Bleeding fists. Face contorted with pain. The dark art of crack climbing is often viewed with dread by modern climbers brought up on a strict diet of indoor climbing and overseas bolt clipping. But don’t be afraid - the techniques involved are actually quite simple and very quickly learnt. And it doesn’t hurt that much - honest.
Firstly, if you’ve always avoided cracks then it’s time to face facts - you really need to learn to jam and putting it off is only hindering your climbing. The UK might not be a crack climbing Mecca like the western USA, but cracks are still everywhere and being able to climb them efficiently is an essential trad skill. When you’re following a crack there’s no shortage of gear placements, and you’ll never have to hunt around for the holds. The crack is one big hold – you just need to work out the best way of using it.
I once met the guy who’d taught Alex Huber how to climb cracks. Unfortunately he was giving me a lift to a bus station in Las Vegas when I learnt this, and so I wasn’t able to get any lessons from him. What he did tell me though, was that when Alex Huber visited America with the aim of repeating the Salathe Wall, he was far from being an expert crack climber. He headed to Joshua Tree and top-roped up and down cracks, refining his technique. Gradually moving on to harder cracks, but always focussing on learning good movement skills rather than caring about topping out.
Take a leaf out of the Huber’s book. Learning a new skill when anxiously pumped out of your mind is never going to be as productive as setting up a top-rope on a quiet crack climb and learning in a fear-free setting. Do it well, and who knows - maybe you’ll be freeing the Salathe Wall very soon.
Welcome to crack school, let the lesson begin.
Layback and cry
Laybacking is a technique most suited to climbing corner cracks. Admittedly it has a bit of a bad reputation as the emergency technique pulled out of the bag when our principle crack climbing skills are found lacking. But often when cracks get very wide, or so narrow that all that remains is a slight edge, then laybacking is actually preferable. The advantage of laybacking is that it is quick, usually painless, and more intuitive than jamming. The only technical decision needed in laybacking is how far apart to place your feet from your hands; the nearer they are to each other the less reliant on friction you are, but that comes at the price of increased strenuousness. By picking out even the smallest footholds, and making use of them, you can increase the distance you can place your feet away from your hands, keeping your weight on your feet without risk of them popping off.
The first disadvantage with laybacking is of course the fact that it can be very strenuous - even performed with maximum weight on your feet, it is an inherently ‘off-balance’ position that sucks strength from your arms. The second disadvantage is that it’s very hard to place gear from a layback position because your head is not inline with the crack and so you can’t see what you’re doing. Just stuffing a camming device blindly into the crack is not going to inspire confidence, and if you carry on frantically laybacking you might need it sooner than you think!
Time to jam
The reason that laybacking is more intuitive than jamming is because we initially tend to look for ‘normal’ flat finger holds, and the only way a crack can be turned into a series of normal looking holds is by approaching from the side. Finger jams and hand jams need to be learned. But once you know how to do them you’ll never look back, and you’ll find yourself seeking them out rather than avoiding them like the plague.
The essence of jamming is the placing of a part of your body inside the crack, and causing it to lock in place. Jams are not as ‘active’ as holds like finger edges where loss of strength immediately causes the hold to fail, but then neither are they entirely ‘passive’ in that you still need to engage certain muscles to maintain the right shape to lock the jam. A popular cause of great discomfort in jamming is the act of placing a jam too passively, expecting it to hold entirely by being caught in constriction. A good jam shouldn’t hurt (not much anyway) – if your jams really hurt, you’re probably not doing them right.
Because people’s hands and fingers vary enormously in size, what for one person is a loose ‘off-fingers’ crack, is a nice snug hand crack for another. The grade of a crack may therefore feel a bit harsh if you’ve got very small or big very hands. But don’t fret, there’s always another crack somewhere with your name on it.
Finger cracks
There is something very beautiful about a finger crack, it’s the very definition of a line, providing everything you need in the form of holds and protection. But before we leap into the art of finger jamming, let’s look at the feet. As with all techniques, the feet provide the upwards movement, we usually get stuck by relying too much on finger jams and that’s when they start to hurt. There’s no getting away from the fact that thin cracks just don’t provide much for your feet, so first of all look for face holds that can take the strain instead, they don’t have to be very big to make a huge difference – there’s nearly always something. If you have to use the crack for your feet, then identify any parts that offer the best footholds – slightly wider sections such as provided by old peg slots are good.
If you find yourself on a straight clean ‘splitter’ finger crack with no face holds for your feet, then you’re going to have to make the best of what you’ve got. The best purchase can be taken by placing your foot sideways so that the sole of your shoe is in line with the crack and pressing it into the crack, then twist it until you are able to put weight onto it. For the hardest cracks a layback position will give the best foot placements, and for the best results, should be combined with finger jams.
For straight-on finger jamming, place all the fingers of each hand in the crack with thumbs pointing to the ground (the opposite to hand jams, but more of those later). As you weight your arms, your fingers will naturally stack up on top of each other and the rotational movement caused by your hand position will provide the purchase, this is called a ‘finger lock’. If there are any constrictions in the crack, the best place to place your fingers will be just above it.
Hand cracks
When you’ve got the right technique, hand cracks are a delight to climb: there are plenty of holds, they’re not strenuous to climb, and of course, there’s protection everywhere. Let’s take a look at your feet. A foot jam is simpler than a hand jam: you simply place your foot in the crack at an angle so that your big toe is pointing upwards, then level out your foot until it pushes against each side of the crack. The temptation is always to jam your feet too aggressively, and too deeply, but the further out of the crack that you can securely place your foot, the less steep you make things. Also, whilst it is reassuring to get your foot jammed in well, it will work against you when (and if) you come to take it out – so lightly does it. Choice of footwear is important in placing good foot jams – slippers will hurt like hell because they are so soft. Shoes with good lateral stiffness make life a lot easier.
If you’ve never placed a hand jam, then start off by making your hand as flat as possible – straighten your fingers and line your thumb up next to the side of your hand. Notice how narrow your hand is – this width is the narrowest crack you can use with a hand jam. Now move your thumb until it is lined up with your middle finger – notice how much wider your hand is now – this is the widest your hand jams will go.
Where you place a hand jam is very much the product of studying the shape of the crack you are jamming, and knowing the size of your hands – whilst it may be tempting to look for constrictions – as you would in placing a hex, the most comfortable jams are in parallel or even downwardly or outwardly slightly flared cracks. To get the jam, place your hand in the crack and hunt around for a nice snug bit – the snugger it is the less effort it requires to use. Place your hand with your thumb pointing upwards. To lock the jam, start to slide your thumb across your palm – you don’t have to bend your thumb – it’s the muscle of your thumb that does the work. To get additional purchase, you may press your fingertips against the side of the crack – but often this is unnecessary. When you load the jam, you may feel your hand slide slightly within the skin – this is perfectly normal.
Fist jams
A fist jam is simply a hand jam rotated though ninety degrees to present a greater width. They tend to be less comfortable than hand jams because they are passive. The thumb is used to a lesser extent than with hand jams: one position can be obtained by making a fist around your thumb (narrower) and one can be obtained by keeping your thumb on the outside (wider). A fist jam can be placed with your palms facing into the crack, or facing yourself – the latter position can be turned into an undercut for very long reaches. Fist jams are best placed like large hexes: in natural constrictions, though they can be used in parallel sections, they are never as snug as hand jams.
Turning jams into sequences
So now you know how to place finger jams, hand jams and fist jams, let’s look at moving. Any move up a crack starts with the feet gaining the height, then the hand are moved to maintain balance. Feet are naturally moved one above the other, but when it comes to move our hands, there are two options. One option is to move your hands the same way you move your feet, simply placing one above the other in turn. On low angled rock, this is an efficient way of gaining height quickly. However, on steeper rock, making long arm movements will feel a lot more strenuous, so it makes sense to switch to ‘shuffling’- this involves designating one hand as the ‘leading hand’, and placing this in the top position, the ‘trailing’ hand moves up to a position just below the leading hand, never crossing it.
When shuffling hand jams, you have a choice of pointing both thumbs up, or having them pointing at each other. On a straight (and especially a steep) crack, it is usually best to have both thumbs pointing up, but on a crack that cuts the rock at an angle, you will find that it is easier to have both thumbs pointing at each other – as if doing a hand traverse. Lastly, shuffling is rarely used in straight finger cracks because of the different arm positions required (thumbs down rather than thumbs up), and it feels more secure to alternately place one above the other.
Right. I expect to see you all out practising this month, and stay tuned for part two: taping-up, off-fingers, off-hands and everyone’s personal fave - off-widths.
Adrian Berry is one of the UK’s most experienced climbing coaches, and has just released his first book: Sport Climbing +.Adrian is also available for personal coaching - see www.positiveclimbing.com.
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