[Paz]

Well mine's a lot longer than the other - maybe we should rephrase the question to "Is your index finger longer than the base of the nail on your ring finger?" (but it get's weird when you move your fingers from side to side)..  When I'm not in rock god mode giving it all, doing whatever it takes (all my waking life), I'd go for a crimp and pull as hard as possible on it, basically looking forward to being able to stand on it, and I always look for crimpy fingery divot bits on slopers. 

I don't see how you can properly bear down on a hold using an open hand grip.

[Tubbs 15]

My ring finger is longer and i open hand, what scientific conclusion can be made from this information 

[dontfollowme]

I know when I started climbing at a climbing wall the harder climbs tended to be crimpy. When I started climbing outside on grit it was obvious that open hand strength was important and then realised it was only necessary to crimp when there was no other option e.g. some of the holds on top college wall at Bangor university. I also find many slopers indoors can be crimped or pinched...

[Doylo]

Paul B crimps everything, even jugs. Its not good for you that.

[Duma]

Would appear Mr MacLeod isn't too keen on it...
http://www.hotaches.com/Scarpa.htm

[Paul B]

doyle ive just watched obsession and ive seen the light!  im psyched out of my mind to get some open strength, the only problem is where the hell am I to find some pockets to pull on? Crimping jugs is pretty bad, but it does mean almost every hold feels like a jug 

[Johnny Brown]

I don't see how you can properly bear down on a hold using an open hand grip.

That's the thing - when openhanding is doesn't look like you are bearing down. Crimping is for showboaters, cheesewhips and grande gayelords.
Check the Beardown Misericorde vid - I can assure you Ben is pulling fuckin hard, even if it doesn't look like it. Subtle power is where its at.

[Pantontino]

I tend to open hand stuff mostly. It all started back when I was a youth and I went on a sport climbing trip to Spain with Jerry Peel, Rad etc and I ended up climbing with Jerry quite a bit. I was blown away by how casually strong he was at open handing holds that I was crimping to death. I decided to work on it, and after a very short amount of time I started to develop a preference for it. It's just a different type of hand strength to crimping, that's all.

The advantages aren't just limited to slopey, technical grit, I reckon it really helps on steep power problems. Quiet often you hit a hold out of control, with your fingers extended. If you're a die hard crimper, you have to do an extra udge to re-take the hold as a crimp, whereas the open hand specialist can start pulling to the next hold as soon as s/he has landed.

Sometimes though nothing works better than a crimp, I admit.

[village idiot]

I've always been a die hard crimper, though recently my fingers have started to object!!  Have been trying to train to climb more open, but it's hard to get out of the habit of just crimping up, it always feels like a much more secure position to me.   I suppose the lack of finger tape on all the open handed boys hands should me incentive enough to try though.........

[Dr T]

trouble with crimping is it puts too much strain on the joints in the fingers
if you open hand the joints 'just' get pulled apart as it were by body weight but the ligaments that hold the finger together are all straight(ish) and therefore at their strongest and least likely to be injured
with full blooded crimping you put all sorts of extra strain on the knuckles with the ligaments not being in the optimum aliment to support
on the other hand a full blooded crimp seems to give more fingerarea on the hold that actually feels like power is going through it so I guess most people do this instinctively....

[c.j.d.]

  I hate crimping.  I never crimp

[Duma]

Check the Beardown Misericorde vid - I can assure you Ben is pulling fuckin hard, even if it doesn't look like it. Subtle power is where its at.

Class reminder - not only is that one of the best bits of footage in the beardown pantheon, 'fell running for winners' cracks me up every single time

[Doylo]

  I hate crimping.  I never crimp

[Dave Westlake]

Crimping is for showboaters,

You should know...

[andy_e]

There was a problem I was trying at the weekend on a 45 degree prow, where you had to crimp the hold otherwise it would have been far too difficult to hold for any length of time. I'm sure there are many others like this...

[unclesomebody]

There was a problem I was trying at the weekend on a 45 degree prow, where you had to crimp the hold otherwise it would have been far too difficult to hold for any length of time. I'm sure there are many others like this...

Did you ever consider that you might just be too weak?

[BenF]

There was a problem I was trying at the weekend on a 45 degree prow, where you had to crimp the hold otherwise it would have been far too difficult to hold for any length of time. I'm sure there are many others like this...

That may be so.  However, I've come to the conclusion that whatever tiny edge it is that I'm crimping to death, someone way stronger will always come along and open-hand the hold or simply make the hold look like a jug due to their superior strength.  Usually that strong person is Tom Sugden.  Bast*rd.   

[andy_e]

There was a problem I was trying at the weekend on a 45 degree prow, where you had to crimp the hold otherwise it would have been far too difficult to hold for any length of time. I'm sure there are many others like this...

Did you ever consider that you might just be too weak?

Very true 

[BenF]

There was a problem I was trying at the weekend on a 45 degree prow, where you had to crimp the hold otherwise it would have been far too difficult to hold for any length of time. I'm sure there are many others like this...

Did you ever consider that you might just be too weak?

Very true 

But harsh.

[andy_e]

Truth hurts 

[BenF]

Truth hurts 

So do crimps.

[SA Chris]

Truth hurts 

So do crimps.

Not as much as failure.

[Paz]

Imagine for instance you have a lovely wall full of first joint flat edges, admittedly this is probably V1 or V2, btu bare with me.

If I open hand the holds my little finger doesn't reach on the holds or my little and index fingers take all the strain and I'm not using the middle two.  With a crimp I'm suing all four fingers much more efectively and can continue to do so when it get's really tiny

Pantontino - you do have to adjust sometimes, but I wouldn't if I didn't have to and it was hard.  And anyway, once you're adjusted in that position you can reach further statically from it.  This is where route grades are different from bouldering ones, I'd swear that there are loads of 6a moves that would other wise be 5c if the holds were 0.5/1.5 inches closer together and every bit of reach then counts.  Even on a the 6b/c (prob V4/5 ish) crux of the only 7c I've done that I don't want to down grade - El Chocco (someone else wants to down grade it though and another's gone down in the new topo), crimping the slopey dishes meant I could get that bit higher, which meant it was then easier to both move out of the roof and get your foot on up around the lip and rock on to it. 

I'm only talking about face climbing around the vertical by the way, I know jack shit about steep stuff unless there are sufficient jugs or jams to allow passage.  Anything I say is basically a Way Of  The Weak tm. 

[andy_e]

Truth hurts 

So do crimps.

Not as much as failure.

So the most pain comes from failing on something crimpy?

[BenF]

Truth hurts 

So do crimps.

Not as much as failure.

So the most pain comes from failing on something crimpy?

Accurate summary.  That's why it's best to succeed on slopey problems.