, one of disciplines of rock climbing, there is a debate between people who do trad versus sport (like RW vs FF in skydiving). Trad is basically not using pre-positioned bolts to climb a wall. They use small devices called cams, among other things to climb a wall (If you've seen Vertical limit, you've seen cams in the movie) They're small spring loaded hand held devices that you compress and put in holes or cracks in the rock to attach your rope to, so you have some protection if you fall. Sport climbing uses pre postioned bolts (small o-shaped rings) pre-drilled into the rock, you use other equipment to climb this way, mainly quickdraws, which is two caribeiners which are connected by a piece of webbing. One of the "beiners" is connected to the bolt, then you attach your rope and it can hold you if you fall. You repeat until you reach the top of the route.


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Belaying

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In general, all sport climbing (with ropes) is done in pairs. One guy climbs while the the other is the belayer. He is your rope anchor. While one climbs, the other feeds the rope and controls the amount of slack in the rope at any time. If you fall, he can catch you because he is attached to the other end of the rope, and also lowers you as well when you are finished. Very important person...you have to be able to trust that belayer, your life is literally in his hands. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but it is a big responsibility.


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Full Rack?

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You carry all your equipment on a sling around your shoulders or on your harness. We call that a rack. Example. I have a full rack of trad gear. Translation: I have a full complement of traditional gear (cams, nuts, etc) with me.
"Dancing Argentine Tango is like doing calculus with your feet."
-9 toes

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Feel free to ask me any questions so that you can ease yourselves in to the rc.com experience.



A rock climbing "gym" just opened up down the street from where I live. Took my 7 year old daughter there last weekend. She's already climbing the 40 foot wall like a monkey. My wife and I are taking the belay class tomorrow night.

One of the staff belayed for me on the 20 foot wall. When I actually let go of the wall to come back down, that was one of the scariest 1/2 seconds I've had in a long time. Felt good when the rope worked :)
We are all engines of karma

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...trad is a style of climbing where you place your protection in cracks in the wall and clip your rope to the protection you placed, there are many different kinds of pro and my fingers hurt so I won't list them all.



What skycat really is saying is that trad is a style of climbing where you jam your nuts in a crack. Your rope is attached to your nuts, and there are many different shapes and sizes of nuts to experiment with. No rack is ever too big, though the bigger they get, the harder they are to hump.

As in some other areas of life, if your rack is too small, you can always spend a couple thousand $$ to make it bigger.:S

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