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RE: An Ode to my Father, and the Spirit of Adventure Sports!

For most people the surprise is the build up of lactic acid "pump" in the forearms and you can start to see all the veins in your forearms for probably the first time in your life. That's where all the small muscles are that help you grip with your fingers (try get a lean person to move his fingers and you should notice his forearms move)...

You probably even got to the point where the forearm pump just stopped your hands from working at all... I know I did often!

There are various tricks my father did that made him climb much harder than me even when he was old and weak compared to me...

He wasn't scared and so wasn't using all his grip strength to hold on.

He would find places where he could shake out his hands. Sometimes he could even hold his body in position with heel hooks or knee bars and shake out both hands at once! A good time to grab some more chalk from a little bag around your waist anyway!

Technique - good climbing is keeping your arms straight while you plan your next move, and learning to use your legs to counterbalance your hand movements, and then to use your legs rather than your arms to actually lift you up to the next holds. A good climber thinks about his foot holds as well as his hand holds!

If you do go climbing again - I hope that helps!