Worst advice beginners get told

These are like "old wives tales" of the climbing world.  I don't know where they came from, but they often have no basis in reality, and do more harm than good.  They sound good, and are easy to remember, so maybe that's why they keep making the rounds.  But as a service to beginners, let's get these out there to clear up a few things.

I have lots, but here's one:  "Always clip near your waist"  

Recently a friend of mine (a beginner) decked after blowing the first clip in the gym.  He "knew" it was wrong to clip above his head, so he got his feet up high, got into a poor stance near the bolt, tried to clip, and a foot popped off.  Fortunately he was okay, but it could have gone a different way.

To beginning leaders I would say this.  If you must have a rule about when to clip, try:  "Always clip from the best stance".  That said, every rule in climbing has an exception, so use your head.

GO

Oval Biners aren't safe for anything climbing related

Ask your question on the MP forums.

Gym climbing will prepare you for real rock climbing...

“Grigris are autolocking.”  

If you put a PAS through your belay loop YGD.  

Seriously 1 dude died because he was serially jugging up Yosemite bigwalls on a damaged harness he had been told he needed to replace.   Nobody is cutting through belay loops cleaning sport climbs. 

The issue with the one you mentioned is that a safety strategy was followed blindly, without the climber understanding when/why one should clip at their waist. It is really important to minimize falling distance. If you clip as high as you can, that is about 4' higher than your waist. If you blow it, you will fall double that height, so congratulations, you just added 8' of additional falling distance. That can increase your chances of decking or hitting bad things. However, if you understand that, you can then reason that before your first clip, that entire idea is not yet applicable (kind of like why a belayer will leave a ton of slack and spot you before the first clip, rather than keeping a tight belay from the ground).

Additionally, if you're a wimp like me, then this no longer applies if you're climbing with doubles and clipping the appropriate rope, because you are not extending the rope that will catch you first. ;-)

So one bit of bad advice for beginners is to teach them to follow 'rules' as rules and not understand when and when not to do certain strategies.

Not quite bad advice per se, but two amazingly common bad beginner behaviors that I have seen:

1. Using an aid climbing daisy chain as an adjustable connection to an anchor. (Not a bad idea always, but risky, especially if you don't know how it can be dangerous).

2. Using a bike helmet for rock climbs. (If you know how each is tested and meant to work, you'd understand why this is a really bad idea)

Light is right 

GabeO wrote: These are like "old wives tales" of the climbing world.  I don't know where they came from, but they often have no basis in reality, and do more harm than good.  They sound good, and are easy to remember, so maybe that's why they keep making the rounds.  But as a service to beginners, let's get these out there to clear up a few things.

I have lots, but here's one:  "Always clip near your waist"  

Recently a friend of mine (a beginner) decked after blowing the first clip in the gym.  He "knew" it was wrong to clip above his head, so he got his feet up high, got into a poor stance near the bolt, tried to clip, and a foot popped off.  Fortunately he was okay, but it could have gone a different way.

To beginning leaders I would say this.  If you must have a rule about when to clip, try:  "Always clip from the best stance".  That said, every rule in climbing has an exception, so use your head.

GO

I disagree on this, especially indoors. Typically, (if the setters are decent) routes indoors should be set so that the best stance for the majority of climbers is when the clip is near the waist so that the climber is not pulling out multiple armfuls of slack to clip. Obviously, climber height and dimensions play a large role in comfortable clipping stances. But I reiterate, if the setters are decent then they should be factoring this in when they are setting. The application of this "rule" is much less clear outdoors. There are definitely places (usually steeper crags with permadraws - i.e. Rifle, Rumney, RRG, etc) where clipping at your waist is often the norm as the routing/bolt location/length of permadraws has been optimized for convenient clipping at ones waist. However, as often as this is the case, there are numerous times where you are clipping up from a good stance/jug, climbing past a draw and clipping from above, or skipping draws when it is safe (usually project draws that aren't totally necessary to clip, but useful when working routes. So, I agree with your suggestion with clipping from the best stance, but dismissing clipping at your waist isn't super productive. 

"Microfractures."

"Sometimes the only way down is up."

Mark P Thomas wrote: The issue with the one you mentioned is that a safety strategy was followed blindly, without the climber understanding when/why one should clip at their waist. It is really important to minimize falling distance. If you clip as high as you can, that is about 4' higher than your waist. If you blow it, you will fall double that height, so congratulations, you just added 8' of additional falling distance. 

I believe your presentation of this is incorrect.

The fall distance is the same whether you clip at your waist or over your head.

Clipping high will, however, result in the fall ending closer to the ground, which might matter a lot. Or not.

“Fit your shoes as tight as possible”

“Metal on metal is not ok”.

A friend of mine took that to heart (we are talking about not making chains of quickdraws, bc the ‘biner clipped into ‘biner while leading can unclip, so if you have to extend a draw make it biner-dogbone-biner-dogbone-biner, not biner-dogbone-biner-biner-dogbone-biner)

And for many years she did just fine with that rule. Then she started climbing slightly more overhanging routes. So, few years into her outdoor climbing career, she had a complete freak out because I told her to go in direct at the second draw, while cleaning a route after leading.
And it was metal-on-metal!!!  OMG!!!!

Señor Arroz wrote:
"Sometimes the only way down is up."

This is pretty true sometimes.  I guess it could read sometimes the only "safe" way down is up......

"Don't fall"
Takes the fun out of it all.. 

Mark P Thomas wrote
2. Using a bike helmet for rock climbs. (If you know how each is tested and meant to work, you'd understand why this is a really bad idea)

If there is a rather large rock hurtling toward my head from 100' and my only two choices for absorbing that impact are my skull or a BMX helmet - I'll take the bike helmet every single time.

Beginners should not be told to...

"Jump to soften a catch", or to "give extra slack".

Both jumping and extra slack should only be used when necessary, and only by experienced belayers.  I'm not going to go into when it is appropriate to use those techniques, that is discussed in other threads.

Setting your TR anchor on a single bomber tree/boulder = ygd.

Don't even think about leading outdoors until you've gotten lots of practice in the gym.

Nick B wrote:

This is pretty true sometimes.  I guess it could read sometimes the only "safe" way down is up......

It's pretty true sometimes in trad climbing, but generally not at a beginner level. 

you need the climbing gear/apparel. friction labs, solutions, pants, ropes, draws, a rack, rope bag, approach shoes, pas. people could get away with so much less.