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Who issues "REAL ROCK" lead cards???

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Arthur Torrey · · North Billerica MA · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 46

Sort of my big brag as a paraplegic adaptive climber....  I went on a trip to the Gunks sponsored by the Adaptive Climbing Group, and with much help from Doug of Mountain Skills, along with a great crew of volunteers, was finally able to get my first "Real Rocks" lead climb in - about 30' up Ken's Crack....  

So, I know that you get nice cards to hang on your harness when you get a lead check (or are belay / autobelay certified) in the rock gym, but who gives out lead cards for doing it on Real Rocks???   I want to add to my tag collection......

Em Cos · · Boulder, CO · Joined Apr 2010 · Points: 5

You don't get a new tag to add on, you celebrate by cutting all those other tags off. ;)

Congratulations on your lead! 

Tony K · · Pa · Joined May 2017 · Points: 0

Hi congrats on your first lead. Been climbing 30 plus years and never heard about the cards for outdoor climbing ..., on that note my son in law owns a print shop and I would be happy to make a card ( no cost) documenting your successful climb 

let me know if you are interested 

again congrates climb on

Old lady H · · Boise, ID · Joined Aug 2015 · Points: 1,374

More than a few of us bring home a "real rock" from climbs that are special. I just look for a flat smooth surface for the underside, write the route, date, and whatever else with a sharpie. 

You could go a step further: have someone drill a hole and you could have a "real rock" lead tag!

Congrats! OLH

Arthur Torrey · · North Billerica MA · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 46

Thanks Tony, that would be great...  Some ways I'm surprised that some entrepreneurial type doesn't already offer them, seems like a natural for some of the climbing gear shops, or possibly sites like MP...

Send me a PM about how to work out details...

ART 

Hamish Hamish · · Fredericksburg, VA · Joined May 2017 · Points: 15

Art - saw the other thread where you were trying to figure out how to get this done, find a guide service to support, etc. - big congrats!

Arthur Torrey · · North Billerica MA · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 46

I've got some details on my personal page, but in short I use a mechanical advantage system that I largely designed and built myself.  I got hooked on climbing by Sean O'Neill, who is the only other paraplegic either of us knows of to lead climb.  He did a demo climb using his version of "tentacle climbing", and I asked to give it a try because it looked like a lot more fun than the ascender bar that I had initially started on (BORING!!!! just a question of how many pull-ups you can do...).  He set me up, and I went up an easy gym wall, came back down and was in 'engineering hacker' mode - "That was FUN, but it would be so much better if it....."  I am a member of the Artisan's Asylum, one of the worlds premier hacker-spaces, which gives me access to serious equipment to make stuff, and for the next several years every climbing session, I'd come back with a slightly modified set up intended to fix the problems I'd found on previous climbs....  Sometimes it was better, sometimes not...

Currently I have an autolock biner with a swivel eye that fastens into my waist and chest harnesses (I need the chest harness or I go over backwards) I have short Dyneema slings that double girth hitch the bottom pulleys of two block and tackle rigs (aka 'tentacles') to the eye.  I climb by running out one tentacle and fastening it to a hold. I haul myself up, and then repeat with the other tentacle, which frees the first one to use on the 3rd hold, etc., so that I stair-step my way up.

In the gym, I have a loop of 4mm cord on the top pulley that I hook over the plastic rocks using a reacher stick that lets me get 5-6' of progress per placement (note that this requires the holds to be 'juggy' enough to hold the loop....)  On real rocks, I have to place gear, and I clip into it directly with a biner on the top pulley...  Since you really have to have gear in hand and see what you are doing to place it, I can't use a reacher stick, so this means I have to make placements every 6-12 INCHES, as that is the most I can reach up past where I end up at each previous placement.  This means I can only do routes that have that sort of ability to stuff in gear all along the route, i.e. cracks like Kens.  I have to put gear in places that normal climbers would go right by, so I need LOTS of gear to cover all the possibilities....  It also means having to sometimes use things that make many people flee in terror, like hooks.... (Hooks are terrifying because you can't 'bounce test' them, instead you just stick them in the wall and start climbing on them (and hope they hold...))

The bottom pulley in each tentacle is my 'secret sauce' - it is something I designed myself and made on the Asylum CNC milling machine, the magic is that I built a cleat into the center plate of the double pulley.  (I can supply the CAD drawings on request) so I simply tie off on the cleat any time I need to stop.  This was a major improvement over all the efforts I had made previously to do progress capture with either mechanical devices like the mini-trak or knots like Prussiks and Kleimhursts...(SP?) The top pulley is a standard Blue Water Ropes double pulley.  The 50' of rope is shared between the two systems, with one end attached to each tentacle.  This gives a super solid stopper so I can't ever do the classic 'rap off the end' goof, and potentially reduces the amount of weight in the system as the same rope gets used by both tentacles...  The length is about right for the gym, but is much longer than I need for outside.

Hope this helps....

ART

Tony K · · Pa · Joined May 2017 · Points: 0

Just sent you an email  just let me know what you would want 

Russ Keane · · Salt Lake · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 392

Congratulations, this is amazing!   Have you heard of Hugh Herr?   I don't know the categories of disability, but he's a famous double-amputee climber.  Is this different? 

Arthur Torrey · · North Billerica MA · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 46
Russ Keane wrote:

Congratulations, this is amazing!   Have you heard of Hugh Herr?   I don't know the categories of disability, but he's a famous double-amputee climber.  Is this different? 

The name doesn't ring a bell, but I'm terrible on names, so....  

Categorizing disabilities gets tricky, because everyone seems to have a slightly different set of issues depending on the exact nature of their disability...  However there are a bunch of classes that have been defined by the USA Climbing people, which are also used in the world competitions.  I don't have the entire list on hand, but there are several classes for amputees, (or limbs missing due to birth defects) based on which limbs are missing....  Then there is a separate class for SCI / paralysis, and they compete differently.

Hard to say that anyone has an 'advantage' but an amputee gets the choice of climbing with or without a prosthetic (they make special 'climbing feet' BTW) going without gives less weight, and still allows the use of the residual limb on holds, while using the prosthetic can allow the climber to use the holds more in the way that an able-bodied climber can...

OTOH, I am a paraplegic, so all the parts are still there, but from about my rib cage down, nothing works...  (Depending on the 'level' of injury, the point where things stop working varies...)  This means I get to haul all the weight of my legs up the wall, but don't get any help from them, other than my knees acting as stabilizers to keep me facing the wall.  (I normally like to have a sort of 'tripod' stance between my knees and the place my system is secured to the wall...

The typical way that most paras climb, is 'campus climbing' where they simply grab onto holds and haul themselves up with JUST arm strength.  This pretty much requires a top rope to act as 'progress capture', and since the climber is hanging on with both hands, it is all but impossible for him to place gear....

I end up with a double irony...  I refuse to use a manual chair unless the situation requires it, as I know that I can do more sitting in a power chair.  I also have a slightly wonky shoulder that I need to be a bit careful of if I want to avoid surgery...  Because of this, I can't do the campus style climbing as I don't have the upper body strength.   This is what led to me developing the tentacle system as that is the only way that I can climb (other than using an ascender bar)...  So I get to lead climb because I can't do the campus style...  In a further irony, I am not able to compete in the adaptive climbing compos because "I ain't got no class" - there aren't enough people that climb like I do, and it wouldn't be fair for me to compete against the campus climbers...

ART

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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