The Chief of all Crack Climbing
The thumb rolls over the palm to form a perfect wedge, while the foot is buried deep into the crack, slightly twisted, making an amazingly secure placement. You slide your hand tall above the other to make another placement. Each move takes you higher up the perfectly fractured crack till you top out and look across the valley. In every direction thousand of cracks splinter up the sides of cliffs. In fact no other place on earth looks quite like this setting, a land of perfect splitters, a climbing mecca known as Indian Creek, or simply “The Creek.”
You can forget about all your face climbing techniques learned on sharp corners, crimpy handholds and nubby footholds. These features are far and few between in The Creek. Instead giant bands of blank rock give way to a single weakness, a clean-cut fissure that often is the same width for hundreds of feet. The cliffs are vertical and the idea of an easy crack climb is quickly squashed when you start your first climb. There are no easy footholds; instead you must learn to create friction on the slickest sandstone imaginable. In general, the easiest Indian Creek crack climbs are the size of your hands, considered by most a 5.9 climb, or a moderately difficult climb. But the reality is that one person’s 5.9 is another person’s 5.ll. Everything is relative to your individual hand size.
Just as all people come in different shapes and sizes, cracks come in a variety of sizes as well. There is the finger size cracks, followed by the off-finger, hand, off-width and finally chimney cracks. One person’s hand crack is another person’s finger crack. For this simple reason, rating a crack climb is a rather futile endeavor. However, there is a hierarchy of crack climbing difficulty. Hand cracks are probably the easiest to master. Simply put your hand in the crack and create three points of contact between your fingertips, the back of the hand, and the palm. Then flex the hand and make it bigger, often tucking the thumb next to the palm for added friction.
The next hardest crack width is fingers. By utilizing a variety of techniques, from finger locks and pinkie jams to ring jams and toe jams, a climber can start to master most cracks. That is until you encounter the off-width crack, where none of your previous techniques seem to help out at all. You cannot jam your leg into the crack, nor can you apply pressure with your hands or feet. Off-width takes on a whole new level of climbing, often leading to very awkward and precarious positions. However, even off-width climbing has techniques. Then there are the chimney climbs that seem to allow a multitude of climbing techniques, from classic stemming to stacking your feet. Simply put, crack climbing presents an endless realm of possibilities.
At first all these climbing techniques seems impossible to accomplish, especially with the friction ripping the back of your hands and finger tips apart. But gradually technique allows upward mobility. In general, crack climbing is all about wedging any part of your body into a crack, locking it into position and inching your way up.
There are no hard fast rules, you simply need to pick a crack and start experimenting.
One of the biggest advantages to crack climbing is placing bomber protection. With the aid of spring-loaded camming devices, a climber can easily place protection, allowing for a less nerve-racking climb. But in order to place protection properly, you must first learn great technique. And the only way to learn great technique is to practice. Top roping for your first few cracks will go a long way in building confidence towards your lead climbing.
The name of the game is being creative and learning through failure. Through the process, you will gain a firm understanding of pain. The backs of hands tend to rub raw. Knees and elbows bleed and scratches seem to appear on the most random parts of your body. For this reason, I recommend a healthy supply of athletic tape. Not considered cheating, athletic tape is a must for protecting your skin. Also long pants can protect your legs. In fact it is rare to see climbers at The Creek wearing shorts, even on the hottest of days.
My first real sandstone crack climbs were in the Colorado National Monument, at Tiara Rado. I will never forget wedging my hands into a climb called Short, Cupped Hands, a 5.9+ climb that everyone said I would love. As I crammed my hands inside the crack, and wedged my climbing shoes in place, I remembered grunting and cursing the crack for being too small, too big, and far too painful. I made it a total of twenty feet before coming down, feeling utterly defeated. I gave the climb a second attempt, this time honing my entire Zen crack climbing skills. After 30 feet, I looked down at my favorite pair of climbing shoes as they literally fell of my feet. The stitching had disintegrated, leaving nothing to hold the leather and rubber together. On the third attempt, after borrowing some climbing shoes, I managed to make it up the climb. After the climb, all I could say was bloody hell to crack climbing. It was too hard, too painful, and way too tough on precious gear. I never wanted to crack climb again. But then I tried it again.
Why did I try again? Well, most of my friends said it was fun and they seemed to fly up the cracks, making the process look effortless. They said I just needed to work on my technique. So I started to hone my skills. Before I knew it. I could actually get up the hand-sized cracks. Crack climbing suddenly became fun! It presented a new challenge to rock climbing that I had never experienced. From finger techniques to off-width madness, each style presents a new obstacle to overcome. And that is what climbing is all about, learning your own technique, and finding a way to overcome the obstacle in front of you. Indian Creek offers a multitude of cracks for practicing and honing your skills. Before long, you are aching to return to The Creek for yet another unrelenting lesson in crack climbing.
