Can Jams Be Too Good?
- March 2012
- Climb
Hi Steph,
You could say that you taught me how to climb cracks. I read your “how to” a while back, and keep referring to it as I progress. I even learned how to tape through you! Needless to say, you’ve unknowingly helped me quite a bit, and I am so thankful!
Anyways, I am running into a problem when crack climbing, and I was hoping you could offer some helpful advice. Since I’m not super advanced, most of the cracks I climb are in the thin hands to fist size range. This means you can usually wedge some very solid feet. The problem is just that, the feet are bomber when the hands might not be. I’m really scared of my hands coming out of the crack while my feet remain wedged in, flipping me upside down and causing all sorts of problems.
Is there anything you do to avoid this problem? I read somewhere (your book I think) that you make it a personal rule to NEVER fall out of a jam. I’ve tried to follow this rule, but is there anything else you’d recommend?
Thanks for being who you are,
Corey
Hi Corey,
Thanks for writing! It’s funny, because I often have that same paranoia when climbing thin finger cracks. There are some finger locks that are so good with feet so bad, that I really believe that if I fall my fingers will rip off my hands and stay stuck in the crack while I go for a horrible whipper without them. I have come to learn that it’s highly unlikely 🙂 When my feet slip in a situation like that, I either hang off my fingers (which don’t suddenly tear off my hands), or my fingers slip out of bomber knuckle-catching locks at the same time my feet slip off and I fall like a normal person, which at that point is a relief.
While it’s certainly not impossible that your hands could slip out and your feet stay in, I think it’s equally unlikely. I have never heard of this happening to anyone. Again, anything can happen, we know that from climbing! But I don’t think it will. But if it does, let me know and I’ll make it up to you somehow, I promise.
And yes, you can avoid all possibility of this happening if you just follow rule #1: never fall out of a jam. ;D
Steph
I fell out of a lightly overhung thin hand jamb with a bomber foot jam placed. Once my body was horizontal, my foot came out nicely and I landed flat on my back on a crashpad. My spotter and I had a good laugh. It was funny.
😀
I don’t know how I missed this post but I found it just in time! I’m going to Joshua Tree tomorrow morning and I plan on falling out of exactly ZERO jams :). But seriously, I’ll try and remember this when I’m shaking up there. You’ll be hearing from me when I take the shoe-less headfirst whipper! 😉
if that happens, I definitely want to hear about it. and pictures 🙂
Once had this scenario actually happen on a coarse granite crack in Finland (a most typical climb on my area). The leader slipped off his finger jam while desperately slotting a nut, his perfect toe jam (caught on granite crystals) pivoting him head down and torquing off only when he was on his way down head first. He hit his upper torso and (luckily helmeted) head on the wall after a good pendulum. So this actually happens, please do not consider yourself too cool to wear a helmet and wear your harness tight.
woooooooooaaaa!!!!
so now we know: it is not only possible, it has actually happened…..!!