How to climb light like a feather

Hey Cracksters,

I just got back from a trip to Meteora, Greece. The climbing there was very unique, being on conglomerate rock.

Climbing on that rock teaches you a crucial skill very quickly: respecting the holds. The key feature of conglomerate is that the holds are often just pebbles cemented into the wall, and if you yank or push too hard, they can snap right off. This risk forces you to develop a feather-light touch and master weight distribution.

So although we’re not talking strictly about crack today, I think this skill can be very useful for trad climbers of any kind.

How to be Feather Light on Snappy Holds

Here are the tips I developed for being as light as a feather on potentially snappy holds:

1. Force Direction (Distribute the Load)

Never generate a force in one direction; instead, aim to distribute the load across multiple points so no single point feels overloaded. If you only have 50% confidence in a hold, put a much lower percentage of weight through it and immediately look to distribute your weight elsewhere.

2. Squeeze, Don’t Pull

Apply pressure inward and downward, squeezing the hold in your grip rather than yanking outward (pulling).

3. Use Friction Above the Pebble

Quite often, I would stand on a conglomerate pebble, but as the wall was so slabby, instead of just using the pebble, I would paste a small percentage of my shoe onto the more ‘concrete’ part of the rock surface (the surface gluing the pebble in). This helps remove a small percentage of weight off the pebble and onto the face. Of course, just standing on the face in many cases doesn’t work (you need the pebble as well), but removing some load from the pebble can be hugely beneficial.

4. Palm Down When You Rock Over

Because Meteora is so slabby, a great technique to use when you do a rock-over onto a foothold you are slightly unsure of, is to palm down with one hand and pull with the other hand. You can palm down on the cement type rock (which doesn't snap), and pull on a pebble. Essentially this technique means you put load through the concrete type rock rather than just pulling on two pebbles with each hand. This is a general slab technique, but even more useful on this sometimes brittle terrain.

5. Test Before You Trust

A quick test of the holds, gently putting pressure on to them, and gradually increasing your confidence is much nicer than simply giving it 100% trust from the beginning. This gentle, incremental pressure is key to preventing breaks. If you feel any movement or crumbling, stop and reassess.

6. Learn the Rock

After a week of climbing on this type of rock, I got to learn through textures, colours, and general visual appearance what was solid and what was potentially loose and snappable. This knowledge can only be learned through climbing on a certain rock type. But when a hold breaks or wobbles, make a quick 5-second analysis of these things, (why do you think it happened?) and put it in the memory bank for next time.

At the end of the week, I really felt like I’d improved my skill on this type of rock by practicing and considering all the factors above.

So there you go, something a little different for you this week, but some learnings to pass on!

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