What did you wish you knew when you started climbing?

One of the most helpful things a friend said to me when I was learning was to look at your feet while climbing, not your hands...well that and bush to the wall.

Your hands are sensitive. They aren’t covered by anything so once they are on a good hold they will stay put when you look away.

Your toes are covered by rubber so you don’t have as much sensory input. Often when you look away they shift and move. Watching your feet as you place them on a foothold helps build technique and doesn’t wear out your shoes as fast (from fumbling around and kicking the wall). Also, moving your feet up as much as possible when you have good hand holds.

I still struggle using my legs when I climb since my upper body is so strong but this did help.

• Lead Climbing is Often Safer than Top Rope
• Experience is overrated.
• Classic Climbs Are Not Even That Classic
• Choss is Beauty

That it's ok to be weaker than a 5 year old. 

That is would be so addictive. 

• Technique > power
• Training doesn’t matter until 5.12, just climb
• Mythos suck

That it might consume the majority of your thoughts and life....  :)

I started in 1953. Like most beginners with little contact at that time with what might have been called the climbing community, I knew nothing of the history of the sport of rock climbing. Many years later I discovered how rich that history was, particularly the early days (1880s) in England, Did you know that the infamous creator of Black Magick and the religion of Thelema, Aleister Crowley (The Beast 666), was a pioneer of the sport?  He was also one of the first British boulderers and wrote an informal guide to a bouldering area. He was also on an expedition to the Karakorum in 1892 I think with his close friend Oscar Eckenstein. Eckenstein left the group and wandered among the various villages until finding a fine set of boulders, upon which he held what might have been the first bouldering contest. The top prize was a rupee. He wrote that the best native was better than a top Swiss guide.  

John Gillwrote:

I started in 1953. Like most beginners with little contact at that time with what might have been called the climbing community, I knew nothing of the history of the sport of rock climbing. Many years later I discovered how rich that history was, particularly the early days (1880s) in England, Did you know that the infamous creator of Black Magick and the religion of Thelema, Aleister Crowley (The Beast 666), was a pioneer of the sport?  He was also one of the first British boulderers and wrote an informal guide to a bouldering area. He was also on an expedition to the Karakorum in 1892 I think with his close friend Oscar Eckenstein. Eckenstein left the group and wandered among the various villages until finding a fine set of boulders, upon which he held what might have been the first bouldering contest. The top prize was a rupee. He wrote that the best native was better than a top Swiss guide.  

He was a good writer and an interesting human, I wonder if he was a good climber?

M Mwrote:

He was a good writer and an interesting human, I wonder if he was a good climber?

Crowley was a great mountaineer for his time. The last podcast on the left did a 3 part series on him and I highly recommend giving it a listen - they actually dive fairly deep into his climbing/mountaineering career as it was one of the few things he was actually great at besides inheriting money, blowing that money, and growing the occult (plus a whole lotta kink shit)

The only thing you should take seriously is safety everything else should be fun

Cronwrote:

• Technique > power
• Training doesn’t matter until 5.12, just climb
• Mythos suck

Mythos are all time! Amazing comfort, will get you through any slab/crack and even crimps or small feet holds up into the 5.11s

Trevor Taylorwrote:

The only thing you should take seriously is safety everything else should be fun

Safety is fun and I'm serious about fun.

M Mwrote:

Safety is fun and I'm serious about fun.

In that case you should probably just skip climbing and get really into osha

Never be afraid to dig deep, find your inner strength and say screw safety, I'm going for it.

The people you climb with can make a huge difference