Offwidth rest: How a ring lock can beat a hand jam

This one is definitely an advanced trick, so it will help those of you wanting to push your crack climbing, and for those who are just beginning, it will give you something to aspire to.

It is the combination of using the wide pony technique (hanging upside down in an offwidth with hand stacks between your legs) and ring locks (using the thumb and fingers in combination for those baggy sizes between bomber fingers and paddle hand) together.

Now you might be thinking how you can use ring locks when you are in a wide pony position, the crack is way too wide!
The way to do this is to place the ring lock between your shin bone and the rock, and slide it down so it rests on top of the knee cap.

The technique of jamming a leg and a hand together in this way is known as The Trout Tickler, but I’ve always demonstrated this with a hand jam. So when I saw the ring lock technique being used to great effect by two different people, I immediately took note… and so should you.

This is not a technique for movement (although for small amounts of movement it will work ok), but a technique for resting. And the reason why it works so well is that you can rest the thumb muscle from your hand stacks whilst you do the ring lock between your own leg and the rock

Often we think of ring locks as a difficult technique (and it is), but in this situation, the geometry of the body parts fit very nicely together and provide a comfy jamming position. This is possibly one of the only times we may favour using the ring lock over a hand jam.

Now I know not all of you will be ring locking and wide ponying yet, but keep it in the back of your mind for the future. For those of you who are dabbling in the world of inverts, give it a try next time you're wide ponying.

Happy jamming,