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Bouldering

Pack more climbing fun and more climbing difficulty into an hour of bouldering than you will in a whole day at the crags.

Bouldering and its significance in the sport of rock climbing are impossible to state. Virtually every advancement in difficulty in climbing is punctuated with bouldering and the single most difficult moves that have ever been completed have been on boulder problems. Nevertheless, the newest climber as well as the most advanced may both walk up to the same boulder and find a maximal challenge and finish it with equal struggle and satisfaction.

Bouldering offers the most solitary climbing experience for the one who wants to pursue a meditative session of free movement in total harmony with the environment and self. Conversely, there is no more social venue in climbing than the bouldering area where a group of climbers will swap beta, cheer on the quaking highballer and give her a group spotting job with four crash pads thick to ensure a happy ending, be it topping out or a cart wheeling plunge. Laughter, screaming and antics of every kind are the addictive delight of boulderers everywhere. Just show up, push your limits and bring all the positive energy you have and the calls from willing partners looking for the next session will start pouring in.

So what do you need to know…?

Spotting
As important as good belaying is to roped climbing, attentive spotting is important to bouldering. Good spotting will keep your partners staying your partner and not someone else’s. Taking a few bad falls that could have been prevented by attentive spotting will send a partner elsewhere.

Spotting implies laser focus and spotting closely enough, but not to the point of invasiveness. Usually a boulderer wants to know that his fall will be put under control by the spotter; if your partner falls don’t try to catch him like a 10 pound baby. You’ll get hurt and so may your partner.

Place your hands close to the boulderers body in a position that will slow her down, keep her on the crash pads and reduce injurious landing trajectories. Hands positioned to touch from the bottom of the rib cage to the shoulder blades in a fall will serve most situations best, but use your judgment. If you see that the situation demands something special, do that.

Unless instructed to, reduce or eliminate touching a person while spotting. The temptation to reassure a person that you are there spotting carefully by putting a hand on his back, even momentarily, is bad news in many cases. A person making an attempt to hit a hard problem, especially if it is a first ascent will call the validity of the “send” into question. Even a light touch may be seen as “taking weight.”

There is a time for taking weight. Sometimes while initially working a problem, a climber will learn moves more quickly if a spotter will give a lifting hand to reduce the difficulty. This is similar to working a climb on top rope prior to leading it. It is up to the individual to decide which interim techniques to employ in order to make a final satisfactory ascent in good style.

Below are two examples of spotting on the boulder problem El Verano (8a). One with mostly good spotting and the other... well, you just need to see!

Toni Lamprecht on El Varano

Gil Averbuch on El Varano

Technique
Technical progress in bouldering, even more so than in roped climbing, will accelerate when you model more proficient climbers. While bouldering, you can watch the exact moves of strong climbers and emulate them. Ask questions about what exactly a climber felt happening in her body (was the heel hook just positional or was there tension in the hamstring muscle giving lift and taking weight off the arms). Every nuance of movement is important and the more you get into what others saw, felt and thought about, the more you will progress to being an exceptional boulderer.

Visualization is an important talent in bouldering and you should run through boulder problems in your mind every time before you make an attempt. If you do, you’ll make fewer attempts and have more “sends”.

Bouldering Gear:

Chalk / Chalk Bag.
Crash pad.
Climbing shoes. For bouldering, choose a more sensitive and supple shoe than for long routes where more support and high durability are a concern.

Accessories:
Sunglasses that cut glare for transitions from shade to sun.
Chalk bucket for the hard core boulderer or posse organizer.
Brushes for hold cleaning, including brushes taped to sticks of various lengths for cleaning crux holds high off the deck.
Hand kit: Tincture of benzoin to help tape stick, cloth athletic / hand tape, surgical scissors, nail clippers, hand lotion to prevent skin from splitting.

Cyanoacrylate: This is controversial stuff and this is not a recommendation or medical advice. Use of cyanoacrylate or any adhesive on your body is at your own risk. All wound care requires qualified medical personnel for implementation. Disclaimer stated, read on and decide for yourself. Cyanoacrylate is a tenacious adhesive and it is very good at bonding body tissue, and while this can be a bothersome (or even dangerous) side effect during everyday use, it has been exploited for the benefit of suture-less surgery from the time of the Vietnam War. Climbers have been using this substance which is commercially known as “Super Glue” for years with tremendous success in sealing road trip stopping skin flappers. Problem is that the stuff is toxic. Some climbers consider Super Glue to be an essential hand kit item and others won’t get within a stick clip distance of it. If the wound is really nasty just live with it and let it heal. If you decide to glue a wound, do not drip it into a bloody wound. Bloody equals an interface of the chemical directly into the bloodstream and is the most likely wound to cause a toxic reaction. Get that flapper all cleaned up so that there is no chance whatsoever of sealing infected stuff inside or there will be a disaster. Pat the flapper down into place, carefully resetting the skin exactly where it came from, eliminating gaps were the glue might seep deep inside the wound. Drip the glue over the wound edges and then on top of the flapper. Allow the glue to thoroughly dry without touching anything else, especially another finger. Another coat is not a bad idea since bouldering quickly causes cracks to develop in the glue shell and a second coat puts another layer of insulation from the pain of direct pressure on a painful wound.

Finally, listen to the solid advice of Lisa Rands:
A lot of people don’t like to train what they’re not good at. Over the years I’ve addressed a lot of weaknesses. I used to think it was slopers, then it was pockets, then steep problems. I get out there and suck it up, even though it means dropping to a lower level, because I want to learn the technique and build the muscles I need to get up the problems I’m most interested in. I still have a lot of weaknesses, and I’m working on them.

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