Athlete • Speaker • Guide 
Athlete • Speaker • Guide Date: 4th December 2006
A few people have suggested I start a second career as a “professional questioner of commonly held climbing beliefs.” That sounds almost fun, but the reality is that I’m mainly just sharing info from other people. I’m no physics major, just really curious about climbing gear, always have been. I do the same sort of work for BD and Arc’teryx on their gear, it’s fun for some reason. Maybe I’m really a geek.
Anyhow, I’ve been corresponding and thinking more about ropes after Jim Ewing’s data on half ropes tested with single-rope fall loads. The good news is that all the half ropes held one fall, but Jim is sure none would pass a full single-rope test of five falls minimum. This makes sense, companies would be marketing these ropes as singles if they did.
Here’s a really good link full of rope and other climbing gear test data, I especially liked the info on what various environmental contaminants (sand, water, freezing) etc. did to rope strength. Always wondered about that. Andrew McLaren seems to be doing or supervising some good work on climbing gear, thanks to him for that.
Training:
The elbow rehab continues, and a few of the exercises I’ve found seem to be slowly helping–I can now hold a frying pan one-handed! OK, so not so rad but a pretty good improvement for me. Went skate-skiing for the first time last week, sure is fun! Other than that just rehab, running, no climbing but hopefully soon. I’ve given up Yoga classes for now, the swinging through to seated and “tweaky” strain on my elbow just isn’t good. I’m continuing to do my own stretching and yoga at home, but if I go to a yoga class I tend to try too hard and then the elbow is really sore the next day. Yup, yoga kicked my ass.
WG
Posted in: Blog
Hey, thanks for the mention. Let me know if I can help out. Andrew McLaren
hello will,
i was wondering if you ever train by hanging off your tools on tree branches, door molding etc to train the forearms, grip, shoulders etc…
thanks
hasan
Thanks for the good work Andrew.
Hi Hasan, I train however I can–I’ve done all of the things you mention, and a fair number of others. Creatively training is far better than not.
Best,
WG
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