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There's lots of things to remember, but your main concern will (obviously) be what happens if you fall. So you need to know how to control a fall but more importantly you and your buddies need to know how to spot and have the equipment to do it effectively.

If I were you, my first port of call would be the staff at your bouldering gym. Chances are, they are experienced climbers outside as well as in. They should be able to give you good first hand advice on bouldering outdoors and answer any of your questions. My gym even hires out bouldering mats.

You might also want to check out this article. It's got some genuinely good advice. The only other thing I would say is take it easy when you go first time. Climbing outside is obviously different to inside, but you might be surprised how much. On plastic I can do most 7b/7c grades, but you can knock a whole number off that sometimes when outside. Rock can also be a bit of a shock on your hands. The first time I climbed outside was on gritstone and it literally tore my fingertips off. I was cleaning blood off the rock at one point. So yeah, take it easy and buy some climb on.

Most important thing though - enjoy yaself!

Climbing in Boston is better than ever. There are at least 5 gyms within 10 miles of Boston Proper:

-Central Rock in Watertown. Amazing bouldering, toproping and lead climbing. Highest walls in the city.

-MetroRock in Everett. Huge variety of climbing. Gets very busy. Events and classes abound.

-BKB in Somerville. Very new and very hip. A nice space but with major flaws in terms of gym design. Expensive.

-Boston Rock Gym in Woburn. An older gym, solid, but with smaller walls and less overall climbing. More affordable. Old school crowd.

-Rockspot in Dedham. The smallest of the 5. Great setting with hard routes. Affordable.

Of the five, BKB, Central Rock and MetroRock are T and bus accessible. Rockspot and Boston Rock Gym I believe require a trip on the commuter rail.

The Greater Boston area is also home to lots of great outdoor climbing for any level.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/massachusetts/105908062

And some literature that might be good to check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Climbing-England-Falcon-Guide/dp/1560448113/ref=pd_sim_sg_2

http://www.bostonrocksonline.com/

Best of luck

Thanks for the Kind words. Been only climbing for about 2 1/2 years. I am pretty sure you will get some v6s done in the future aswell :)

​

edit: watched some of the videos you posted. You seem to be pretty strong but i assume you just started climbing recently?


I recommend you buy this book from john kettle "Rock climbing technique"
https://www.amazon.de/Rock-Climbing-Technique-Practical-Movement/dp/1999654404/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BK1T74RFEGBP&keywords=rock+climbing+technique+the+practical+guide+to+movement+mastery&qid=1563630779&s=gateway&sprefix=rock+climbing+tech%2Caps%2C1120&sr=8-1


spend some time on climbing problems as efficient as possible and get down every move super clean. don´t rush it. be aware of every foot and hand position and try to make every move as perfect and stable as possible. bouldering is not speed climbing :)

Warm weather beta for Fontainebleau?

Hi All, I'm super excited to have the chance to go to font for a few days next week. I've never been before and have been told "everything's great" whenever I ask which bits to go and see, which is really exciting but also super daunting because there's far too much stuff to be covered by one guidebook. I have this: https://smile.amazon.com/Fontainebleau-Climbs-Finest-Bouldering-Circuits/dp/1594857709?sa-no-redirect=1 but even just looking in there there's literally no way to choose!

Does anyone have any recommendations for: a) places which are particularly well-shaded (it's going to be ridiculously hot) b) specific climbs in the low-mid 6s which you just don't think anyone should miss? c) Specific circuits which tend to be shady and interesting (and probably don't go above 6c)

I'm really exciting and sure I'm going to have a great time regardless, and I have no expectations about breaking into new grades given the weather, but any recommendations just for "somewhere to start" would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

That video series is really good, and you should revisit it a couple times as you get more experience and time on the wall.

I think having a well fitted pair of shoes is important. The specific shoe doesn't matter, but I'd suggest something that fits your foot snuggly on all sides (like a sock). I like to have my toes slightly curled, since it's more powerful. Something like the 5.10 Moccasym, or the Scarpa Force V are great beginner shoes, but whatever beginner shoe that you are able to try on in person (REI or your local climbing shop) will work just fine.

Finally, the most important thing is to have fun! Don't worry too much about grades or sending everything, or not being good right away. Climbing can be a life long sport, so as long as you come with an open mind and a willingness to learn, you should do just fine.

Hmm, not sure how to describe all the techniques that you could be using, I would actually recommend reading a book or watching some videos on climbing techniques. Going from V0 to V1 is where things like turning your hips in and engaging your core really start mattering. It's actually harder to learn proper technique on V0 because a lot of the times you can get through them without proper technique. Try to work harder problems with someone who has good form, and try to get at least 2 or 3 moves at a time. If you can't do a pull-up yet, I would work on getting in at least 1 pull-up with proper form as well. One trick I found useful to get the "feel" of a move is hovering over the next hold with my hand before grabbing on to it. If you can reach for the next hold and hover over it for 2~3 seconds, it means you have established a proper base with your feet. Not always possible, but generally you want to be in balance so you conserve energy. Hope that helped, I mostly just climbed with other better climbers and wasn't shy about asking for technique tips, most were very willing to share beta and give me feedback. Good Luck!

You definitely have to get on High Plains Drifter (V7) in the Buttermilks. It's a classic V7 test-piece. The crux is a bit high off the deck so it's nice to have another party there to combine pads.

In the Happies, hit up the Hulk (V6). It's the only 4-star (out of 4 possible) boulder in the Happies according to the Bishop Bouldering Guide (that guide book is awesome; I'd recommend picking one up if you go).

If you want to pick up a cheap V10, hit up Cocktail Sauce in the Buttermilks. It's said to go around V7-8, and I'm inclined to agree that the grade's a bit soft.

Pow pow (V8) in the Sads is a super fun body-tensiony, sloper climb.

Fly Boy (sit) (V8) is a pretty classic V8 in the Buttermilks. This one you definitely need to hit up when there's a lot of people around to pad up the large-ish rock hanging out in the fall zone.

Here's a Top 100 list you might find useful: http://sendage.com/sendlists/print_view/4eb96bfb0d4fa

Thanks /u/yousavvy for the shout-out of climbOn, much appreciated.

Op: for finger strength, you can purchase something like this to help. In the use of climbOn after you're done climbing wash your hands. Pack climbOn Bar into any flappers, rips, or tears and cover. Overnight put a thin layer all over your hand and cover with a sock. It will help you build nice strong healthy hands!

It's very easy to get disheartened at first with others seemingly gliding up the wall. Try to remember that they have probably been climbing a very long time and quite regularly too. Instead try to look how they are climbing and improve your own technique, see if you can try those methods on easier problems or just straight up ask them "How did you do that?? I've been stuck there for so long!", I've found climbers are generally super friendly to approach and very eager to help eachother out with a problem. See if you can find a group of people to do a problem with, you'll be able to do it faster as they'll have a different way of thinking of doing it which may suit you better and it will be much more fun! (I've often found just a simple twist or drop knee will allow me to get past that crux that just wouldn't have occurred to me alone)

Another thing, if you do only the VB's first, get them nailed down, so you know how to do them efficiently. This way you'll learn valuable techniques that will be crucial for those pesky V0's and V1's and soon they'll be a thing of the past.

Take your time, talk to others, have a look at this book, get a chalk bag, have fun

Maybe take this as an opportunity to work on your upper body strength. Pull-ups are the obvious exercise of choice, as well as resistance band backward rows (or even better with a cable if you have access to one a machine).

If pull-ups are difficult for you, start by maxing out on negatives until you can eventually do a full pull-up. There are lots of videos on YouTube with information on pull-ups.

Regarding resistance band exercises, buy a few resistance bands from eBay, they're very cheap. Just the red one and the black ones will do (the two with the least resistance).

These ones are the best from my experience

Loop them around a post an do some seated rows.

Core exercises are of course important too. Avood crunches and anything involving spinal flexion. Hanging leg raises, planks, exercise ball rollouts and (if you can), dead bugs are all good exercises.

Best of luck, hope the toe heals up soon!

HEY!

I live in Texas so maybe it gets to cold for you but what I do for outdoor climbing is wear a nice pair of cargo shorts and a pair of knees compression sleeves (I had major damage done to them and a torn ACL from 8/2013 until September/2016)

BUT! You could always get something like this calf compression sleeve

My 2 knees sleeves kept me plenty warm while climbing in 45 degree weather and they offer plenty of movement. The calve sleeves would not hinder any movement be better for better grip on rock and would't be baggy or in the way.

I know it sounds a bit odd but trust me it's fantastic. I actually have a pair of baseball forearm sleeves for climbing in the summer (because rocks get very hot in Texas)



EDIT- Because I proofread after I submit.

You looked pretty casual climbing that thing, like it took no effort at all. Nice job.

I also like the fact you're focused on things you can control — your activity level and what you eat — and not on things you can't control, like the numbers on the scale.

As for diet, I recently read Always Hungry? by Harvard obesity researcher David Ludwig.

If your goal is sustainable weight loss, I highly recommend the book. It's virtually impossible to sustain a restrictive diet if you're eating the wrong things. Specifically, highly processed carbs and sugars trigger a cascade of biochemical reactions in your body which result in slower metabolism, more stored calories, and greater appetite.

Here is the author, speaking to the New York Times:

>It’s the low fat, very high carbohydrate diet that we’ve been eating for the last 40 years, which raises levels of the hormone insulin and programs fat cells to go into calorie storage overdrive. I like to think of insulin as the ultimate fat cell fertilizer.

...

>Simply cutting back on calories as we’ve been told actually makes the situation worse. When we cut back on calories, our body responds by increasing hunger and slowing metabolism. It responds in an effort to save calories. And that makes weight loss progressively more and more difficult on a standard low calorie diet. It creates a battle between mind and metabolism that we’re doomed to lose.

...

>We think of obesity as a state of excess, but it’s really more akin to a state of starvation. If the fat cells are storing too many calories, the brain doesn’t have access to enough to make sure that metabolism runs properly. So the brain makes us hungry in an attempt to solve that problem, and we overeat and feel better temporarily. But if the fat cells continue to take in too many calories, then we get stuck in this never-ending cycle of overeating and weight gain. The problem isn’t that there are too many calories in the fat cells, it’s that there’s too few in the bloodstream, and cutting back on calories can’t work.

---------

I've changed my eating habits based loosely on recommendations in the book: cut out sugar and refined carbs, eat more fats. I eat more protein than recommended because of how much training I'm doing. I eat lots of fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, vegetables, and fruits. I'm down about 10 pounds since November and I'm stronger. I'm can do one-arm pull-ups again, and am breaking personal records on my hangboarding and campus-board training.

The best part of the "diet" is that my portion sizes are down dramatically and I like what I eat, yet I don't feel hungry all the time. I don't count calories or macros.

If you want to count calories, that's fine, but it's a lot easier to stick to that calorie goal if you're not eating poorly.

Yes, that sounds about right. Here's the exact setup I used:

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. Older 3s works too, but not so much the Raspberry Pi 2 for wireless streaming at least. Having an integrated wifi chip is really essential
  
• A fisheye webcam. Other webcam models should also work but make sure you get one that supports mjpeg streaming and not just YUY.
  
• A usb lipstick style phone battery to power the pi. Any brand should work. The phone will run out of power before the Pi does
  
• iPhone 6S acting as the viewer
  
  Once you connect the Pi to your phone, you can actually access it by host name: http://pi.local:8080. On the phone, I use a simple webpage that duplicates the stream for each eye (the pi here has the host name pita).
  
  This setup is pretty flexible and has worked well enough for my purposes
  

I used to have to tape all my fingers from pushing it too hard. I didn't know how to listen to my body and when to end a session. At the level you are currently at, I would highly suggest getting some PowerPutty both in level 1 and 2/3. Level 1 is legitimately the best recovery tool for pulley injuries and level 2 or 3 is the perfect warm up tool. When I started using level 1, my recovery time became much faster. Using level 2/3 for 2 minutes before touching the wall greatly reduced my finger injuries. Try it out, it's the best $8 you can spend on climbing, hands down:
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Putty-3-Medium/dp/B0002M83AA

1. Pick up a can of Climb On. SKINourishment climbOn Bar 1 oz - Original https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017TK2TC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0vvvDbTD1BAXA
   After you shower or wash your hands, disinfect any hangers and apply this stuff. Also apply before bed. It helps the skin to heal.
   
   
2. Watch this video on how to tape a hanger: https://youtu.be/Bg7h_zjU6h8 typically after I tape up, I move to the vertical wall and try to climb things with good crimps instead of jugs, just to give the tear a break.
   
   
3. Blisters: disinfect a needle, disinfect the skin (I stole some alcohol pads from the first aid kit at work). Poke a hole going from the edge of the blister through to the middle of it. Drain the fluid into a tissue. Disinfect the skin again. Let that heal up.
   
   
4. Sanding down calluses to avoid hangers: I picked up a sanding block yesterday, coarse grade. I sanded a callus before it started. Eventually it tore but it wasn't a bleeding gash, I was actually able to keep climbing on it after I taped it. That's my only feedback, only tried this once.
   
   From what I read, everyone does things differently, so I'd experiment with all of these. After 3 weeks of climbing, my skin seems to have toughened up enough to where I'm not tearing/bleeding after every session. It sucks, but the best thing you can do is take 2 days off to heal if you've got a bleeder. On those days I'd work out legs or abs just to make sure I did something.
   
   Have fun! I'm learning along with you!

On Your Toes bactericide works great. I've used regular foot powders and the like. On Your Toes is far superior. It doesn't last six months, like the label says (I think that's more meant for low-use shoes). For $15...DEFINITELY worth a try if you're on the fence.

Ok, you sound exactly like me. I started 4 weeks ago aswell, immediatly got addicted went every other day and even 2 days in a row. Then I got golfers elbow. I started to much too fast and my ligaments were not developed enough to keep up with my muscle growth.

I bought this and followed YouTube exercises and its helped a lot.
https://www.amazon.com/TheraBand-Resistance-Epicondylitis-Tendonitis-Intermediate/dp/B00066D6K4/ref=pd_bxgy_328_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00066D6K4&pd_rd_r=G1H17NFHVQR76G1KYN00&pd_rd_w=3xahq&pd_rd_wg=nivTr&psc=1&refRID=G1H17NFHVQR76G1KYN00


Also start going once a week then twice a week and ramp up. Don't go straight in to 3 days a week off a week of rest. Build up and be patient. Im currently sitting out a week because I was too eager to go back in the same week.

Another thing I did was only climb the 3 V0 problem I knew perfect. I worked on my technique and how to climb them more efficient each time.

Can you give an example of hand strengtheners?

If you're talking about stuff like this, there isn't much information because they aren't as effective as other methods. I have this exact one and honestly it's more of a warm up than a strengthener. Hangboards and climbing are much more effective for grip training. Advice? Climbing will give train your grip better, but these can be used as warm ups.

> many from using the system boards/campus rungs

Most hand injuries I see are from hangboarding and climbing too many crimpy problems. Campus boards are relatively hard to injure your hands on unless you are full crimping or accidentally smash your finger against it. Are you referencing something else?

Pinching power is a really specific thing to train at the beginner level. Something like barbell holds might be better - giving you that forearm burn. Also finger strength - get the item in the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Hand-Finger-Exerciser-Medium-Tension/dp/B000UMHURY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1526751164&sr=8-3&keywords=prohands%2Bgripmaster&th=1

For overall athleticism, do cardio (running, biking, hiking, whatever). And do core, either TRX or hanging leg raises.

Hello, I'm relatively new to the sport, being in it for only about 6 months. I am looking to get a hang board to train at home as I have no time to go to the gym during the school year. As such, what options do y'all suggest? I am currently looking at the metolius contact as well as the 3D simulator. Feel free to post any suggestions, as well as which board you prefer, preferably with a reason as to why.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I04IDFC/ref=s9_dcacsd_dcoop_bw_cr_x__a_w

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002N54TFM/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_cr_x__a_w

Edit: if you have suggestions for other boards, feel free to post them as well

For your first time and at the level 7a, any guidebook that has decent directions to the sectors will be fine, for example, Fontainebleau Climbs.

I've been there many times, and still almost never use a guidebook except for finding the parking and blocs. Most of the time, you can just wander around the sectors and find amazing things to climb at just about any level. It's also more fun (for me) to climb without knowing the grades.

There are a few simple things you can do that will help #1. dont put your shoes in a gym bag when your done climbing, leave them where they can breath and dry out faster. #2 I use Lumi shoe spray from time to time, link is below. #3 put them in a bag in your freezer for a day or 2 it will kill most of the bacteria and will help knock the edge off some. #4 if they are super funky toss them in the washer on cold / cold then let them air dry, they will come out smelling like new.

https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Shoe-Deodorizer-Spray-Eliminator/dp/B013TSRYUS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521816500&sr=8-3&keywords=shoe+spray+deodorizer

Chalk

Tape

ClimbOn

Chalk Brush

Merry Christmas!

Hi. I highly recommend you to check out "Rook Climbing Technique". It covers skill exercises to do during your warm up (or throughout your session) to develop precisely what you're asking. The book comes with a YouTube channel with examples on how to correctly do each exercise.

Thanks for your feedback! I just checked out this and I'll post some results here! I don't normally have stinky feet, but it's only after climbing where I always have to hit the shower immediately.