My girlfriend and I have been working hard on improving our crack climbing technique, but are still near the bottom of the scale.

For here there is one particular hurdle that maybe some of the women here can help with. She observed recently that often, when I or one of our friends is working a crack, there is a tendency to bring elbows, upper arms, hands and wrists right smack in front of the chest. This is especially true when sticking a lower hand hard to free the other hand for the next grab, or when the crack is very straight and there is a big reach coming or some other stuff like that.

Anyways, she feels she is having a hard time learning similar moves with her breasts in the way, creating a tendency to lean out of the crack a bit instead of staying straight above the feet. So if anyone can conjure up some tips or advice for her it would be gladly appreciated.

And I'd appreciate it if the boys could refrain from getting this sent to PnP for at least a few days

What, you don't want any cracks about climbing cracks?

It really depends on the size of the crack and what kind of jam you're using. If it's a finger crack that requires that you jam it straight in, to keep your jam set you really need to pull it straightdown in front of you, boobs or no boobs. If the crack is offset, you can lean opposite the side of the offset and work around the issue that way.

With a wider crack, where you're getting a hand or fist jam, you're actually going to be pulling the jam to just below your chest (and maybe that's her problem). For a solid, thumbs up handjam, ideally you should be trying to pull down near your bellybutton. If the rock is steep, I can't really envision how her breasts would prevent her from doing that since your torso is actually some ways away from the rock.

I suspect the technique is the main problem not the boobs. Learning to crack climb well takes practice. I see alot of people who climb hard but still kind of suck at it. If you want a good written tutorial, on Super Topo someones pdf'ed a copy of a crack climbing article by Dale Bard that I think is the best treatise written on the subject.

Pardon me, but that does not sound like a legitimate excuse. I have substantial implants and believe me they are sensational protruberances that could probably be used to jam cracks themselves. In sum, they don't get in the way. My crack technique suffers from being too tense and trying to grab something -- anything -- inside the crack rather than just relaxing and levering.

By the same token, wouldn't you guys' pecs/man boobs get in the way?

UberBabs wrote:Pardon me, but that does not sound like a legitimate excuse. I have substantial implants and believe me they are sensational protruberances that could probably be used to jam cracks themselves. In sum, they don't get in the way. My crack technique suffers from being too tense and trying to grab something -- anything -- inside the crack rather than just relaxing and levering.

By the same token, wouldn't you guys' pecs/man boobs get in the way?

I thought the correct term was "dude boobs."

UberBabs wrote:........ and believe me they are sensational protruberances that could probably be used to jam cracks themselves......

fantastic line barb.... too funny
"sensational" is such a fantastically descriptive adjective

Buz Groshong wrote:

UberBabs wrote:Pardon me, but that does not sound like a legitimate excuse. I have substantial implants and believe me they are sensational protruberances that could probably be used to jam cracks themselves. In sum, they don't get in the way. My crack technique suffers from being too tense and trying to grab something -- anything -- inside the crack rather than just relaxing and levering.

By the same token, wouldn't you guys' pecs/man boobs get in the way?

I thought the correct term was "dude boobs."

no... it's MOOBS

Dingus Milktoast wrote:This thread is useless without pictures.

DMT

Amen Dingus, Amen

Here's the article referenced earlier in the discussion (scroll to the bottom of the page):

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/threa ... 9745&tn=32

I have a similar problem when jamming. I have a large protuberance that gets in the way when my hands get below my waist. I have to stick my butt way out in the air and it disrupts my balance.



(If that doesn't get the thread sent to PNP...nothing will)

Why am I the only so-called one of the "ladies" that took the bait on this?

UberBabs wrote:Why am I the only so-called one of the "ladies" that took the bait on this?

All the other ladies knew where this thread would go!

I refuse to be a cynic! I will give the OP the benefit of the doubt and expect the rest of you to elevate the discourse.

DMT,

I think they are MAMMAlots . . .

You might want to ask her. I'd think she'd be the resident expert.