Offwidth Armor + Offwidth Volume

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

People should climb what they are psyched on. It is like getting bent out of shape that someone likes IPAs and you like lagers. 

Fact: The only beers worth drinking are doubles, trips, and quads. 

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

People should climb what they are psyched on. It is like getting bent out of shape that someone likes IPAs and you like lagers. 

I would compare it more to people getting bent out of shape about the name of an obscure rock in the woods...

we climbed at a small crag on sunday that had 9 cracks. 8 of those had some wide climbing varying from off fists to squeeze chimney.  the grades were pretty small, but fuck me - i was pretty sore the next day.  used a few of those brisket muscles that i haven't used in a while.

Cory N wrote:

idk man, we climbed A Thing of Beauty the other day, it's longer than 35 meters from ground to top.

You might be right there. On the other hand, you'll never use like half of your rope if you bring a 70 to the Plumb Line Crag or the Short Wall. Likewise Poland Hill. Long routes are not that common at Vedauwoo.

Q1: What are the various strategies and items you use to protect your knees, elbows, and shoulder blades when you go into an offwidth session?

My OW kit looks a lot like my wife's post above. Long sleeve champion shirt that I wear over my sun shirt, high top shoes + socks, minzuno cloth knee pads from Walmart (sometimes just one if I know which side is going in). In terms of pants, I am really impressed by the Prana Stretch Zion. I ran the same pair through a ton of OW this Voo season without any issues with kneepads underneath. I find that knee pads on top of the pants is too slippy. 

Weird, I have at least 3 pairs of stretch zions where I wore through the knee after only a couple pitches of chimneys / knee bars on mostly Index granite. I wouldn't expect them to fair any better after 50 feet of knee jams either. I still like the pants, but friction rubbing durability hasn't been their strong suit in my experience. 

K Go wrote:

Weird, I have at least 3 pairs of stretch zions where I wore through the knee after only a couple pitches of chimneys / knee bars on mostly Index granite. I wouldn't expect them to fair any better after 50 feet of knee jams either. I still like the pants, but friction rubbing durability hasn't been their strong suit in my experience. 

That’s pretty neat! Different rock for sure. One could argue that given the nature of Vedauwoo rock you actually make less surface area contact due to the large crystal structure. I’ll update here after the desert season and let you know how they held up.

Edit: Wow I didn't know so many folks were tearing the knees, sounds like I got lucky with my pair? I also seemed to climb a lot of 6s and squeezes this year which is more thigh locks than front of knees.

K Go wrote:

Weird, I have at least 3 pairs of stretch zions where I wore through the knee after only a couple pitches of chimneys / knee bars on mostly Index granite. I wouldn't expect them to fair any better after 50 feet of knee jams either. I still like the pants, but friction rubbing durability hasn't been their strong suit in my experience. 

I have 2 pair of Zion stretch with knee holes. I won't get another pair. 

I find a medium thickness fairly densely knit scratchy wool sweater to do really well inside cracks here on grit, no doubt the grades are well off relative to the US but I've manage to climb some fairly hard offwidths in it, wool regulates body temp really well so as long as its not over 25c(77f) its fine and saves me from a lot of scrapes and bruises that coarser grit can give with the added benefit of sticking to the rock really well. For trousers I just suffer in jeans and have yet to wear any out directly from offwdiths. Synthetic trousers especially double weaves make for terrible offwdith trousers.

1. If you don’t like offwidths that’s okay, but there is a massive amount of technique and style required to be able to climb more than 2 pitches in a day of offwidth. You have to master all of traditional crack climbing techniques, plus jams, arm bars, chicken wings, heel toe camming, sidewinding, and any combination of the above. Offwidths require climbing over your gear just like anything else….if you have good cardiovascular fitness and all around body strength mixed with technique you can slay. There’s no shortcut to good technique maybe why all these upper body strength dependent climbers don’t like offwidths. 

2. I switched to cut proof sleeves: https://evridwearus.com/products/cut-resistant-sleeves?variant=32324552917076¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

I also wear bd crack gloves and tape only my wrists.

Pic is following BG crack in my crop top, and my TikTok leggings. I have climbed so many hard offwidths in my leggings and crop tops. 

I broke my prana pants day one with a knee bar. I never ever ever wear pants as discussed in pants over the harness thread and have had no outfit snafus with shorts. Hence my other thread about climbing pants being overrated.

To the subject at hand. I don’t know if you know what will be comfortable until you get there. Maybe just have an open mind and bring multiple possible outfits. I think Britney goris wears volleyball padding in vedawoo (I think it’s episode 6 of nugget podcast).

GRUG GRUG wrote:

Oh great, look who showed up and contributed nothing.

Meow? Meow?

 

Sarah Z wrote:

Traditional crack climbing techniques AND jams? Lol. Those sleeves look neat. No sliding/bunching? Wtf are “TikTok leggings”?

Sarah Z wrote:

1. If you don’t like offwidths that’s okay, but there is a massive amount of technique and style required to be able to climb more than 2 pitches in a day of offwidth. You have to master all of traditional crack climbing techniques, plus jams, arm bars, chicken wings, heel toe camming, sidewinding, and any combination of the above. Offwidths require climbing over your gear just like anything else….if you have good cardiovascular fitness and all around body strength mixed with technique you can slay. There’s no shortcut to good technique maybe why all these upper body strength dependent climbers don’t like offwidths. 

2. I switched to cut proof sleeves: https://evridwearus.com/products/cut-resistant-sleeves?variant=32324552917076¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

I also wear bd crack gloves and tape only my wrists.

Pic is following BG crack in my crop top, and my TikTok leggings. I have climbed so many hard offwidths in my leggings and crop tops. 

There is a lot of good information here, but neither of these statements are absolutely true:
1. You have to master all of traditional crack climbing techniques

2. Offwidths require climbing over your gear just like anything else 

abandon moderation wrote:

Reminds me of a burly local 5.9+ chimney/OW. One day some dude showed up in shorts and a t-shirt to climb it.

I kinda laughed and thought to myself "this gumby has no clue what they're in for"

The dude styled the pitch in like 5 minutes and came down without a scratch. Turns out he had all the clues, and better technique than I thought was possible. I think once you're climbing a wide pitch in shorts, you can say you've mastered that grade...

Reminds me of the time my friend said we would have a "chill day at the cookie" so I wore shorts and a tank top and ended up climbing the Enema and the squeeze below it.

I also climbed a gym calf lock sized crack in shorts without bleeding because I just got way too psyched.

Hilarious that some are saying climbing off width means you don't climb above your gear. I'm not sure where you all are climbing but there is often times at the Voo where you leave the piece behind due to a constriction or shit gets real wide for a bit and no gear works there. In desert OW you can usually just bump along forever, but that's definitely not the case on Voo granite. Anyway, I absolutely love this pic Hard to Believe https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107127293/hard-to-believe. Such a classic.

grug g wrote:

There is a lot of good information here, but neither of these statements are absolutely true:
1. You have to master all of traditional crack climbing techniques

2. Offwidths require climbing over your gear just like anything else 

1.It’s never zero and there is no absolute truth. In order to be a master offwidth climber you should have some mastery of standard crack climbing techniques. Some offwidths the crux for me is the fist crack or finger crack section. Having better mastery improves your ability to climb offwidths as well including stacking.

2. Yes, offwidths do get R ratings, you don’t bump your cams the entire way up the climb, and you climb over your gear. In some ways there is an additional risk of tipping out your last piece while having bumped it 40 feet over your last piece. This is inherently more risky than placing protection every 8feet. Also, don’t know if you’ve ever whipped on a big bro but nothing feels more like mental pro than climbing over your big bro. 

Yoda Jedi Knight wrote:

Traditional crack climbing techniques AND jams? Lol. Those sleeves look neat. No sliding/bunching? Wtf are “TikTok leggings”?

Hahaha yeah that was redundant, I should clarify full body jams- the butt jam is my favorite. TikTok leggings are just designed to make your butt look really good…. Just a fancier legging. Anyhow the sleeves fit pretty snugly but I just secure them with a small piece of tape in case I really start thrashing. They are the best sleeves I have purchased and lasted 2 seasons at the voo with no signs of wear. 

Sarah Z wrote:

Hahaha yeah that was redundant, I should clarify full body jams- the butt jam is my favorite. TikTok leggings are just designed to make your butt look really good…. Just a fancier legging. Anyhow the sleeves fit pretty snugly but I just secure them with a small piece of tape in case I really start thrashing. They are the best sleeves I have purchased and lasted 2 seasons at the voo with no signs of wear. 

Where do I buy these tik tok leggings? I am a size 28 waist and 36 inseam. Need it for my thicc 30 celebration! 

Trevor you’ve got no business flaunting all that ass

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

Where do I buy these tik tok leggings? I am a size 28 waist and 36 inseam. Need it for my thicc 30 celebration! 

They are only allowed to be worn ironically so I have posted the link below for you to celebrate your thicc 30: lmgtfy.app/?q=tiktok+leggings

grug g wrote:

I don't get how people can like offwidth ... No finesse or style ...

I recently led The Big Baby in Indian Creek ... It would require your technique being so dialed that you weren't expending massive amounts of energy  ..

Nice self own-there, buddy