Bizarre beta: feet first

Dave Graham on Petrichor 8C (V15)

 

Petrichor 8C is a boulder problem in Rocklands, South Africa, first solved by Dave Graham. What's special about it is that, apart from small crimps and compression climbing, the method of the first ascensionist included a bat hang, i.e. a double toe hook above your head. It's a clear choice when going from two bad opposing holds, which are possible to hold using compression between them, to a jug. It's really hard to let go of one hand, unless you can change it for a foot, for instance using a heel hook, to maintain tension on the other hand. But so long as you squeeze both holds, you can move your lower limbs around, all the way above your head. Once you have two feet toe hooking on a big hold you can basically let go with your hands.

It's not the most common move applied in the rock, but you can definitely encounter it. Aside from the conditions mentioned above the boulder must be very overhanging. Nevertheless, it can happen in lower grades as well, I had a pleasure of doing El murciélago 7A in Albarracín and Techo del lomo 7B in La Pedriza, in Spain. In both cases the easiest method seems to be the exact same move as on Petrichor - "throwing" your feet above your head to a bat hang. I highly recommend both boulders for other mortals out there who break their fingers by looking at the holds on an 8C.

Routesetters in commercial gyms often try to enforce a bat hang, however usually it's set at the very bottom of the boulder problem as the starting position. Starting hands are basically at the floor level and starting feet are above and both on one of those huge bright volumes made of sandpaper. It's lazy routesetting. The proper way of doing it is to enforce the move higher up on the climb and let the climbers come up with the solution on their own.

 

Adam Ondra on Silence 9c (5.15d)

 

The next choice for the list is a no-brainer, perhaps the most iconic move in sport climbing. We are talking about the foot jam on the hardest route in the world Silence 9c in Flatanger, Norway (well, there are aslo DNA and B.I.G.). It's another example of beta with feet going first dictated by the impossibility of climbing in the normal orientation. The whole sequence in an excellent illustration of complex climbing movement - the iconic foot jam and the crazy drop knee afterwards (4:47 and 11:23 in the video). Additionally, Adam Ondra, the first and only ascensionist, uses a finger lock with his right hand in the middle of the sequence, all of this after doing 8C moves. Not to mention no hand knee bars on one knee only before and after the crux, a truly complex beta at the highest level (as to be expected from the great technician himself on the hardest route, although there are very hard routes with a simple beta as well).

Jamming feet above the head is a regular technique in steep crack climbing, actually Pete Whittaker did even a larger part of the main crux going feet-first. Nevertheless, it's less common on regular sport climbs or boulders and many sport climbers don't know how to jam, hence they don't have this option available. It's a great reminder that the more skills from the movement library we learn the harder we can climb, or in other words the breadth of climbing technique (i.e. the number of skills) is equally important as the depth of it (i.e. reaching the mastery in skills we have). Sure, on easier routes it's usually possible to grab a small crimp, jump, or avoid jamming in another way, but it's just way more fun to do a route using a bizarre beta. For me, anyways.

 

Will Anglin on Te cuelgas guey 8B (V13)

 

Another great example is the boulder problem Te cuelges guey 8B in Eleven Mile Canyon in the USA. In the video Will Anglin goes feet first at around 0:34, which was the beta since the first ascent by Austin Geiman in 2013 and every other video you can find of this problem involves similar moves. One hand stays on the undercling while the other reaches to a bad sloper, so bad that holding it without the compression generated between the arms pulling in opposite directions would most likely be impossible. If the next hold were a crimp, the boulder could be impossible to climb, but with a big sloper coming ahead the soltion exists. The next hold is not a jug though and preventing feet from just sliding off of it requires compression - this time between the hands and the feet. 

Why not to use the same principle, but in normal orientation, one might ask. Maybe another way would be changing the hand on the undercling for a toehook or a double toehook, matching the first bad sloper, and then going to the big sloper with one of the hands, all the time using the compresion between the limbs on the undercling and those on upper slopers. Theoretically, it could work up to the point when you need to release your feet from the undercling to bring them up - the swing would be impposible to hold on such a bad sloper. Going feet first, on the other hand, has the adventage of keeping your body closer to the wall and under the sloper all the time. And slopers only work if you pull into the wall on them, not out of the wall, and somethimes even pulling downwards is not enough.

 

Iker Pou on Demencia senil 9a+ (5.15a)

In the last example we have Iker Pou going feet-first on Demencia senil 9a+ in Margalef, Spain. As you can see at 2:08, the idea is the same as before - two hand holds which work fine in opposition (as for a 9a+, those pockets are savage!), but it's hard to impossible to let go of the lower hand. If they are good enough, you can swing your legs to a better hold higher up, which in this case is a big hole in the rock. Although what he does looks like a foot jam, it's more of a toe-heel cam, where you also jam your foot but in a different orientation and not only the front part of it. It's basically a camming action between the heel and the toepatch of the shoe, which is much harder to slip off from than a toe hook or a foot jam. Interestingly, Iker Pou is the only ascensionist, from those who pop up on YouTube, that makes it work as a full no hand rest, hanging upside down by his feet. Great tibialis anterior (the shin bone muscle) strength! It definitely helps to recover a bit more from pulling on those nasty two finger pockets and monos. Btw, I had the pleasure to meet Iker on several occasions, he's a really nice guy, the same as his brother Eneko (they usually show up in media together as Hermanos Pou).

There you have it, three extremely difficult climbs with the easiest beta being going feet-first, each using a different technique for the feet. So if you are stuck on opposing hand holds and spot a hole, a crack, a sloper, or a jug above your head - you know what to do!