February 7, 2012

Backpacking Training

Many backpackers pay a lot of attention to their gear but pay little or no attention to their own body. Properly training before going on a backpacking trip can greatly reduce the risk of injury, and help you enjoy your trip. Before beginning any training program should get approval, and a check up from your physician.

Good aerobic conditioning and a strong body are the keys to a safe and rewarding backpacking trip. Exercises should be performed to strengthen your feet, ankles, and back. If you have weak ankles you will still have problems even if you have good boots. Practice calf raises barefoot on a wood floor to strengthen your toes and entire foot. Perform exercises to strengthen your back since it will be under additional stress during your trip. Instead of just performing regular cardiovascular exercises, load up a backpack with the weight you expect to be carrying on the trail go for short training walks. Gradually increase the distance of your training walks. It is amazing how gradually your body gets accustomed to the added weight, until eventually you hardly notice it.

Visit Lightweight Backpacking 101 for additional training tips if you are new to backpacking.

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6 Tips for Better Climbing Footwork

<img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/A/0/-/-/EHorstDiamondLife13a_BubbaCityWV2.jpg" alt="" hspace="5" align="center" /> Climbing efficiently and gracefully is all about having good footwork. <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/RockClimbingTechnique/a/6-Tips-For-Better-Climbing-Footwork.htm">Use your feet</a> well by placing them softly and quietly on <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/dictionaryofclimbing/a/FootholdDef.htm">footholds</a>, making small steps rather than giant high steps, and using your legs to push rather than your arms to pull and you're going to get up a lot of hard routes. Good footwork when you're climbing helps you trust your rock shoes on small holds and gives you confidence that you can move upward from solid foot placements with both balance and precision. Follow the six tips for better footwork in my new article <a href="http://climbing.about.com/od/RockClimbingTechnique/a/6-Tips-For-Better-Climbing-Footwork.htm">6 Tips for Better Climbing Footwork -- Improve Your Climbing Movement Techniques</a> and start climbing better, higher, and harder. Read more about climbing movement and technique: <ul> <li><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/RockClimbingTechnique/a/6-Tips-For-Better-Climbing-Footwork.htm">6 Tips for Better Climbing Footwork</a></li> <li><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/cliimbingtechniques/a/SlabReadTheRock.htm">Learn How to Read the Rock and Improve Your Footwork</a></li> <li><a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/RockClimbingTechnique/a/Six-Performance-Climbing-Tips.htm">6 Performance Climbing Tips</a></li> </ul> Photograph above: Training guru Eric Horst uses great footwork to climbing "Diamond Life" at Bubba City at the New River Gorge. Photograph &#169; Stewart M. Green<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/02/07/6-tips-for-better-climbing-footwork.htm">6 Tips for Better Climbing Footwork</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/">About.com Climbing</a> on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 00:38:33.<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/02/07/6-tips-for-better-climbing-footwork.htm">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/02/07/6-tips-for-better-climbing-footwork.htm#gB3">Comment</a> | <a href="http://climbing.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/02/07/6-tips-for-better-climbing-footwork.htm&#038;zItl=6 Tips for Better Climbing Footwork">Email this</a>

How to Climb Your First Big Wall

<img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/_/F/-/-/Escalante-Canyon-El-Padre-049_4.jpg" alt="" hspace="5" align="center" /> Do you want to climb your first <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/dictionaryofclimbing/a/BigWallDef.htm">big wall</a> this year? If you do, time is wasting. You need to start training now if you want to have great <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/AidClimbing/a/All-About-Aid-Climbing.htm">aid climbing skills</a>, know how to use <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/climbingequipmentwords/a/AscendersDef.htm">ascenders</a> and haul, and be in great physical shape so you can get up your wall project. If you spend three or four days climbing a big wall like El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, you'll find that it is simply the hardest physical activity you've ever done. Read my new article <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/AidClimbing/a/Big-Wall-Climbing-And-Training-Tips.htm">Big Wall Climbing and Training Tips: How to Climb Your First Big Wall</a> and learn what you need to do to increase your chances for success. Most climbers fail on their first wall because they under-estimate both the effort and the skills required to get to the summit. The article details how to improve your aid skills; how to pick a first wall; why you need to train by <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/cliimbingtechniques/a/Learn-To-Crack-Climb.htm">jamming cracks</a> and thrutching up <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/CrackClimbing/a/6-Off-Width-Crack-Climbing-Tips.htm">off-widths</a> and chimneys; why mental preparation is so important; and finding the right climbing partner for your adventure.&#160;These training tips are not only applicable to climbing a big wall, but if you follow them, you will get in killer shape and cruise shorter routes. Okay, get busy and let me know later this year how your first <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/dictionaryofclimbing/a/BigWallDef.htm">big wall</a> went. Good luck! Read <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/AidClimbing/a/Big-Wall-Climbing-And-Training-Tips.htm">Big Wall Climbing and Training: How to Climb Your First Big Wall</a> Photograph above: Do lots of aid routes to get in shape for climbing a big wall like Brian Shelton aiding up El Padre on its first ascent in western Colorado. Photograph &#169; Stewart M. Green<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/28/how-to-climb-your-first-big-wall.htm">How to Climb Your First Big Wall</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/">About.com Climbing</a> on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 15:39:52.<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/28/how-to-climb-your-first-big-wall.htm">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/28/how-to-climb-your-first-big-wall.htm#gB3">Comment</a> | <a href="http://climbing.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/28/how-to-climb-your-first-big-wall.htm&#038;zItl=How to Climb Your First Big Wall">Email this</a>

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OR Show Day 2: Two New Bouldering Books

<img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/T/F/-/-/Sherman_0739_2.jpg" alt="hspace=" align="center" /> Yesterday was "bouldering day" at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market show in Salt Lake City with book signings by two authors of their new <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/cliimbingtechniques/a/AboutBouldering.htm">bouldering</a> books--John Sherman with the new second edition of his <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://about.pricegrabber.com/mrdr.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fabout.pricegrabber.com%2Fsearch.php%3Fform_keyword%3Dbetter%2Bbouldering%2Bjohn%2Bsherman&#038;mode=about_climbing">Better Bouldering</a> book and Peter Beal with his new book <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://about.pricegrabber.com/mrdr.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fabout.pricegrabber.com%2Fsearch_getprod.php%2Fisbn%3D9781594855009%2Fsearch%3Dbouldering+peter+beal&#038;mode=about_climbing">Bouldering: Movement, Tactics, and Problem Solving</a>. John Sherman, also nicknamed "Verm" from Vermin, is an American bouldering legend with a 36-year career of climbing small rocks and blocks. John has bouldered all over the world, wrote the first bouldering guide to <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/texasrockclimbing/fr/HuecoReview.htm">Hueco Tanks</a>, and introduced the V-system for grading boulder problems. The new second edition of his best-selling book <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://about.pricegrabber.com/mrdr.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fabout.pricegrabber.com%2Fsearch.php%3Fform_keyword%3Dbetter%2Bbouldering%2Bjohn%2Bsherman&#038;mode=about_climbing">Better Bouldering</a>, published by FalconGuides, is simply spectacular with over 300 color photos from the world's best bouldering areas and lots of bouldering tricks, techniques, and insider knowledge that will help you climb better. <img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/U/F/-/-/Beal_0664_2.jpg" alt="hspace=" align="left" /> Peter Beal, a strong boulderer living in, where else?, Boulder, Colorado, has also written <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://about.pricegrabber.com/mrdr.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fabout.pricegrabber.com%2Fsearch_getprod.php%2Fisbn%3D9781594855009%2Fsearch%3Dbouldering+peter+beal&#038;mode=about_climbing">Bouldering: Movement, Tactics, and Problem Solving</a>, a very complete book about bouldering (published by The Mountaineers), that explains everything including <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/cliimbingtechniques/a/BoulderingGear.htm">bouldering equipment</a>, movement and technique, tactics like resting, <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/bouldering/a/HowToSpot.htm">spotting</a>, and doing highballs, training, and injury prevention. After glancing through Peter's book last night, I particularly enjoyed the thoughts of his contributors, including <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/od/climbingbooksandquotes/a/JohnGillQuote.htm">John Gill's</a> commentary and Dave Graham's introduction. After I get a chance to read and study both books, I will be writing complete reviews. In the meantime, I have to get down to the Salt Palace for day 3 of the OR show... Photographs above: (Top) John Sherman signs copies of Better Bouldering at the FalconGuides book under the watchful eyes of the blue people. (Bottom) Peter Beal autographing copies of Bouldering at The Mountaineers booth. Photographs &#169; Stewart M. Green<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/21/or-show-day-2-two-new-bouldering-books.htm">OR Show Day 2: Two New Bouldering Books</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/">About.com Climbing</a> on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 11:33:01.<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/21/or-show-day-2-two-new-bouldering-books.htm">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/21/or-show-day-2-two-new-bouldering-books.htm#gB3">Comment</a> | <a href="http://climbing.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/21/or-show-day-2-two-new-bouldering-books.htm&#038;zItl=OR Show Day 2: Two New Bouldering Books">Email this</a>

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Is there Rock Climbing on the Moon?

<img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/H/F/-/-/Moon_astronaut-and-moon-buggy_2.jpg" alt="hspace=" align="center" /> Humans are scouring Planet Earth right now looking for unclimbed mountains, cliffs, and boulders. In the last couple decades, even the most remote corners of the globe have been explored and new climbing routes established. What will quench our desire for virgin rock when everything has been climbed and the new adventurers just being born now will want to leave their own mark? Well, for starters there is the <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://geology.about.com/od/planets/">Moon</a>, which last night hung almost full over the eastern Colorado horizon, shiny as a well-worn peso in an illegal immigrant's pocket. Right now the Chinese are making plans to send people to the Moon, so will America be far behind? Americans were, after all, the <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/p/firstmanmoon.htm">original Moon colonists</a>. We need NASA to get us back there to the lunar surface and establish a presence like Clavius Base in the classic sci-fi film <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://worldfilm.about.com/od/britishfilms/fr/2001.htm">2001: A Space Odyssey</a>. From an underground base like Clavius, astronaut-climbers could explore the barren surface, finding all kinds of ancient rocks to climb on the edges of craters and in the mountains of the Moon. Plus the decreased Moon gravity--83.3% less than on the Earth's surface--would undoubtedly make dynos easier and landings softer. Gravity, after all, is not always our friend on Earth. Here's a great photograph taken almost 40 years ago by an <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://space.about.com/od/earthpictures/ig/Earth-Pictures/Earth-From-Apollo-17.htm">Apollo 17</a> Hasselbad camera of astronaut-geologist <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://space.about.com/od/thisdateinhistory/p/date1211.htm">Harrison H. Schmitt</a> in December, 1972, next to a giant Moon boulder. Schmitt took a ride in the lunar dune buggy, driving around the Valley of Taurus-Littrow landing site. Schmitt spent 75 hours on the Moon with fellow astronaut Gene Cernan and were the last two astronauts to visit it. <img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/climbing/1/0/I/F/-/-/Moon_Bouldering_Harrison_2.jpg" alt="" hspace="5" align="center" /> Astronaut Schmitt called the views "awe-inspiring" and later wrote that it was only when he left the safety of the Challenger module "that the full and still unexpected impact of the awe-inspiring setting hit me: a brilliant sun, brighter than any desert sun, fully illuminated valley walls outlined against a blacker than black sky, with our beautiful, blue and white-marbled Earth hanging over the southwestern mountains." The astronauts drove as far as seven kilometers away from the module. On one excursion they studied "the large boulders that had rolled and bounced down the north wall of the valley." Okay, so who wants to be the first lunar tourist-climber? First, you better be rich, really rich. Second, you better be young because it's going to be awhile before there are commonplace tourist trips to the Moon. A few years back a company in Virginia was trying to sell fly-by trips to the Moon for a cool $100 million aboard a Russian rocket by 2008. Uh, didn't happen. If you want to be a Moon climber in the forseeable future, better get scientific training and become an astronaut. If that doesn't happen, maybe going to <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://usparks.about.com/library/miniplanner/blcratersnm.htm">Craters of the Moon</a> in Idaho will be the second best thing.... Photographs above: In 1972 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt wanted to go bouldering on the Moon's surface but, unfortunately, was wearing the wrong kind of rock shoes...er, Moon boots. Photographs courtesy NASA<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/06/is-there-rock-climbing-on-the-moon.htm">Is there Rock Climbing on the Moon?</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/">About.com Climbing</a> on Friday, January 6th, 2012 at 14:08:07.<a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/06/is-there-rock-climbing-on-the-moon.htm">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc&#038;zu=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/06/is-there-rock-climbing-on-the-moon.htm#gB3">Comment</a> | <a href="http://climbing.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://climbing.about.com/b/2012/01/06/is-there-rock-climbing-on-the-moon.htm&#038;zItl=Is there Rock Climbing on the Moon?">Email this</a>

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