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URBAN CLIMBER MAGAZINE - WORKSHOP
Get crafty in your workshop with a few tips and projects from UCMAG
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 WORKSHOP - #26 - HANG TIME
Fingerboard Basics, with Ben Moon - Fingerboards (AKA hangboards) are simple training devices: long, flat pieces of plastic or wood covered with hand holds (crimps, pockets, slopers, pinches, jugs) and bolted above a door or to a freestanding support. To train, climbers hang from fingerboards, with the ultimate goal of increasing maximum finger strength.  WORKSHOP - #25 - The Art of the second go
Words by Chris Lindner - If you haven’t figured it out by now, you’ll soon realize that sending routes near your limit is more about not messing up than anything else. Once you do the crux sequence wrong, your chances of sending drop drastically. And your original “all-out-onsight-burn” plan will end with you hanging at the second bolt, screaming, “Damn, this thing is hard!”  WORKSHOP - #24 - Flapper City
Just one more go – I know I can do this. Crimp, relax, cross through, pinch, wind up – c’mon... THROW! Got it! Nope, I’m off! Nooo! A huge, bloody flapper! Sound familiar? Most of us routinely wrestle with flappers, which occur when the top layers of your skin (there are five total) are pulled away from the bottom layers by a shearing force. Skin’s designed to do this as a way to limit damage when it snags.  WORKSHOP - #23 - Tails of the Bizzler
Despite what you might read in Juggs, humans aren’t actually endowed with tails. We do have a coccyx — the lower four vertebrae of our spinal column — but it’s just an attachment point for muscle, not a tool for motion and balance. However, if you watch a spider monkey, you’ll see that his tail is an integral part of his tree climbing, twining around branches so he can unweight the other limbs.  WORKSHOP - #22 - CRACK ATTACK
Horizontal cracks are a beautifully painful thing. It’s hardly natural to stick your hand in a rigid gap and hang your bodyweight on it. They’ll rip the skin off the back of your hands, torture rarely used muscles, and make your feet scream in agony. But after all is said and done, and your pus and blood oozing gobies have healed, you’ll have added another trick to your climbing arsenal (and one you’ll be glad to have someday, too).  WORKSHOP - #20 > Reaching the Point: Acupuncture for Climbing Injuries
Has your enthusiasm for climbing ever been dampened by a nagging injury? Have you wondered what you can do to recover besides ice and anti-inflammatories? Acupuncture may be the key to getting you back on those handholds. Acupuncture can speed up the body’s own healing processes and effectively treat both acute traumas and chronic overuse injuries.  WORKSHOP - #21 > Creating a Positive Feedback Loop
Words by Arno Ilgner - Recently I was teaching a class at the Obed climbing area in Tennessee. Despite the rain, the very steep Tierrany Wall was dry. Still, Michael King, one of my students, was feeling “cloudy” and unsure during his onsight attempt of a challenging route called Huecool Junior. He wanted to say “take” or grab a draw to escape the stress. So how can a climber like Mike let go of their doubts and stay committed? There are many factors that affect commitment; however, boiled down to the basics, it requires creating a positive feed back loop between body and mind. Let’s look deeper.  WORKSHOP - #19 - Yoga for the Slacking Climber
For the climber who is not fortunate enough to live out of her car at the base of endless rock faces and boulders, one might wonder what can be done to keep those uniquely trained climbing muscles in shape during the off season (or when you are simply stuck in NYC for too long). The answer is yoga. Many climbers can benefit by using it as a way to keep their body and mind in shape when they are away from the walls.  WORKSHOP - #18 - One man's key to sending
Climbing outside is about searching the depths of one’s deepest, most inner being and reconnecting with the Earth. It’s about making love to nature on a spiritual level, leaving behind all the suffocations of man's self-created materialistic existence and pursuing the quintessential being of our species. The primordial portal to this intangible realm of introspection begins with the rock.  WORKSHOP - #17 - Every Movement is a Lesson
As routesetters, we often get diverse reactions to our work. Climbers will love our route. Climbers will hate it. Some will think the moves are reachy. Others will think the moves are scrunchy. Climbers will say it was boring, or the crux sequence seemed out of place, or the holds were greasy, or it hurt their fingers or, rarely, that it flowed with perfection.  WORKSHOP - #16 - "Haute" Cuisine
Food. I have an obsession with it. All kinds, too, not just one pizza type or one special burrito joint. No, if food were a woman, I'd have married it. And while I can say I have made many friends through climbing, I have my cooking to thank for the solidification of those friendships (well, that and the fact that I am a 6'4" spotter).  WORKSHOP - #15 - Mental Glue: That Little Bit of Extra Stickiness
Recently I was teaching a mental fitness clinic in Colorado Springs. Near the end of the course a student, Dan, was preparing for his "challenge route." He'd been on it before, but always convinced himself that he couldn't stick the last move - it was reachy, he'd be pumped, and he was afraid he'd fall. Before he got on the route again, I helped him prepare. I asked, "Have you taken falls similar to the one you're facing here?" He answered, "Yes, plenty." "Then," I said, "so what, if you fall?"  WORKSHOP - #14 - The Big Brush
The constant search for new boulder problems and areas is one of the greatest pleasures in climbing, as it generally provides the highest adventure, solitude, and intimacy with nature. But, often climbers may be exploring territory that has seen no prior visitation, and such locations may represent pristine environments and habitats. The extent of damage to its fragile environment from a recreational user group could be devastating. Some land is also, what we call, private property.  WORKSHOP - #13 - The Slo-Op
Climbers can be pretty resourceful. They can stick to inverted glass, open beer bottles with carabiners and stretch a thousand dollars into righteous year-long parties. They'll live on beans and rice and stale water for months on end without complaints, as long as they're preoccupied with a few sick lines. So it's only fitting that a few 20-somethings - climbers, of course - in the sleepy California town of San Luis Obispo managed to build one of the state's best bouldering gyms with 6,000 pounds of steel, 80 sheets of plywood and a hell of a lot of sweat.  WORKSHOP - #12 - Mission Transition
Climbing in the gym is the easiest barrier of entry into climbing - gyms are in nearly every metropolitan area, gear and instruction are provided, and great lengths and effort have been put into making the gym experience "comfortable." For some climbers, the gym is an end to itself, but for others, taking the challenge of stepping onto rock is the draw. Making this transition, however, can be difficult.  WORKSHOP - #11 - Pop Science
I was climbing on pockets the other day and heard a "pop" in my finger. It now hurts at the base of my finger on the palm side and I can't seem to crimp or pull on pockets anymore. What should I do? From your description, it sounds like you've partially ruptured your A2 "pulley" (aka annular ligament).  WORKSHOP - #10 - Gray Matters
I am clawing my way through the final moves of Legacy, a 100-foot classic at the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Below me are several small overhangs, each bolt having been clipped with serious struggle. I am exhausted, and waves of fear wash over me, flipping my stomach like a hooked fish. Staring me down are the final quickdraws, teasing me from the shuts and seemingly miles away out to my left.  WORKSHOP - #9 - Be Prepared: The Great Zone Out
(Three) You're falling. The screams of encouragement have been silenced by the sudden mutter of fear exhaled from your trembling lips. / (Two) The brain recognizes a siege and works quick. There is no music. No king sized mattress beneath you. You remember the pyramid shaped boulder waiting to claim an ankle. / (One) FWAP!  WORKSHOP - #8 - Wintering Indoors: Tips to Keep Your Plastic Pulling Effective and Fun
As Mother Nature now tightens her wintry grip, so many of us are now relegated to tightening our grip on plastic at the gym. Especially for those of us living north of Interstate 70, bitter cold, snow, and icy rain often preclude us from climbing outside for weeks - or months - on end. Pulling down on plywood and plastic is our saving grace...as long as we can keep it fresh and fun.  WORKSHOP - #8 - Fighting the Freeze: Cold weather climbing
Not many land-lovers would guess that rock climbing is a cold-weather sport, and there are more than a few climbers too, who balk at being chilly. But even if it's not to your taste, sending weather is still sending weather. Conditions are best in that just-barely bearable range where you stick like a gecko, but frostbite remains unlikely. So the best time to climb your hardest probably won't line up with your comfort zone, but since when has climbing been a comfortable activity? |
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