Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

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greenonion
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Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by greenonion »

I should have posted this a long time ago and during ramp up of climbing season, but better late than never. With so many new climbers in CO and all over I feel this simple advice is worthy.

When you are scrambling on rocks, including learning how to do so, as you grip and test rock holds try to make your grabbing/pulling force be down into whatever the rock base is rather than out from the slope/wall and toward yourself. Less chance of falling while dislodging the hold/rock as you press it downward. I accidentally broke this rule of thumb this summer and had a brief “oh crap” moment when I almost pulled the bowling ball sized rock out and onto myself on an exposed ridge here in UT. Would have been bad if it came out.

There may be nuances or other variations of this idea that others may want to express and I welcome that, as long as they are safety-based. Certainly there could be instances where pulling down could instigate something not expected, so proceed with general caution and good sense.

Also, knocking on potential holds to test for a hollow vs solid sound is prudent. Hollow not good. I’m no expert but just feel this makes sense to me.
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by 12ersRule »

When life hands you lemons, pull down. Maybe you'll win the jackpot next time.
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by mindfolded »

I always heard the arms/hands were primarily to keep your body over your legs and you don't really pull with your arms but rather push with your feet.
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by WVMountaineer »

Not exactly climbing technique but if you have a Garmin InReach, there are some settings you can change to ensure others can locate you if needed. This could be useful with one of the lower budget plans where you don't typically send out automatic location messages every x minutes but have unlimited preset messages.

Let's say you go out hiking on a whim and don't tell anyone your planned route or activities and you figure they'll see your location messages when you send them... That doesn't help you if you become incapacitated or have some kind of accident.

Steps to enable this feature (also screen caps below):
1) Picture 1: Go to https://explore.garmin.com/Social
2) Picture 1: Enable or verify your "MapShare" button is green and ": ON"
3) Picture 1: Select "MapShare Settings"
4) Picture 2: In the GUI pop-up, enable (check mark) "Allow map viewers to locate you." and select save changes
5) Picture 1: Make note of your shared map URL (share.garmin.com/yournamehere) to provide to your friends/family
- Side note, my wife prefers using this map over the link that is sent with your regular InReach messages since it's more detailed and easier to see the larger picture of what you may be doing.
6) Picture 3: Now when your people navigate to your shared map, they can select the "Locate" button to figure out where you are without any interaction required from you

Now you should probably tell the people you regularly send your InReach messages to that this capability exists and text them your mapshare link and tell them about the "locate" button that is now enabled.

Obviously locating a GPS device may not work if you are in a deep canyon or on the side of a steep cliff but enabling this feature is better than not and can potentially allow SAR to get to your position or find you significantly faster.

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greenonion
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by greenonion »

mindfolded wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 5:23 pm I always heard the arms/hands were primarily to keep your body over your legs and you don't really pull with your arms but rather push with your feet.
Great point, yes, and thanks for that. But when you are using hands to scramble, whether vertically or horizontally, be careful with testing any hold.
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

12ersRule wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:53 pm When life hands you lemons, pull down. Maybe you'll win the jackpot next time.
Some day our kids will study Clash lyrics in school.
Nothing drives people crazy like people drive people crazy.
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by greenonion »

CaptainSuburbia wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:43 pm
12ersRule wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:53 pm When life hands you lemons, pull down. Maybe you'll win the jackpot next time.
Andale!
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Re: Pull Down, Not Out/Toward Yourself

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

greenonion wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:37 pm
CaptainSuburbia wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:43 pm
12ersRule wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:53 pm When life hands you lemons, pull down. Maybe you'll win the jackpot next time.
Andale!
You got it
Some day our kids will study Clash lyrics in school.
Nothing drives people crazy like people drive people crazy.
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