By picking out even the smallest footholds, and making use of them, you can increase the distance you can place your feet away from your hands, keeping your weight on your feet without risk of them popping off. The only technical decision needed in laybacking is how far apart to place your feet from your hands the nearer they are to each other the less reliant on friction you are, but that comes at the price of increased strenuousness. The advantage of laybacking is that it is quick, usually painless, and more intuitive than jamming. But often when cracks get very wide, or so narrow that all that remains is a slight edge, then laybacking is actually preferable. Admittedly it has a bit of a bad reputation as the emergency technique pulled out of the bag when our principle crack climbing skills are found lacking. Laybacking is a technique most suited to climbing corner cracks. Welcome to crack school, let the lesson begin. Do it well, and who knows - maybe you’ll be freeing the Salathe Wall very soon. Learning a new skill when anxiously pumped out of your mind is never going to be as productive as setting up a top-rope on a quiet crack climb and learning in a fear-free setting. Gradually moving on to harder cracks, but always focussing on learning good movement skills rather than caring about topping out. He headed to Joshua Tree and top-roped up and down cracks, refining his technique.

What he did tell me though, was that when Alex Huber visited America with the aim of repeating the Salathe Wall, he was far from being an expert crack climber. Unfortunately he was giving me a lift to a bus station in Las Vegas when I learnt this, and so I wasn’t able to get any lessons from him. I once met the guy who’d taught Alex Huber how to climb cracks.

The crack is one big hold – you just need to work out the best way of using it. When you’re following a crack there’s no shortage of gear placements, and you’ll never have to hunt around for the holds. The UK might not be a crack climbing Mecca like the western USA, but cracks are still everywhere and being able to climb them efficiently is an essential trad skill.

And it doesn’t hurt that much - honest.įirstly, if you’ve always avoided cracks then it’s time to face facts - you really need to learn to jam and putting it off is only hindering your climbing. But don’t be afraid - the techniques involved are actually quite simple and very quickly learnt. The dark art of crack climbing is often viewed with dread by modern climbers brought up on a strict diet of indoor climbing and overseas bolt clipping.

How to crack your thumb