How to prepare for climbing?
Below you may find the basic equipment necessary for climbing and the ways you may introduce them to beginner climbers.
Equipment
Harness: A climbing harness is a waist belt with leg loops, either sewn or tied from nylon webbing, which allows a climber to be comfortably and safely tied to a rope. A harness keeps a climber’s weight on his waist and hips when he falls, lowers, rappels, or hangs. Harnesses make rock climbing much safer than climbing with the rope tied directly around the climber’s waist. Harnesses are put on by slipping your legs through the leg loops, then securing the waist strap by passing it through a metal buckle and then back through again. Most modern harnesses are padded and have adjustable leg loops to accommodate wearing bulky winter clothes. Harnesses should fit snugly but not tight.
Your climbing harness, which basically connects your body to your climbing rope, is a complicated piece of equipment. It has lots of parts-straps, buckles, and loops. The waist belt is the thick slab of webbing that wraps around your waist. It is usually sewn and padded for comfort, especially on big wall harnesses where you will be hanging in your harness for days at a time. The leg loops are the two wide, padded loops of webbing that encase your upper thighs. They can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the webbing which run through buckles. The leg loops are attached to the front of the waist belt at the belay loop and by adjustable webbing straps on the rear of the waist belt. The leg loop cross piece also attaches the leg loops to each other at the front of the harness. The leg loops work in conjunction with the waist belt to distribute your weight between your legs and pelvis in the event of a fall. Harnesses have either one or two buckles attached to the front of the waist belt. A single buckle is usually threaded with a length of webbing on the waist belt and then doubled back on itself through the buckle. This ensures that the harness will not accidently come undone when it is weighted. It is extremely important to always double-check that your harness belt is doubled back through the buckle. Many harnesses also have double buckles that are prethreaded, which allow you to easily tighten or loosen the harness waist belt. The tie-in loop is exactly that-a loop of strong, rigid webbing sewn onto the front of the waist belt. The length of webbing that secures the buckle is attached to the loop. When you tie your rope into your harness, the rope is threaded through the leg loop cross piece at the bottom and then up through the tie-in loop, which tightly secures the rope to both parts of the harness and distributes your weight on both parts if you fall or hang on the rope. The belay loop is a strong, rigid loop of webbing that attaches the leg loops to the waist belt. The belay loop is also one of the most important parts of the climbing harness since a locking carabiner is attached to the loop when you are belaying or rappelling. The belay loop is extremely strong so it can withstand all the energetic forces of climbing, including severe falls. Still, belay loops have been known to fail, especially if they are old and worn, so always back it up to create redundancy in your chain of safety if you have any doubts about the loop's strength and integrity. The gear loops, either soft or rigid loops attached to the waist belt, are used to rack your climbing gear, including nuts, cams, and quickdraws, to your harness for easy carrying while you climb. Harnesses usually come with either two or four gear loops, depending on the weight of the harness. Small harnesses for women or kids often have just two gear loops, while bigger harnesses have four. Usually it is better to have four gear loops, unless you are using your harness for gym climbing, top-roping, or sport routes. Most gear loops are not strong enough to support anything more than body weight. A haul loop is a loop of webbing on the back of the waist belt. The best haul loops are sewn and are full strength. These are used for hauling a second rope on long climbs, aid climbing, and big walls. Some harnesses have a low strength haul loop, often a loop of plastic tacked onto the waist belt. These are usually used only for clipping a chalk bag or other gear onto the rear of the waist belt. The leg loop cross piece is a length of webbing connecting the two leg loops on the front of the harness. It is usually adjustable with a small threaded buckle. This webbing, along with the tie-in loop on the waist belt, is one of the points where you attach your climbing rope to your harness.
Carabiners: Carabiners are a basic and essential piece of equipment that you use every time you go rock climbing. A carabiner, the work horse of a climber's rack of gear, is simply a strong metal snap-link made of lightweight aluminum or hefty steel that is used to connect all the different parts of the climbing safety system together. Carabiners, often called "crabs" and "biners," have a spring-tensioned gate that opens under finger pressure, making it easy to clip it to climbing gear like a rope. The spring inside the carabiner normally holds the gate closed. The gate is pushed open with the fingers to allow a rope or other equipment to be clipped to it and then snaps shut when released. Carabiners are strongest when the gate is closed and weakest when the gate is open. Climbers often used locking carabiners, or carabiners with a gate that locks shut whenever they want to make sure that nothing comes unclipped from the carabiner.
Carabiners perform a wide variety of climbing tasks, including attaching a climber to a rope, attaching a climbing rope to a harness or piece of gear like a cam or climbing nut, for attaching a climber to a belay anchor, and for attaching a climber to a rope for rappelling. Carabiners are super strong because our climbing safety depends on them. Carabiners come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Carabiners are rated for strength by kilonewtons, a measurement of the severe forces applied to the equipment by a climbing fall.
Carabiners come in three basic shapes—-oval, D-shaped, and asymmetrical D-shaped—-and have three basic types of gates-straight gate, bent gate, and wire gate. There are two types of locking carabiners--auto-lock carabiners and screw-lock carabiners.
Ropes: Ropes are the most critical piece of climbing equipment that we use on the rocks. Our climbing rope is our lifeline. It secures us to each other in a climbing partnership and the rope safely attaches us to cliffs and rock faces. There is nothing like owning a brand new climbing rope. The rope feels tight and secure. Its colors glow bright in the morning sun. But after a few pitches, the rope's colors start to fade and the rope loosens up. It becomes a good friend that we uncoil at the base of the day's first route when we go sport climbing or top-rope climbing and when we coil it up at the end of the long day of rock climbing. But despite our best care and attention, climbing ropes wear out. And when you climb a lot of pitches, ropes wear out faster. So we need to keep our eyes on our rope and regularly check it for wear and tear, and then finally one day we have to decide to retire the rope. Ropes are critical to climbing safety because if our rope fails, we might die. Ropes are also one of the few non-redundant parts of the climbing safety system. As climbing ropes wear out, they begin to lose a lot of their stretch, the elasticity that allows them to absorb a lot of the energy created by falls, and they start to stiffen up. This stiffness and lack of stretchiness puts more impact on other parts of our chain of climbing safety, because the energy formerly absorbed by the climbing rope's stretch has to be absorbed elsewhere in the safety system. This can lead to the failure of other equipment like cams and nuts pulling out, shearing, or breaking under load.
Belay and rappel devices: Belay devices, also called rappel devices, are simple but essential climbing tools that allow a climber to belay another climber by paying out the rope and then using the rope and the device as a brake if the leader falls, to lower another climber down a cliff, and to rappel or make a controlled slide down a rope. Belay devices are lightweight, super strong, and easy to use, although they are dangerous and useless if a climber does not have the proper skills to belay and rappel. Each type of belay device requires a different set of techniques to use it correctly and the skills used for one device are not always applicable to another. It is best to read the instructions that come with the device and then practice using it at a local cliff or an indoor climbing gym before going outside and taking it up a multi-pitch climb. Belaying and rappelling are serious climbing activities with the danger of injury or death.
Functions of a Belay Device: Most belay devices fall within a couple of design categories based on similar principal designs. First consider the three functions of a belay device. The belay device's primary function is to hold a falling climber with a rope that is attached to his harness. The second function is that the device must be able to smoothly pay out or take in the rope as a climber moves upward or is being lowered down. The third function is that the device must be able to be used to rappel down a climbing rope.
Climbing shoes: Climbing shoes are the one piece of equipment that will help you climb better, harder, and higher. A great fitting pair of rock shoes with sticky rubber on the soles gives an immediate boost in your ability to climb hard, to stand on small holds, and to practice good footwork. Great rock shoes are essential for doing your best and having lots of climbing fun.
The big problem is that there are so many different kinds of climbing shoes.
The fit of your climbing shoes is the single most important consideration when you buy new ones. Find a pair that fits well and you will love them to death. Buy a pair that is uncomfortable and they will rot in your closet.
The fit of your new rock shoes is determined largely by your climbing experience and the type of climbing you do. If you are an advanced sport climber then you are going to use a different shoe model than someone who is a moderate trad climber or a beginner gym climber.
Before you try on and buy a new pair of shoes, decide what kind of routes you will use them on. Anyone who climbs much will own different types of rock shoes so that they can grab a specific pair for a specific type of climbing from their shoe bin.
If you buy the wrong size shoes, then you will pay for your decision later by probably not wearing them because they are either too tight or too loose, in other words, you have the wrong fit. The fit of a pair of rock shoes is subjective, depending on the shape and size of your foot, including its length, width, arch, heel, and toes. Every foot is different, including your own feet which can differ in size and width from each other.
The sizing of shoes from different manufacturers adds another level of confusion since size is relative. Most shoe manufacturers offer size comparison charts using U.S., U.K., and European sizing.
Use the numerical size as only a guideline for what size rock shoe you will wear. Remember that tight painful shoes are usually worn by elite climbers who want their rock shoes to mold to their foot; to be tight enough to eliminate "roll" or movement of the foot inside the shoe; increase sensitivity to the rock surface and footholds; and pin-point foot control on small footholds and smears.
Climbing helmets: Climbing helmets are an essential part of your personal climbing gear stash. It is very simple—a climbing helmet can save your life. Many climbing fatalities, as evidenced by long-term statistics, occur as a result of head injuries. Climbing helmets protect your fragile skull from falling rocks and both top and side impacts during a fall. The climbing helmet should fit straight and snugly on your head with the front rim in the middle of your forehead. A climbing helmet covers more of your head than other helmets like those made for bicyclists, skiers, or skateboarders. You need to buy a helmet that is specifically made for climbing by a climbing gear manufacturer. These helmets protect your cranium, especially against side and back impacts that occur during a fall or from falling rocks.
Make sure you buy a climbing helmet that is tested and certified. These certifications, resulting from rigorous testing for impact forces generated in climbing accidents, ensure that the helmet has sufficient impact absorption and penetration resistance. The best helmets have both certifications, which are clearly labeled on the helmet or packaging.
The outer shell is basically the meat and potatoes of the climbing helmet since the shell protects your head from impacts. It is usually made of plastic, either nylon or polycarbonate. The chin strap is essential to keep the climbing helmet in place on your head and for its vertical or top-to-bottom fit. Make sure you can either tighten or loosen the strap to avoid helmet shift. Also check that you can easily unbuckle the strap or loosen it with one hand. The padded straps are more comfortable than the webbing strap but they tend to absorb sweat on hot summer days on the rock. The side straps, like the chin strap, allow adjustments to the vertical fit of your climbing helmet. Most helmets let you easily adjust the straps, usually with a sliding plastic piece on the straps between their V-shape and below your ears. You usually only need to adjust these the first time you wear the helmet, although they can loosen up with time and might need to be fine-tuned. The circumference adjuster is the third way to adjust the climbing helmet to fit your head. The adjuster, at the back of the helmet, is usually a round dial, click wheel, or a ratcheting buckle which can be easily used with one hand, although older helmets have a system with pegs that fit into holes to secure the fit. The circumference adjuster is perfect for getting the best fit, especially if you are wearing a beanie or wool hat underneath it in winter. Ventilation is a necessity for your climbing helmet. While the older helmets usually did not have vents, all of the new ones do, making them ideal for use in warm weather. One of the biggest complaints about helmets in the past was that they were often just too hot to wear in summer. Get a helmet with vents in the front, on both sides, and in the back to keep your head cool.