The 10 Trad Commandments

(Or things I’ve learned in 2.5 years of trad climbing.)

Hey, everybody, this is a topic I’ve wanted to create for a while now. A quick history on myself, I was a dedicated boulderer for approximately 6 years. A little over two years ago I made the tough transition into trad climbing. I’ve onsighted almost all of the classic 10s, 11s, headpointed numerous r/x 12s, whipped, fallen, slipped, destroyed gear, sent things I never thought possible and fallen on things I never thought I’d fall on.

In becoming a new trad climber, being local to Long Island, which has absolutely no other climbers pushing the grade beyond 5.6/7, nobody to learn from, and nobody to learn how to blend the skills of hard trad climbing with safe trad climbing, I had to develop a lot of skills over the last two years which I wish I had a mentor to teach me. I have spread the love of trad climbing with countless other climbers and always find myself repeating these “rules” to make trad climbing effortless and fun.

So for the other lost souls who aren’t sure how to push their limit and learn to climb well, you may absorb things from this list that can help you immensely. Some of this stuff may seem simple, but it took me a while of figuring to develop a list as simple as this.
1. Use small foot movements. Transitioning from bouldering to trad was a swift kick in the groin as to how inefficiently and dynamically I was climbing. When you see that good foot ledge you want to high step onto, don’t just high step it. You want to train your feet to trust smaller footholds and to “float” your weight efficiently up the wall. Locate that good high foot ledge, tic tac your feet through 3/4 smaller foot movements in order to reach it. Practice this on easy terrain, while climbing harder routes. When you jump on the harder routes, that slippery, miniscule foot may be all you have. Intentionally smearing on the 5.4 sections of harder climbs will train you to trust your feet more than you thought possible. 

2. Wrap your thumbs on large holds/search for horizontal hand jams. Again, another redpoint saver I wish I was told. WRAP YOUR THUMBS ON THOSE JUGS. This removes a significant amount of weight from your tired fingers and can sometimes allow full recovery as you juggle the pump between your thumbs and your fingers. Practice using horizontal hand jams on easier routes to rest your fingers and develop other parts of your forearm which may be less used to engagement in the gunks. There are numerous gunks routes which can be broken up and made significantly easier by utilizing horizontal hand jams. Fat City, top pitch of Erect Direction, even the relentless Doubleissima can be tamed with some hand jams midway. Of course, this is not necessary, but if you’re trying to lead as cool and calmly as a cucumber, utilize these techniques on easy routes to save you from the difficulties of harder routes.

3. Rest efficiently. This sounds simple, but resting efficiently is not just straightening your arms and dropping your weight. It’s pressing your hips as close to the wall as humanly possible while doing the above. The closer your hips are to the wall, the more weight is on your feet, the more weight on your feet, the less weight on your hands, the harder your sends. Couple that with some thumb wraps or hand jams and all of a sudden you find yourself fully recovering in a once desperate position. Open your legs to the wall like you’re making sweet love to it, and if you feel incapable of this, stretch! Sounds simple? Not to the budding trad climber with no mentorship. Press those hips into the wall as much as possible, unload your fingers, send hard.

4. I know you heard this before "Never get high on your own supply"

Nice spray. How about:

crapping your pants is aid.

4. Breathe too much. Admittedly, this is easier to focus on when you’re not scared, runout, pumped, onsighting at your limit. The moment I touch the wall on a hard redpoint/headpoint attempt, I begin breathing as if I was running sprints. Full, deep diaphragmatic breathes into the pits of your lungs. Even in the easy sections. Keep your muscles thoroughly fueled with oxygen. When focusing on hard leads, 12r/x, I often feel the redpoint burns feel easier than any of the top rope burns, because I’m so hyper focused on efficient movement, breathing, resting, that the lackadaisical attitude of toproping, makes the route feel more difficult than a lead. Which brings me to my next point.

Eric Marx wrote: (

In becoming a new trad climber, being local to Long Island, which has absolutely no other climbers pushing the grade beyond 5.6/7

You lost all credibility right here.

5. Embrace toproping. When I started trad, I felt an enormous pride around onsighting stuff. I remember thinking I would only attempt hard routes if I felt I could onsight them, or else it was a waste. This the number one way of hindering progression. If you don’t have a stronger partner to follow, to show you what’s possible, the only way forward is to top rope. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised with your own ability. 

6. Do not make safe routes more dangerous than they need to be. If you’re climbing a G rated route, you make it to the crux and have one bomber piece of gear, at your waist, but still feel apprehensive about committing, place another piece of gear. Place two more. It takes a lot of falls on gear to become comfortable falling on gear. What works, what’s bomber, and what holds no matter how marginal it seems. Save the run outs and marginal placements for the routes you intentionally climb in that manner, protect the G rated stuff as much as possible.  

is this name an ode to the famous Cricketer from ZA?

Dang and all this time I've been out climbing thinking there was only 7 commandments   

Eric,

Some good rules and thoughts on trad climbing.  Sorry you have to deal with the typical salty bitches of MP.   As a new climber I wish I knew a lot of this.

Still unlocking calming my breathing and mind when i'm gripped.  Good fear vs. Bad fear

I can't count how many times I think "Why am I scared?  Why am I gripping this hold like i'll die if I let go of it?  I've got a good stance CALM DOWN!"

1. Look good
2. Climb good
3. Safe good

I want to hate this guy and his 12 R/X spraying so much but so far these tips are actually pretty good

Chuck D wrote: I want to hate this guy and his 12 R/X spraying so much but so far these tips are actually pretty good

For me, it is that he spaced them out one comment at a time, rather than just dropping the whole list in the OP.

The 12 R/X stuff just detracts from solid advice. Sometimes less is more.