The biggest lesson I *almost* learned the hard way

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During a partner belay check, do you check that their hair is pulled back away from their face and devices?

You should! And here's why.

After a successful send of a climb, I attached my personal anchor to the top and began to clean the route. I threaded the rope through my ATC (rappel device) and began to lower down. I was about 5 feet from the ground when a sense of panic rippled through my body.

My hair was going through the ATC with the rope. I began to feel the tugging weight on my scalp and I started to kick my legs around. My boyfriend, Colin, was down on the ground looking up in confusion.

I yelped, "MY HAIR IS STUCK. MY HAIR IS STUCK!!" Tears started to swell up and I was in full panic mode. Colin quickly grabbed hold of my legs and tucked his shoulder under my butt. He was able to lift me enough to create slack on the rope and I was able to pull my hair out from the ATC. I lowered the rest of the way to the ground and found myself shaking from adrenaline. That was far too close of a call! I nearly lost a patch of my hair.

So please for your sake and for your climbing partners sake, make a "hair check" a part of your pre-climbing ritual.

Here are the checks Colin and I always make before a climb!

Belayer check

• Rope flaked and ready?
• Rope feeding through belay device correctly?
• Carabiner locked?
• Hair tied back and away from belay device?
• Harness check (double backed)?
• Helmet on?

Climber check

• Harness check (double backed)?
• Figure 8 knot & properly feeding through harness?
• Chalk bag open?(ready for use)
• Hair tied back and away from belay device?
• Climbing shoes on?
• Quick draws (if you're leading)?
• Anchors (if you're leading)?
• Personal anchor (if you're cleaning)?
• Helmet on?

What's on your pre-climbing check? Is there anything I should add to mine??

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Stoked on Power! (A Gimme Kraft training day)

Santa must be a climber. He gave us a wonderful gift. The new training book called, Gimme Kraft. The perfect gift for a climber during winter. We cracked open the book this weekend and did our first training day. Whew, I am sore!

I've briefly described the first exercise below...in case you wanted to feel our pain or try it out yourself ;) I highly suggest you pick up a copy of Gimme Kraft for additional training tips and exercises.

Warm up!

We started with 10 minutes of rowing and then jumped into three training exercises at the bouldering gym.

1. Kontrast

• Pick 8 boulder problems
• Climb the first boulder problem completely static
• Rest for two minutes
• Climb the same boulder problem as dynamic as you can
• Rest for two minutes
• Climb the same boulder problem for a third time, the best way between the two (static and dynamic)
• Repeat for boulders problem 2-8

By the end of Kontrast we had climbed 24 bouldering problems.

2. Speed

• Select a number of boulder problems
• Time how long it takes climb all of them, include rest times
• How many rounds can you do? Can you improve your time?

Woohoo! I could barely even cheer after completing exercise 1 and 2..and yes, there is a third!

3. Tic Tac Toe

• On a systems board fish for holds with your foot at varying heights

Tic Tac Toe works on your core and precision. This was actually more challenging then I originally thought! This would be great a both a warm up or warm down.

Warm Down!

We wrapped up our training day with some good stretching and a few yoga poses. What a great day!

Check out the trailer for Gimme Kraft here! Both the trailer and the book features Sasha DiGiulian and other professional climbers. I am so stoked to gain power! You can probably guess what my new year resolution is ;)

Happy climbing guys!