Feet above head O/W technique

I've only seen this technique in photos of climbing extremely difficult offwidths. I can understand and have even employed Leavitation (knee jam, ab cruch, hand stack, reset), but don't understand what situation would require getting your feet above your head.

Could someone please explain the technique and scenario for this move?
Thanks,
Mike

The technique is like a heel toe cam and is used when going through roofs and steepness, it's pretty straight forward and mindless

Leavitation only works when you can score a no-hands rest (e.g. with a knee lock) and then start stacking.

Kick throughs and pivots are basically moves to get you into a no-hands rest. The other thing is that, in general, your leg muscles are bigger than your arm muscles, so it can be less strenuous to hang on lower-body muscles, provided the crack is the right size.

A good introduction to inverted off-width climbing are the boulder problems Life Without Parole
Spin To Win
or the
Wormhole
all at Vedauwoo.

not that I could even come close to doing it.........

but look up "Trench Warfare" I think that's the name anyway.

I think that might require that type of climbing.

Thanks Brian,

Ok, I figured to was d/t leg muscles and rests, but maybe you can add a bit more. What's the difference between a kick-through and a pivot? And once inverted, what's the sequence to gain elevation and reset?

Again, thanks!

gold mine! thanks

It's just wrong! It is like some kinky forbidden sex thing that your body is supposed to have some internal protection against!

If you know what is good for you, you just won't do it!

What is our climbing community coming to!

Haha......yes it should be forbidden to invert.....

Personally I just love to get my feet, knees, legs above my hands......but I have yet done an invert or kick-through.....maybe this weekend at the Voo....on a top-rope...... Lol

I think iIt is pretty obvious when the technique is necessary.......

Kick throughs generally have one leg high (heel-toeing to some degree) while the other is low and driving your body upwards, typically you hands are stacked in the middle somewhere between your feet. You hang a lot from your top foot until you can either shuffle your hands further, then foot higher, repeat... Or you get your hands high and back into a "normal" upright position. A lot of this depends on the steepness and width of the crack though.

Full inversions are when both feet are above you and your hanging primarily from heel toe cams of some type of foot jam deep in the crack. This is a pretty good position to be in and as long as you keep moving it can be very productive. The crux is usually pivoting out of the inversion back upright. This is often used when the crack is to wide or difficult to "stack yer way through it" and it's actually easier to hang from something large like your feet... then you can relax and think about kittens.

Check out Desiderata(in WY) for a doable inversion traverse.

or Leaning Wide Crack
or Born To Bleed (both in NV) if you're ever in those areas and looking to try it.

You might find it fun and not all that "extremely difficult" at times.

Thanks Matt!

I actually did do this on Imaginary Voyage, got a double foot stack, hung totally upside-down and swung like hell to grab a roof jug. It was actually fun, and with a #5 cam protecting everything, not that scary--or hard.

Honnold get's stuck upside down on Belly Full of Bad Berries in this video (then sends later):

youtu.be/M2dIZt4FCeE

Inverted O/W climbing actually almost never occurs. During legitimate O/W climbing, the body's natural defenses resist inversions from occurring. Which is not to say that they cannot, but they are one in a million. But such remote possibilities are presented as common and brought up by O/W activists and repeated by their minions in the press.

@ Matt Roberts- I know of plenty legitimate offwidths which require inversion. How would you suggest pulling through a section of overhanging butterflied hands (your knee won't fit) with no holds available?

Matt Roberts wrote:Inverted O/W climbing actually almost never occurs. During legitimate O/W climbing, the body's natural defenses resist inversions from occurring. Which is not to say that they cannot, but they are one in a million. But such remote possibilities are presented as common and brought up by O/W activists and repeated by their minions in the press.

Matt Roberts wrote:Inverted O/W climbing actually almost never occurs. During legitimate O/W climbing, the body's natural defenses resist inversions from occurring. Which is not to say that they cannot, but they are one in a million. But such remote possibilities are presented as common and brought up by O/W activists and repeated by their minions in the press.

one of the reasons to go foot/feet first on steep OW is that you often can't free up one of your hands when you are stacking if it is steep. by going feet first, you can basically hang off of one foot while you move the other. personally, i don't really like doing extended pieces of inverted climbing because it makes my head feel like it is going to explode.

Please feel free to post videos of your inverted off width technique.

That's what I thought. Me neither.

Does anyone have a photo that I could use of inversion technique for a book I'm putting together?
-Mike

PM'ed about photos