[From Will Gadd's blog http://willgadd.com/664]
Ice Climbing (and life) Notes:
I spent a lot of time this winter teaching and coaching climbing, which I love. I saw a few things repeated over and over again that I made notes on. Here, in no particular order, are some of the notes in point form. I’ll be putting up a bunch of these over the next few weeks, I have a huge file of ‘em!
Practice Downclimbing. Samurais only went forward, but ice climbers have to retreat regularly. Climbing down ice is more difficult than climbing up it, but a little practice makes it pretty simple even on very steep terrain.
Pull your toes up to kick. Engage that little muscle on the front of your shinbone and consciously keep it engaged. If you don’t your boot will hit the ice in general, and not your frontpoints. It only took 15 years for me to figure out how to teach this idea, but it seems to make a huge difference to people.
If you’re pumped ice climbing you’re already in trouble, and need to reset. Many of us are rock climbers, and climbing pumped silly is normal. In fact, I love sport climbing when I’m pumped silly and just hanging on, few activities are more fun. But in ice climbing, especially leashless ice climbing, a “pump” is a sign that you’re already on the edge of control. Clip into one of your tools, downclimb, stop and just match and rest until you de-pump, but get rid of the pump. The “not pump” state is your safety margin; get pumped and you’ve lost your safety margin. Note that “putting in a screw” doesn’t make the list of solutions; if you’re pumped then putting in a screw is not going to improve the situation any. Better to slam in a tool, take a sling and clip it into the pommel, hang, then place a screw. Depump, then place gear. In rock climbing I’ve slapped a nut in and then fallen, OK, but I’ve seen a screw half-way into the ice along with an ice tool but no climber in sight a half-dozen times now…
When swinging think about throwing the tool up over the top of the swing rather than moving your wrist toward the ice. It’s like you’re trying to hook a prize just out of each; this gets the head of the tool moving really fast at the right angle so it doesn’t bounce and penetrates well. If your arm is fully extended when you swing (on steep ice) then the swing will almost always work well… Don’t swing with your elbow anywhere below your ear. It’s actually really hard to get your elbow up to your ear, but have that as a goal, grin…
Dual point crampons are vastly superior to mono points for 90 percent of ice climbing. I can tell from about 200 yards away if anyone (with very rare exceptions like Raph and a few others) is wearing monos or dual frontpoints. The mono-wanna-be-master’s feet will be blowing a lot more. I wear monos for some mixed climbing, but if I could only have one pair of crampons it would be dual cyborgs.
Clear the ice for screws. Dig. I almost never place a screw on the surface layer of the ice; dig. Dig some more. It’s critical for good screw strength.
Swing your tools like a damn man, woman or neanderthal, but for God’s sake swing ‘em! A lot of climbers are learning to ice climb on pecked out ice where a set of steak knives and a knitting motion would get a climber up the ice; fresh, new ice requires meaningful and aggressive swinging. As Jeff Lowe said, “Every placement is a belay.” Yes.