Technique - WHISPERS OF WISDOM

The awesome power of Silent Feet

Nothing is more frustrating than falling because your foot slipped. It’s not frustrating because you passed the crux, were still fresh, or had just one move to finish your project. No, it’s frustrating because it’s preventable.

I started climbing in 1998 and, before long, climbed five days a week. My first coach was Andrew Wallach, a local strongman and the head routesetter at Vertex Climbing Center, in Santa Rosa, California. Whether Wallach’s Silent Feet drill was simply a new way to torture “Team Vertex” is debatable. What’s not, however, were the results. As a young competition climber, I learned to pare away slop and inefficiency.

Wallach’s exercise was simple: if your foot squeaked or smedged audibly when you placed it, punishment ensued — for me, this was a 200-foot gym traverse. Choose your own torture, but the key is to have someone nearby call you out. (Thanks to hollow indoor-climbing surfaces, making this call should be easy. And if you’re climbing outside and clomping like Lord of the Dance, this drill is for you.)

As your main points of weighted contact, your feet matter. Placing them silently forces you to be deliberate and aware with your choice, placement, and movement onto and off each foothold. Here’s how:

Shoe Design
First, let this key principle marinate: climbing shoes are designed to focus power into your big toe, making it the main fulcrum around which your body rotates. The strongest part of your forefoot, your big toe sticks out the farthest (usually), forcing the other piggies to follow its lead: whether smearing, edging, or bearing down on an overhang, it’s the action point for translating tension through your core. Thus, if you don’t stand (and rotate) over your big toe, your shoe will either pivot you off like a dreidel spun on its side or force you to reset your foot, increasing fatigue while you dither.


The Only Foot Placements You’ll Ever Need

1. Frontstep 

This is the simplest, most stable position. Point your foot into the wall and place your big toe directly on the hold (left foot in photo below), resulting in a squared-off stance. You can also use a frontstep in conjunction with a backstep to increase stability, also pictured below.

•Silent Feet Frontstep Method: First, straighten your arms, hanging in a rest position on your skeleton to survey your foothold options. The key to Silent Feet is slowly and simultaneously to contact the wall’s vertical plane and the foothold’s horizontal aspect — so visually track the movement. Imagine the rock has wet paint on it — will your foot leave lines or dots? You want to leave the smallest imprint possible: a microdot.


2. Instep 
The instep uses your shoe’s inside edge, still standing directly on your big toe. The resulting position — if instepping with both feet — is the “frogleg”; it’s crucial to highstepping, as with this slab move on the Bishop highball Footprints (right).

•Silent Feet Instep Method: Lean out from the wall and spot your foothold. The key is to weight your attached foot, giving you the freedom slowly and precisely to place the hovering foot. Externally rotate your hip, allowing you to use your big toe’s inside edge. As you make contact, relax your foot, allowing it to absorb weight. Noisy, sloppy footwork stems in part from a rigid ankle joint.


3. Backstep 
Learning to backstep (drop-knee) is quite possibly the most important technique for overhanging rock. Like a row of dominoes, it creates a “wave of extension” that lengthens your body: the pivoting of your toe into a backstep drops your knee, which in turn elevates your hips, driving movement upward. The backstep, or outside edge of the shoe, is also often used when stepping through. This move on Bishop’s Secrets of the Beehive (right) requires a classic backstep.

•Silent Feet Backstep Method: Set up as if initiating a frontstep or instep: arms straight, weight primarily on your attached leg. This time, internally rotate your hip, exposing your shoe’s outside edge to the hold. As your foot makes slow, deliberate contact, point your toe down, raising your ankle and driving the movement upward from the power point of your big toe.

Kevin Jorgeson still uses Silent Feet, ensuring precision footwork when it counts . . . like 40 feet off the ground on the FA of Ambrosia (5.14 X).

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The Real Secret to Effective Power Training

Hanging Up

You can train long or you can train hard, but not both — which is probably why so many of us train power so wrongly. (By “power,” we mean the product of strength and speed, i.e., the explosive force recruited any time you use momentum, or “go for it.”) Properly training power allows you to get stronger — to muckle through otherwise impossible cruxes. Thus, step one with power training is to realize you’re training, not just exercising. I.e., if you’re still firing out a steep wall on small holds three hours into a session, the problem’s nowhere near your maximum ability and you’re not really training power.

Because our local crags around Lander, Wyoming, feature short climbs with few holds, our training centers on power, but in a true-tolife way: using angles, holds, and movements found on rock. From what I’ve seen training climbers the past 20 years, the guy who uses his whole body to create power is better off than any “campus master.” So read on for big-picture ideas about training power the natural way.

Keep It Short

True power training is very intense — only 45 to 60 minutes. Add in 15 to 30 minutes of warm-up and cool-down, and you’re still done in subtwo hours. By keeping these sessions short (fatigue creates endurance, not power), you can do more per week — if you’re in shape, up to two or three hard power sessions, totaling close to three hours of quality work.

A typical power phase lasts four to six weeks and will often consist of mostly gym sessions. If you climb outside, only boulder or try short, difficult climbs — you’ll have little time (or energy) for other climbing. After this phase, you can cycle back into “normal” mode and put your power to the test. In a given year, you could fruitfully advance through three or four power phases. (Intersperse these, however, with a minimum of four to six weeks of less-intense training or climbing.)

Recovery Time Is Key

We don’t leave the gym with more power — it’s recovery that promotes improvement. In general, it should take 36 to 72 hours to bounce back from a proper power session. After this time, it’s critical that you again hit the system with another stimulus, or the first session’s value declines. (If you climb only once weekly, you’ll see no improvement.) On the flip side, rest too little or train too long (e.g., those fun four hours of nonstop gym routes with your buddies), and you fail to improve.

Specify

The more your training resembles your goal routes or problems, the better. That is, developing climbing power is about training the muscles of the back and the hip girdle. Sure, our arms get tired first, but it’s these “big” muscles that generate the most force and help us integrate our feet/legs. Climbers usually train power in several ways: power-focussed bouldering (discussed in this tip), random bouldering, system training, campus training, body-weight resistance training, and weight training. These latter five modes are fine, but should supplement, not replace, power problems (see “Perfect Power” sidebar).

Don’t Get Worked

At first, you might feel you aren’t properly “worked.” Perfect — this lets you come back hard in a couple days. Improvement is why you’re training. Be patient, be disciplined, and you’ll see gains as quickly as three weeks.

Speed It Up

Another good way to increase power is to increase speed. But because climbing is so technical, speed often decreases fine motor skill, hence hold-grabbing/stabbing accuracy. I’d recommend only going a wee bit faster — say five percent — to prevent your form from going to hell.

As an exercise, time yourself on some 10-to-12-move problems; then speed them up by no more than a second or two. Work on efficiency — if you get sloppy, slow down and re-evaluate. A few tricks: memorize the sequence from the ground, and climb from memory, not reaction;? move consistently upward — don’t fall into start-stop movement; and focus on your feet — your legs drive most movement, so make sure they’re not just dragging while you speed-lunge.

Steve Bechtel, a climber of 20 years, has pioneered 250-plus routes on six continents. He works as a performance coach for climbers and other athletes, owns Elemental Training Center (climbstrong.net) in Lander, Wyoming, and holds a degree in exercise physiology.

Perfect Power: a Workout Routine

This four-step workout looks simple on paper, but it works. Give yourself three or four weeks, and then test gains on personal benchmark problems.

Step 1: 15 to 30 minutes of warm-up, with resistance exercises (pull-ups and bodyweight squats) and some easier, yet increasingly intense, climbing. Cardiovascular exercise — say, a few minutes on the treadmill or stationary bike — is fine early in the warm-up, too.

Step 2: four to five tries on a hard problem (four to 10 moves), just above your onsight level, that requires explosive movement. Use holds big enough to train power, rather than failing because of finger strength. Think slopers, flat jugs, and big edges. If you don’t quite top out, that’s fine. Better to fail than to under-stimulate your system.

Step 3: six to eight tries on one or two max-effort problems requiring explosiveness, with two to three minutes of rest between each burn. Again, if you complete more than half the problem, it’s an attempt; though if you fall low, jump right back on. Remember, you are not going for a pump. If you feel fatigue, increase rest time. End this step when power declines even slightly.

Step 4: cool down on easy ground, with stretching or exercises that recruit the antagonist muscles. Push-ups, bench dips, and some planks/bridges seem to work — two to three sets of each, not quite to failure.

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Big Wall Tactics

Eight pitches the 1988 first ascent of Waterfall Wall—a dry-season-only Grade VI A4+ that follows the line of Upper Yosemite Falls—Rick Sylvester and I were eager to get to the first good crack of any length we had seen in four pitches.

A slanting dihedral began about 15 feet to right, but a pendulum would leave us too low. There were no features for bashies, horizontal edges for hooks, nor angled edges for opposing hooks on the steep, blank wall.

I did find vertical edges, however, and eventually devised a plan to hook across using tension from the rope: a hooksion traverse. I placed the first hook, attached an aider, then had Rick lock off the belay as I leaned right against the rope. Then, very gingerly, I placed my left foot into the aider and pressed it straight out to the left. Holding my body nearly horizontal against the rope’s tension, I reached out right to hook another edge. As I pressed my right foot into an aider clipped to this second hook, Rick slowly let out some rope. It took several more placements to gain the crack in the dihedral—about as much as I could handle of the incredibly strenuous horizontal position needed to keep the hooks in place on vertical edges—but I managed to reach the next crack without drilling.

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Finger Yoga

By Dionne Obeso / Illustrations by Jamie Givens

“Extremities need yoga like every other part of the body,” says fingeryoga.com. “To a certain extent, hands represent a microcosm of the organs of action.” I’ve found that finger yoga helps keep my climber fingers from becoming painful claws after hard climbing. Of the many possible stretches and “poses,” the ones described below are my after-climbing favorites. The instructions are given for the left pointer finger; repeat with each finger, then switch hands. Dr. Susan Saliba, with 18 years of clinical experience as a physical therapist and athletic trainer, recommends that finger yogis keep their wrists straight while stretching; bent-wrist stretches can bend the carpal tunnel. (It’s OK to bend the wrist for thumb stretches.) Hold each stretch for several seconds, and don’t overdo it—the stretch should not feel painful.

1. For an "opening" stretch of the knuckle nearest your palm, relax your grip and straighten the fingers of your left hand. Use your right thumb to lift the first finger. Apply pressure at about the middle joint, pushing the finger back and keeping your other fingers straight.

2. For "closing" the joints, press your first finger to the palm, while opening the rest of the fingers on your hand. Grip across your left pointer finger with your right hand, using the heel of your hand to apply pressure to the joint closest to your hand. Move down to the middle knuckle, and then use your thumb and forefinger to apply isolated pressure to the last joint.

 

3. To loosen up your hands laterally, use your right hand to grip your left pointer. Pull it gently up and away from the rest of your fingers, toward your thumb. Reverse the stretch, pulling the finger across your other fingers toward the pinkie.

 

4. Now, do the splits: Use your right hand to press the left forefinger flat toward the palm. At the same time, use your right fingers to press the other fingers of your left hand gently up and back. This time, you are stretching one finger down and the rest of the fingers up.

5. To stretch your thumb, bend your wrist forward and use your right hand to press the left thumb flat into the left wrist. Relax, and then press the thumb straight across the palm. Relax once more, and finally press it straight back away from the palm, as shown in the illustration. Then switch hands.

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The Safety Stick

Stick clipping, big-wall style

Many big-wall climbers see stick clips (aka cheater sticks) solely as emergency tools to use when they run across a broken rivet or missing copperhead. However, a stick clip also can greatly assist in retreating off overhanging walls like the right side of El Capitan or Leaning Tower. Some overhanging rappels may leave you dangling in space, unable to reach the next anchors. In such cases, the usual solution is down-aiding instead of rappelling—a slow and awkward task. With a stick clip, you can often simply rappel down, reach in with your stick to clip the anchors, and reel yourself in.

 

To make a big-wall stick clip, start with a collapsible tent pole approximately 10 feet long. Attach any lightweight sport-climbing stick-clipping head to one end. (Epic makes a $10 attachment that works great; epicsport.com.) Now, start with a piece of 9/16” webbing about twice as long as your tent pole, and tie a small overhand loop near one end, leaving a one foot tail. This loop will be clipped through the biner on the end of the stick. Duct-tape the tail of the webbing to the end of the pole just behind the clipping head, leaving enough slack to keep the webbing from being ripped off the pole when you tension the clipping biner. Then, tie small overhand loops every one to two feet for the length of the webbing until the strand of loops is as long as the tent pole, and cut off the excess webbing.

You’re done! To use the stick, clip the webbing’s end loop into a biner and clamp the biner in the clipping head. After you clip an anchor, the webbing is your lifeline to the wall. Pull yourself in, either by hand-over-handing the loops, or by clipping them with your aiders. On very steep or diagonal rappels, you may need to use the stick to clip intermediate pieces as you descend.

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Point and Shoot Cameras

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Professional shooter Kennan Harvey—who carries a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 when he’s not toting his pro rig—recommends looking for three key features when researching cameras.

Low tech: Corey Rich shot this image of Beth Rodden on The Phantom in Yosemite National Park with his Nikon P7000 point and shoot.

Today's compact digital cameras are slimmer, lighter, and more durable than their redecessors—and their image quality is much better. They’re also a lot more portable and a lot less expensive than full-sized digital SLRs—meaning you’re more likely to carry them on your climbs—and many have features that even the pros respect, including image stabilization and continuous-shooting modes. If you want quality photos from your climbing trips, but don’t want to drop $2,000 or more on a digital SLR, a good point and shoot is a great option.

1. MINIMAL SHUTTER LAG.

The annoying delay between pressing the shutter and when the photo is recorded is especially problematic when trying to capture climbers in motion.

2. A WIDE-ANGLE LENS.

The camera should zoom out to least 28mm, and 24mm is better still. This is essential for taking one-handed shots of yourself and your partner on a belay ledge, and for creating a sense of steepness and exposure when looking down.

3. A “FAST” LENS.

Faster lenses—those with a wider maximum aperture—make for better shooting in low-light conditions such as alpine starts and stormy retreats. In a point and shoot, consider f/2.8 fast, and f/1.8 very fast. Note that due to the mechanics of zooming, maximum aperture typically shrinks when you zoom in, so the lens will have a variable rating such as “f/2.8 – f/4.5.” Look at the lowest number (widest aperture) when comparing cameras.

Of the more techy features in new point and shoots, image stabilization is among the most helpful. “If you’re hanging on a wall, blowing in the wind, or reaching out over a ledge, image stabilization works remarkably well,” says Harvey. Another useful plus is continuous, or “burst,” mode, which improves the odds of catching a moving climber in a pleasing position.

Finally, consider the brightness of the environment in which you’ll be shooting. If mountaineering is your thing, with bright sunlight and snow everywhere, pick a camera with a viewfinder—an LCD monitor is very hard to see in bright conditions or with polarized sunglasses.

DRESS IT UP

Once you pick a camera, create a bombproof case system to protect it. A variety of quality point-and-shoot cases can be found in most mountain and outdoor shops for $30 or less. Hard or soft cases come down to personal preference, but choose a case that’s just big enough for the camera, with a small pocket to hold an extra battery and a sturdy loop that will accept a utility carabiner. A dust-resistant closure system (such as a zipper plus a Velcro flap) is a must for desert climbers. Use the camera’s wrist sling, but connect camera to case with a thin, two-foot keeper cord (or fly fishing–style retractable keeper). Clip the case to your harness and carry it everywhere. After pulling the camera out of the box, read the manual thoroughly. Most point and shoots are intuitive and userfriendly, but you will undoubtedly discover features you didn’t know about. Two very useful options to look for and learn to use: focus lock and exposure lock.

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