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Crag Fingerboard: Marginal gains or just more crag paraphernalia? (Read 6731 times)

Paul B

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I've been a bit sceptical of crag fingerboards since witnessing one member of this parish ( :jab:) compromising redpoint attempts by undertaking sets of repeaters before setting off (admittedly, a fair while ago now).

However, I'm currently sat here with fairly sore skin having not managed many RP attempts myself yesterday post warm-up; my current location has lots of vertical slots on all of the routes and after a few routes your fingers get carved up in soft places.

Do people find boards allow them to warm up more thoroughly/with less skin loss than doing a handful of progressively harder routes? I can see for bouldering where there mightn't be anything suitable close by that they may be more useful.

jshaw

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I'm a convert.

I was initially pretty sceptical but find them useful for saving skin, ensuring my fingers are properly warmed up and keeping warm between burns on really cold days.

I've also seen single campus rung based set-ups that have been pretty small and light too.

turnipturned

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Totally. Well worth it, but I am not sure I would be doing repeaters as a warm up

This is mainly for bouldering purposes.. but I tend to do around 15mins, one foot on a tree try kind of style pull ups and hangs, working up to 10 secs hangs (No feet) on a variety of grips followed by 3 pull ups.

I also use a theraband to warm my fingers up.

Also propping you ladder and doing pull ups off the back of it its great.... not sure I will be taking a ladder to kilnsey though  :whistle:


remus

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I find it depends on the crag. It was ace in the frankenjura where you'll often get small crags with not much in the way of warm ups. Probably wouldn't bother if I was going somewhere with plenty of warm ups though (but could well be worth it if skin is likely to be an issue).

teestub

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I have become a convert (for bouldering, not sure about routes as I have zero experience). They are super useful when there's not appropriate warm ups at a crag (this can occur even at bigger crags, I've always struggled to get warmed up for hard crimping at Caley). Some crags have perfect warm up locations, Pinches wall being a prime example.

There's something reassuring about having your fingers properly warmed up in a controlled fashion, like turnip said it's more about max hangs to get recruited, rather than repeaters.  When I'm climbing close to home I'll warm up on the fingerboard at home first before heading out. This could work for you if you're heading to the big K?

Paul B

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Yeah definitely. I could even do a few laps on the home board too given it's only ~30mins away (why have I never done this?).

However, I'm currently in the south of France.

jamesturnbull97

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I've defiantly become a convert this year. In the summer at crags with shorter walk ins we were warming up at the van on a fingerboard and then arriving at the crag pretty ready to go on something hard. For bouldering I'm defiantly a fan of warming up on the home board and then being able to head for a specific problem straight away, on grit this is especially useful for skin preservation.

Steve Crowe

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I'm a convert but it really depends on the crag.

Steve Crowe

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You can always use my fingerboard between RP's and my TRX at the begining and end of the day.

Wood FT

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Any one got any tips on making your own trip-fingerboard? Dos or donts etc

alx

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Any one got any tips on making your own trip-fingerboard? Dos or donts etc

Having tried a few home made and now owning a Hanzo board I would suggest spending time getting the balance and mounting points really well designed.

If you can replicate the Hanzo mount that would be ideal.  They have sawn a vertical groove along the sides of the board, then drilled into the board side and back to allow you to slide and knot a 4 or 5mm cord.

https://www.problemsolver.rocks/hanzo-hangboard/
The second and bottom of the page images give the best view of this setup.  I guess once you have this sorted then you can stick whatever type of edge on the board.

jamesturnbull97

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Three campus rungs on a piece of 12mm plywood does the job for me.

Sarnian

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I rarely have problems with my skin but I have Raynaud's so warming up on a fingerboard is much nicer than rock if it's a cold day. Also I find I can gauge how rested/de-pumped/recruited I am because I'm using the same hold each time.

mikester

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Three campus rungs on a piece of 12mm plywood does the job for me.

Me too. Simple. Might even cut it down to two.

moose

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I've been a bit sceptical of crag fingerboards since witnessing one member of this parish ( :jab:) compromising redpoint attempts by undertaking sets of repeaters before setting off (admittedly, a fair while ago now).

C'est moi?

duncan

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https://instagram.com/p/BOjkeozjBKZ/

DIY rock rings. Never taken them to the crag but perhaps I should.

kingholmesy

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Does anyone have any experience of using portable fingerboards for warming up for trad routes?  If so what’s your routine?

Obviously the ideal is to do a warm-up route, but often by the time I’ve driven for an hour plus, then walked (and sometimes abbed) in, I am keen to get on with the main event if I am to have any hope of keeping my (frequently broken) promise to get home in time to help with the kids’ bedtime.

Probes

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Any one got any tips on making your own trip-fingerboard? Dos or donts etc

Save your finite time, potential power tool misdemeanours, blatant abuse of perfectly innocent timber, inevitable embarrassment on the catwalk and your carbon footprint when as with all homemade kit, it finally gets used as kindling...
Buy one of these instead  ;)

http://crusherholds.co.uk/crusher-mission-portable-hangboard-fingerboard 

highrepute

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Any one got any tips on making your own trip-fingerboard? Dos or donts etc

Short thread on this already http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=26997.0

My main requirement would be as small and light as possible. one jug and one small edge would do be fine.

Paul B

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moose

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Well I'm guilty anyway.  Before sessions at Kilney, I usually do a few sets of repeaters at home (18, 14, 12, and 10 mm edges), rather than bothering with a hideous warm-up route.  That, and a few pull-ups from a jug on arrival, usually allows a decent burn on the target route straight-away - works better for me than the likes of Directissima.  If I am having 1.5-2 hour rests between RPs, I might do a set of easy repeaters every so often, just to remind my fingers of the task ahead!

Wood FT

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Any one got any tips on making your own trip-fingerboard? Dos or donts etc

Save your finite time, potential power tool misdemeanours, blatant abuse of perfectly innocent timber, inevitable embarrassment on the catwalk and your carbon footprint when as with all homemade kit, it finally gets used as kindling...
Buy one of these instead  ;)

http://crusherholds.co.uk/crusher-mission-portable-hangboard-fingerboard

Very nice, got any cheap seconds going cheap? Y’know, the ones with a faint smell of cod or knot shaped like Rolf Harris? I’ll take it off your hands

Probes

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I thought I would resurrect this... having had a few requests to produce one and the general interest in small portable boards at the moment, we've now added this to our range..    feel free to slag the board name off, a little bit of me died during that decision

http://crusherholds.co.uk/portable-fingerboards-hangboards/crusher-send-hangboard

 

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