Keeping Ropes out of Cracks and Feet
Hi Steph,
I recently spent some time in Utah to work on my crack technique. I felt fine in corners, but in straight in cracks I felt like I would trip over the rope or my last piece. Any advice on how to orient the rope with my feet would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Liam
Hi Liam,
The worst case scenario with feet and straight-in cracks is getting the rope wedged between your foot and the crack and then being unable to move up, pull the rope up or get your foot out. This is highly irritating.
Due to the laws of physics and gravity, if the crack is vertical and non-angling, the rope has to go where your feet also need to go. If you are leaning out and off to the sides at all while climbing (which happens naturally more often than not), a lot of times the rope just stays out of the way by itself. If your waist is straight over your feet, which also happens naturally a lot, you will have to actually work around the rope when you move your feet. If your hands are in very solid jams, you will probably be able to use one hand to flick the rope to one side or the other when setting a higher foot jam.
The main technique I use is to kick or nudge the rope with my foot right before I put my foot in the crack, and it’s almost second nature for me at this point. Over time you won’t even notice you’re doing it. Other times I’ll lean my hips out or to the side in order to change the angle of the rope and tug it off to the side of the crack before putting my foot in. You do have to deal with it, because once your foot is wedged in with the rope, things will not work.
As you mentioned, you also need to be careful about not kicking your last cam with your foot as you climb above it. It’s very easy to do that, especially with the bigger sized cams, and actually unseat the cams or spin the piece around. This is super disconcerting if you’ve just de-activated your last piece down by your feet, especially if you don’t have another one ready to go in…. Again, the crucial beta is to be mindful of that last cam and do not kick it. I know, right now you are going, “oh wow, really? Thaaanks.” Sorry, that is the actual beta.
One less obvious thing that will help you with both issues is to make sure you have comfortable shoes, which is always the key on splitter cracks. If your shoes are uncomfortable, you will subconsciously be in some pain and more rushed with your foot placements. You’ll notice that any sort of thrashing almost always leads to ropes getting stuck in with feet.
Good luck and enjoy 🙂
Steph
