UKC

Alex Barrows has discovered a new link-up at Raven Tor, joining a variant of Belly of the Beast 8B+ and Waddage 8b, which he considers to be around 9a in difficulty.

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In reply to UKC News:

Surely this will have to be downgraded to 8c+, I thought only Stevie Mac was allowed to put up 9a there

In reply to UKC News:

f8b into f7b+ into French 8b, pretty good going.

I assume Steve can't do Keen Roof the Keen Lank way, so this would be a hard task for him no?

Well done Alex for this nationally important line

In reply to UKC News:

"i've got finger injuries but i've got to keep climbing! I should really take it easy so I will just climb semi-hard...ish. Doctors have no idea whether i'm gonna heal up - so frustrating!"
Football players who are worth tens of millions of dollars take a whole season off to do rehabilitation for joint/tendon/ligament injuries. But for some bizarre reason we climbers like to think we have magical healing powers!

FWIW i'm in medicine.

In reply to climbnplay:

I thought it was generally accepted that complete rest is often no more beneficial to an injury than gentle use? I'm reminded of Dave MacLeod who with an elbow injury went down to try the "world's first E12" as it was less than vertical.

In reply to Michael Gordon:

I didn't find it a very helpful comment either, partly from the angle you raise (you're right) and partly the idea that simply being in medicine allows you to be critical in a situation where you probably know very little of the exact details (I know Alex and have spoken to him about both the injury and the advice he's received, which is perhaps why I found it irritating).

In reply to UKC News:



Ah, this is wrong - the link is Belly of the Beast into Waddage (8b) not Chimes, hence finishing at the top of the crag.

Also, the link to the IG posts says it's a 7c+ link when it should read 8c+...

In reply to AJM:

Being in medicine doesn't "simply allow me to be critical" - anyone with common sense would be. What it does "allow" me is being bombarded with similar questions from many climbers with similar situations (judging by the way Alex tapes his finger in the video), and all hope to hear: "Oh yeah, just keep climbing hard. Your body has magical healing powers." But yeah, by all means, climb at 90% your maximum and think you've got it under control because the holds on this specific climb are not "tweaky."

And call me "unhelpful" - in ACL tears or meniscus injuries to the knee and a player keeps playing at even 60% of his maximum, he will undoubtedly be met with "WTF do you think you are doing?" by the team doctor or team manager. It simply does not happen because the players are worth A LOT of money and their LONGEVITY is worth a lot more than a short season's play. What makes you think our fingers (pulleys, volar plate, or flexor tendons) are ANY DIFFERENT? To deny this, you are only denying the longevity to your climbing. Yeah sure you can still climb semi-hard this season, but what about the next 10 years?

But call me "unhelpful" all you want...pretty sure i won't lose any sleep over it!

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Gentle use?! 9a is gentle use?! I am sorry, did he say his name was Adam Ondra or Alex Megos?

Yes we are all Dave Macleod's and you should definitely try to do mono 1-5-9 on the campus board (or whatever combination it was) because that was what Wolfgang Gullich needed to send AD.

In reply to climbnplay:


I can think of no better example of the kind of attitude that irritated me in the first place than to quote this, so that's what I'm going to do.

Of course, following internet opinion and "common sense" is bound to be better than asking actual specialists to look at your finger, doing your own research about your own diagnosis and all that sort of nonsense. Bound to be.

In reply to climbnplay:

But (y)our body(ies) DO have magical healing properties! They're amazing!!

In reply to AJM:

Hah! I really give a crap about irritating you, Mr./ ms. Big shot...I'd much rather see a few more climbers out there having second thoughts about climbing on with finger injuries.

In reply to climbnplay:


No-ones ever called me a big shot before My parents will be so proud.


Finger injuries are often so specific that advice needs to be tailored to the nature of the injury and the limitations it imposes. There is practically no advice which is reliably appropriate across the piece.

In reply to climbnplay:

What is the difference between the tendons in a knee and a finger? Did you really just ask that?

FFS.

If you are really a medical professional and want to be able to provide good advice to climbers, then I suggest you do some research. 'Make or Break' is a fairly good start as it cites lots of sources.

In reply to climbnplay:

'Gentle use' is obviously relative to other routes/problems he could have done. I gave the slab example as evidence that it's possible to climb a different style of route and one which is unlikely to aggravate an injury.

We aren't all like Dave MacLeod but Alex Barrows is, given they redpoint similar grades.

In reply to climbnplay:

Would you please do us all a favour and identify yourself, to save us the potentially big mistake of ever getting actual medical advice from you?

In reply to climbnplay:

The taped finger on my right hand isn't actually a significant issue - it's an old collateral/joint capsule injury on the RH that I'd say is 95% fine, I just like taping it on hard stuff.

The long-term concern is the taped DIP joint on my LH mid finger: approx. 2 years ago I bust the volar plate in that joint. The consultant I saw recommended splinting it for 6 weeks then rehabing starting with open handed stuff which I did. At the time they seemed happy with how it had done, but it's never felt the same again on hard crimping. Part of the problem with the injury is that the normal metrics for whether it's ok or not don't work - it never swells and is never painful, but it never did when it needed splinting, it just pointed in the wrong direction and felt weird and lose. Nowadays it feels a bit 'flexi'/'stretchy' sometimes. I went back to speak to a consultant about this - they basically said they couldn't tell me whether that was ok (since some people do hyperextend more without any increased risk of rupture) or whether it was indicative of it being likley to rupture again. They basically recommended backing off when it feels sketchy and not worrying about it when it doesn't... however everything was caveated with the fact that they'd never seen anyone do this do their DIP joint before like this, so they were inferring from the much more common PIP joint equivalent. Right now I don't have faith that it will ever be the same, and the consultant didn't know whether it would be. It's fine for a lot of stuff, but for hardcore crimping like Evolution it's a no-go.

You're right that the most sensible long-term attempt to fix it would probably be to resplint and redo the rehab for another round, and see if that helps, but frankly it's a big hit to take for something that may or may not make any difference, so it's not one I've been prepared to take right now.