Committed

If I was asked to give a novice climber one piece of advice about technique, something that would boost their climbing by one simple mantra, it would be this:

"A committed foot never slips"

I’m not sure who told me this, but so far, as long as the foot is orientated correctly to the hold (some footholds only work if the force is applied non vertically) it has never let me down (I’m not a super hard climber, but for most climbers it should work). The variation of this saying is "A weighted foot never slips" which is actually clearer, in that by commitment we mean getting your weight onto the hold, or ‘smear or disappear’.

When you fully weight a foot, say rocking over onto something small, or stepping up onto a tiny dot, pebble or edge, by applying your weight with just enough speed (not too fast, or too slow, but gradually over a very short space of time, say half a second) you allow the sticky rubber (whatever type it is) to ‘stick’ to the rock. Now stick can mean a lot of things but primarily in used boots we are talking about deformation of the rubber, either at a microscopic level or on a large scale (say the front end of the boot deforming around an edge).

In a rock boot the rubber will engage with the spiky surface of the rock, and when pressed hard against it create a perfect mould of that contact point, conforming and deforming around each spike and grain and feature – this is what we’re talking about when we talk about friction. The harder you press the more perfect the match – and the better the match – the better the hold (think of your toes as being like an aid gadget designed to ‘fit’ the surface of the rock). You commit all your weight, a match is made, and you step up. If on the other hand you falter, and the match is incomplete, the foot half weighted, or all your weight on your arms (not committing to foot hold is a common cause of getting pumped) then your foot may pop.

On some rock types such as slate, granite or limestone the friction element is marginal on this microscopic level, and we’re dealing more on a macro level of deformation, where the rubber is conforming around an edge, dimple or spike, but again the same applies, in that the boot will deform to that hold in some way – even an ‘edging boot’. So again, when stepping onto a small edge, fracture line or chicken-head, you must commit.