Benefits to climbing in the cold that I never considered that seem relevant...

My partner and I bouldered all winter at our local crag, typical day was 28 and overcast.  Wind chills were usually around 20 and we spent all winter out there, mud and ice definitely suck.

So is warmed up now and there are some HUGE differences I never considered and I wonder if its just do to temps.  We both went all winter w/o finger injuries or really any soreness in the digits.  Now that it has warmed up we both seem to have finger issues.  I wonder if climbing in the cold all the time inhibited the inflammation process while we were climbing?  Seems odd, my hands cold barely close today and I went all winter w/o this once.  Also, my feet get sore now, shoes hurt and this never happened all winter ad we had socks on...again, wonder if it was the cold and the feet didnt swell.

Another thing I noticed was how nice my shoes lasted ALL winter, after 4 months they were in really good shape, no rips or anything in the rubber...then it warms up and we both blow our shoes out in a couple weeks, both of us have rips and blown toes now...

Just seems like the cold, real cold, helped with all these things.  Anyone else ever noticed this before?  Any more benefits to climbing in 3 degrees all the time except an empty park and increased friction?  I definitely am missing the increased friction, feet just stick to everything in the cold...

Alas, spring is here...

It's like keeping your body in a fridge. stays better longer. 

Seems likely that when it’s cold you spend more time warming up (quite literally) and have more time downtime between climb attempts getting warm again. This adds up to more stretching, less climbing?

tobias bundlewrote:

Seems likely that when it’s cold you spend more time warming up (quite literally) and have more time downtime between climb attempts getting warm again. This adds up to more stretching, less climbing?

We move more in winter honestly. Warm ups are longer IMO as I tend to go thru things twice, sessions are all around 3.5-4.5 hrs. Id say the climb the same amount, not sure that would be it.

Inhibiting the inflammation process would just make your fingers more susceptible to injury in the long run. Better friction in the winter means that you might slip off holds less frequently which would be good for the health of your fingers and shoes, but after 4 months of hard bouldering you also probably are just at the point where you need to take a short break or switch up focus for a bit.