[SA Chris]

I can remember flashing a route at shongweni dam in about 1995 and finding a perfect knee bar rest under an overlap that none of the locals had discovered and they couldn't believe it was possible. I had a huge graze from slowly sliding out of it though, shorts we're not ideal a pad would have been brilliant. I have become a bit of a master of faggotry over the years to compensate for my kitten like strength

[slackline]

Knee bars?  Old skool!



Relaxing in Font 2 by GCW666, on Flickr

  Your knee "bar" is looking rather empty there.

[SamT]

I think it was probably Johnny who brought the heel hook to the masses on videos such as Gogarth and Stone Monkey.  Graham Hoey on Flying butress direct in the 89 Stanage guide comes to mind.

As for knee bars, I was certainly using them on things like Banana Finger Direct way back.  IIRC think fibre pile fleece trousers created the most friction.

Didn't I see a photo of someone on the Rasp at higger with a hands off rest between practically every move.

[tomtom]

Knee bars?  Old skool!



Relaxing in Font 2 by GCW666, on Flickr

  Your knee "bar" is looking rather empty there.

Superb - just got it... (slow)

[Danny]

I think that we would have gotten to knee-nirvana far sooner if the advent of bolts sport climbing hadn't coincided with one unfortunate thing: lycra. Must be the worst material in the world for employing knee-trickery.
Old school tweed monkeys squirming up wide cracks have surely been at this for 100 years plus.

Re: knees and being a lank (which I am): I love crimping, but my A2s do not, and I also love the knee-bars and scums. I have one of those 5.10 jobbies and it's amazing, even for trad:

@ 1.13



Also, jeans are great on sticky rock for the lanks of the world. Think front cover of Hard Grit.

[Danny]

Thinking about routes where kneepads can / will make a real difference, Divided Years has a couple of useful knee scum affairs which certainly help, it's been climbed with jeans and also a knee pad. Things move on, beta gets refined. Maybe we'll all be talcing ourselves into full stealth rubber suits in 10 years, then doing roly-polies up the Etive Slabs and Obsession Fatale. 

I think you could probably get a full no hands on this route with a proper kneepad @ 2.10, which would definitely take a french grade off the difficulty:

[John Gillott]

You don't see much of this these days:

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9959/figureof4.jpg

I guess dynoing has made it redundant in most situations. Still, there must be some circumstances in which it's the ideal

[tomtom]

You don't see much of this these days:

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9959/figureof4.jpg

I guess dynoing has made it redundant in most situations. Still, there must be some circumstances in which it's the ideal

I've done them a couple of times at the wall (instead of stupid dyno's usually) and have had the odd enquiry as to wtf I am doing

[SA Chris]

I made good use of one on a prob at the wall and half the people had never seen one and the other half dismissed it as old school. They wer all doing the same move as an slap and having varied success depending on strength and reach.

[nai]

Maybe all these nu-skool adoptees of the art bought a proper old-skool book to learn from:

[ianv]

You don't see much of this these days:

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9959/figureof4.jpg

I guess dynoing has made it redundant in most situations. Still, there must be some circumstances in which it's the ideal

The french downgraded Chouca for an ascent with a figure 4 

[moose]

I used to always use figure-4s on a problem at the Berghaus Wall in Newcastle (a big reach at the stepped overhang near the door if you're a fellow ex-denizen).  Never used one in earnest outside though.  Short, flexible types often use one to rest at the wobbly block on the CYL traverse but it feels more trouble than it's worth for me (that said my inability to push on past there might force a rethink).

[dave]

Didn't I see a photo of someone on the Rasp at higger with a hands off rest between practically every move.

I think johnny sticks one in or something on best forgotten art, when he's soloing in trainers.

[nai]

There's this one:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=56240

[SamT]

Nope - the one I saw was in a mag and was one of those fancy ones where there appears to be one belayer that hasn't moved, but the leader is photoed about 12 times all the way up (you get a lot snowboard shots in a similar vain)

He's got a hands off in every shot.

[SamT]

Ok - just found it - not quite every shot 

Its a Dan Arkle shot in Climber Feb 2012 (cant find it on the web), I'll scan it possibly.

[SamT]

Photo Dan Arkle / www.danarkle.com

[Fultonius]

   Knee-Bar Nirvana!

[Wood FT]

Photo Dan Arkle / www.danarkle.com

Man, bothered by wasps

[Danny]

Photo Dan Arkle / www.danarkle.com

Love it. Perhaps there should be a competition to find the grit route with the most independent knee-bars on it.

[jwi]

Am I the only one who find the 5.10 knee-pad almost useless? I get better kneebars with regular jeans, and jeans also don't work themself loose when climbing.

I am ridiculously inflexible and often prefer using knees to high stepping. Can't see that becoming a trend though...

[chummer]

Didn't Jerry solve that roof route project in the States with a toe hook back in the day? Anyways, is it just me giving up smoking or is this all a bit UKC?

[erm, sam]

It is you giving up smoking.

[abarro81]

Am I the only one who find the 5.10 knee-pad almost useless? I get better kneebars with regular jeans, and jeans also don't work themself loose when climbing.

How low are you wearing it? The 5.10s work best worn quite high - if you're not bleeding foron the couple of inches above your kneecap (leg bent) then its probably too low. Other home made options work better when you nwed to wear it low (e.g. Stu's one). Hopefully they'll sort this whenever they make.version 2

[jwi]

Well, the 5.10pad is totally impossible to wear low (which would be very useful) , so of course I wear it high. It still doesn't fit, maybe it is the shape of my legs.

Reminds me of the first generation of Rock Empire and Ocun hand-jammies/crack glove.  Good idea to save on tape but totally useless for climbing.  Now, a few product cycles later, they are as good as tape gloves.