can't sleep 'cause I'm THINKING about CLIMBING

The inside flag, when correctly applied,   can make a sequence much more secure compared to the alternatives, yet it is one of the techniques that are rarely seen outdoors . It's not especially hard to perform it - I would say it's much easier than a foot swap, which is usually the other option for doing the same move. Therefore, the infrequent occurrence of the inside flag in the beta of rock climbers might be due to the confusion about when to use it and what can we gain with it. Additionally, it's relatively uncommon to find a situation where an inside flag is really the best solution, but when it is, it might make a move easier or, which is usually the case, less low-percentage.

Fear is a natural part of our sport, because climbing is inherently dangerous. We can mitigate the consequences of a fall by using proper equipment, like rope in sport climbing or crash pads in  bouldering, but we can not remove heights from the equation, because this sport is about scaling them. And a fall from height can be fatal, hence the consequences of an accident are most of the time very serious. The overall probability of an injury, however, is much smaller than in many other sports or activities. Climbing can be objectively safer than driving a car, if you do everything by the book, nevertheless the small but real possibility of falling to your death or seriously injuring yourself stimulates the imagination. Humans did not evolve to feel comfortable at heights, but as with most of fears it can be alleviated. We surely didn't evolve to feel comfortable moving 120 km/h in a metal can, but after years of doing it most of us don't even think about potential consequences...

  Jernej Kruder on Three degrees of separation 9a+ (5.15a) Dynos. There are hardly any hard climbs without dynamic movement, but flying through the air before grabbing the next hold after fully separating from the wall, that's another level. Four-points-off dynos are like 360 dunks, they are the pinnacle of dynamic climbing (well, then there are 360 dynos that you can see on Instagram, and even hula hoop dynos, but that's a different story).

While preparing a recent post " Tall or short: what's better for climbing hard? " I was looking for data on height of the best climbers in order to find an answer to the question posed in the title. For rock climbing it's tricky - even if such data was easily available, it's hard to make strong claims comparing climbers based on the grade they have climbed, when the routes they have sent are in different countries or different continents. In competitions, on the other hand, athletes are tested in a very controlled environment against exactly the same challenges thrown at them by the routesetters. If there were a strong tendency towards a certain stature among the best competition climbers, it would clearly indicate an underlying advantage, at least on plastic. Therefore, I was hoping to find multiple analysis of the height statistics of competition climbers on the internet, or at the very minimum a clear answer to what is the average height among the best competit...

Dave Graham on Petrichor 8C (V15)   Petrichor 8C is a boulder problem in Rocklands, South Africa, first solved by Dave Graham. What's special about it is that, apart from small crimps and compression climbing, the method of the first  ascensionist included a bat hang, i.e. a double toe hook above your head. It's a clear choice when going from two bad opposing holds, which are possible to hold using compression between them, to a jug. It's really hard to let go of one hand, unless you can change it for a foot, for instance using a heel hook, to maintain tension on the other hand. But so long as you squeeze both holds, you can move your lower limbs around, all the way above your head. Once you have two feet toe hooking on a big hold you can basically let go with your hands.

This seems to be a controversial topic, probably because the answer is not as simple as in many other, especially well established, sports (and because climbers love excuses to why they didn't send). Virtually all of the athletes in, for instance, high jump are tall. In gymnastics you retire already during the puberty, if you grow over a certain height. Still, even in the long-established sports the outliers sometimes can perform surprisingly well - before the first victories of Usain Bolt everyone thought that being short and muscular (not that he isn't muscular, but other sprinters are often more muscular) is the optimal body type for the 100 m dash. And probably it is the optimal body type - one or a small number of outliers don't flip the rule, they weaken it. Nevertheless, in running disciplines, be it a sprint or a marathon, athletes tend to have quite similar  stature , seemingly less diverse than in climbing.   Bouldering World Cup podium, Meiringen 2021. Photo by P...