Five Tips to Turn You Into a Pro Climber
This is it- you’re finally conquering your life-long of dream rock climbing. You have the right shoes, you’ve mapped out the best route, and you even have a few companions joining you on your first excursions. However, despite these preparations, scrambling up to the top of a mountain may not come as naturally as it looks your first few times. In most cases, amateur climbers need practice to develop athletic endurance to become stealthy climbers.
Don’t be discouraged. Here are a few key tips that every beginner should know when they start climbing.
1. Practice indoors
Rock-climbing author Stewart Green suggests, “Climbing indoors is easy and safe.” Plus, indoor practice is a great opportunity to learn from experts.
2. Perfect your rock-climbing skills before heading to the real location
If you don’t have any scalable boulders nearby, consider building your own small climbing wall to practice in your downtime. Learning the technique is just as important as building stamina, because negating the best footholds is what will keep you safe when you’re climbing outdoors. Beginners often lose energy when they rush through technique, and this can put you in a dangerous situation.
3. You don’t need to be in the best shape of your life when you start climbing.
That being said, rock climbing itself is great exercise. It is a fantastic way to build stamina and an ideal way to get you started on a workout routine. Don’t feel like you should spend hours in the gym working out in order to be climber, because climbing will get you in better shape.
4. Trust your feet
Climbing is more than upper body strength. “People often ask me, ‘Am I strong enough to go climbing?’“ Green says. “The answer is usually yes, because climbers use their legs and feet to push off, rather than their arms to pull themselves up.”
5. Be patient
As an eager novice, you might try to conquer every handhold and foothold. This might get you stuck in precarious spots, and you might even find yourself losing your grip. Even legendary climber Chris Sharma admits to falling. “Sometimes, you just have to force yourself to fall. I’ll just touch a handhold and let myself go, and then I’ll realise, ‘It’s okay, I can fall.’ And you get over it.” This is some of the best advice a beginner climber can hear. To let yourself fall, get over, and keep climbing,
