To Face In or Face Out on a Downclimb? Rock Climbing and Scrambling Fundamentals
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This video is about body position when downclimbing. I always find downclimbing a bit awkward and that awkwardness translates into doubt. Doubt can lead to insecurity because I don’t press into my feet enough, and that is a vicious mental cycle. The more doubt I feel, the more I want to hang on with my hands to make those “third and forth” points of contact really mean something. But by taking weight off of my feet, I am reducing the pressure that creates the friction that keeps my feet in place. What I should actually be doing is press into my feet more, but it feels very counterintuitive.
Our feet are super important because the small muscles in our hands and arms can only hold so much weight for so long. It’s the big muscles in our legs that keep up moving the way that we need to, even as the rock gets more vertical. Thankfully, those big muscles can produce force for a very long time, fatiguing comparatively slowly. That’s why I place so much emphasis in the video on our feet and being able to see our foot holds. If we just relied on our arms, we’d peel off the rock after a few moves. Our legs - designed to take the load of our bodies - need to still do that, even if the terrain is getting steep.
So, the video is about facing in or facing out (and sometimes facing sideways) to the wall of rock we are on in order to maximize the effectiveness of our feet. But gear plays into that equation, too.
We did a video that introduces hikers to class 3 and class 4 scrambling (where hand holds start to come into play). And one of the things I talk about is moving away from “hiking” shoes and starting to think about “approach” shoes. Approach shoes usually have sticker rubber that is more like a climbing shoe rubber; have stiff toes to allow for support if you can only get your toes on the rock; and often will will “climbing zone” section of the shoe - usually around the big toe - that is just flat, no tread, in order to maximize the amount of rubber contacting the rock and generating the friction you need.
When it domes to approach shoes, I trust the reviews at Outdoor Gear Labs and then go try on pairs at my local climbing shop. I personally have many different pairs that are designed for slightly different demands; but I tend to use La Sportiva because they are a climbing-oriented (think ‘good rubber’ and ‘good support for your foot in climbing positions’), and they make shoes that simply fits my feet well. I have three different models that I use regularly. You can read about the differences by following the Outdoor Gear Labs links for men and for women, but in short they are:
The TX Guide - very stiff platform and stiff in the toe for excellent edging; with La Sportiva’s stickiest approach shoe rubber (there are climbing shoe rubbers that are more sticky)
The TX2 EVO - very soft shoe good for smearing and climbing slab; stickiest approach shoe rubber; very light for easy carrying while climbing but not exceptionally cushioned.
The Boulder X - the Clydesdale of the group, same stickiest rubber but a more heavy and burly shoe for supporting heavier packs.
For the kids, that gets a bit harder. You won’t find approach shoes in the smaller kids’ sizes. So, before their feet were big enough for any approach shoe options, we had them in the Adidas Terrex AX2R, and you can see a video we did reviewing them. They have very good rubber, not “climbing rubber good,” but pretty close. Now that they have bigger feet, the rue approach shoes are still a bit too big, but La Sportiva makes a shoe based on a trail running/hiking model that uses some of their less-expensive climbing rubber compound on the sole. So, not all the stiffness and “climbing area” design of true approach shoes, but with that sticky rubber.
The La Sportiva Ultra Raptor II Jr can’t be found in North America, but I can and do order them from overseas (Spain). Now that the boys are running around and over rocks on terrain that has real consequences, I want every advantage towards keeping them safe. Since so much of this is about feet and friction, the right shoes are part of that chain.