UKC

Hazel Findlay has repeated Tim Emmett's Muy Caliente! E9 6c at Stennis Ford in Pembroke. Hazel is only the second woman to climb the line after Babsi Zangerl in 2017. 

Read more

Very impressive, I was climbing in pembroke at the weekend and it was super humid, to the point of spitting a bit for most of the morning on Sunday so maximum effort on commitment! 

I feel very bad about wussing out of getting on pleasure dome now, must try harder!

Impressive stuff...but is tin foil aid?!

The real question is: was the tinfoil placed on lead or abseil :-D

Has anyone tried this tinfoil technique before? Do you literally just wrap the hold in a single layer of tinfoil? Sounds like it would make it much more slippery.

More a case of shoving it in a pocket I think

only in the sense that chalk is. we use chalk to dry hand/holds. the tin foil was placed in a pocket so the fingers hit it and not wet rock. it doesn't make the pocket any bigger/easier to use.

I've used it before. It works surprisingly well and isn't as slippery as you'd have thought, but then again - neither is it anywhere near as grippy as the rock. It's certainly better than having to handle a wet hold!

When it comes to how to do it, it largely depends on the hold, but in the case of a pocket it's a matter of lining it with enough, then patting it down. The foil grabs the rock quite well, so - when done well - tends to stay in place. That said, it's also remarkably easy to remove too - hence there's no fragments or residue left.

Amazing effort from Hazel too in light of these conditions!

Marion Wintringham, who was a staunch anti-chalk advocate, used to use Rizzla papers on holds... Can't remember if it was to dry her fingers or keep Ben's chalk off them!

Another tin foil user here. It tends to take the texture of the rock fairly well which helps with the friction, particularly on limestone where there's often lots of little bobbles etc.

In terms of application, for pockets I tend fold a cone and then work that in a bit before using my fingers to fully mold it to the shape of the hold. It can be good to use a double layer too. You want to avoid putting a hole in the foil if you can as when you do it inevitably ends up being on the wettest part of the hold rendering the whole thing useless.

Not something I do that often but a good one to have in your bag of tricks, particularly for routes that seem to have perma-wet holds (Divine Brown (7c+) springs to mind).