UKC

Given multiple TFCC injuries and a diagnosis of wrist instability caused by being rather flexible, I have to pay some attention to the angle of my wrist when significant load is applied through it.

Straight shafts feel the most dangerous, my quarks feel OK. I've been considering the aggressiveness of shaft curvature and how that relates to wrist injury potential.
(I don't have leashes, fwiw).

Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the matter.

In reply to needvert:

Uh..Damnit. I mean adduction not abduction, I think. The movement of you get when you move your pinky towards your elbow

In reply to needvert:

No idea about this from ice climbing but from judo, which in this respect is surprisingly similar (trying to hold on to the jacket lapel that your opponent is trying to jerk out of your hands). The way to maximise holding strength and minimise load in the wrist is to keep the line through ulna and pinky straight and to have as much load on the pinky, ring, and middle fingers as possible. Using an agressively curved axe will allow you to achieve this wrist posture even while closing the middle and index fingers tightly. If using a straighter axe, consider opening your index finger slightly, it does not contribute much holding power anyway and you can keep your wrist straighter.

By the way, your title was correct: Bending your wrist sideways towards the pinky is called abduction / ulnar abduction, and bending towards the thumb adduction / radial adduction, although you can often see the term radial abduction which does not really make sense.

CB

In reply to needvert:

I guess it depends on what sort of climbing you are doing, in particular the gradient / steepness of the route, but I would have thought the more curve there is on the tool, the less abduction there will be on your wrist, especially when on steeper ground, so 80 degrees and over.
For me this manifests as "pinkie crush " when using my general mountaineering axes which are relatively straight shafted as opposed to my technical ice and mixed tools that are more curved.

On less steep slopes I find I can hold the shaft of the tech tools in various places and plunge the picks to make progress, whereas Mountaineering tools are less flexible.

hope that helps....

In reply to needvert:

I'd be inclined to tape for support, but not so tight as to impair circulation. Whilst the angle of your axe handles will help, there are limits and pulling over the top of something is still going to stress the joint. Hence if you tape you are less likely to impose a TFCC-popping load. IMHO of course.

In reply to nniff:

I'll tape for support, too. I already do that for all non-trivial climbing, might be a bit of a pain in winter with gloves coming off etc, but I'll see how I go.