Technique

A pillar's verticality leads to strenuous climbing, and the skinniest of them are prone to collapse if conditions aren’t just right. We asked three expert ice climbers for their advice.

Upside-down whippers are dangerous but almost always avoidable... so learn to avoid them.

An incomplete list of classic routes climbed by our sport's wealthiest (at least until he gave his fortune away) dirtbag.

Ratchet up your redpoint grade—and ditch some needless pump—with this flagging primer.

Chimneys can be strenuous, runout, and baffling. They can also take you to some pretty incredible places.

Learn how to extend your draws to minimize rope drag and rope abrasion while making falls less dangerous.

Ascend blank corners with this handbook on stemming.

Each climb presents different challenges for different bodies. The unique challenges you and your body face are also your best opportunities for growth.

Heel hooks help you reach farther, use less energy, get your body over the lips of roofs or around corners, or simply keep your hips closer to the wall.

Longtime coach Neil Gresham lays out the secrets to success that have worked time and again for his climbing students. They'll work miracles for you, too.

How Jonathan Siegrist, possibly the most prolific sport climber in the United States, trained his anti-style and went from a vertical crimp specialist to a steep cave crusher.

Most of us learn to feel comfortable on finger and hand jams relatively quickly. But off-hands? Fists? Corners? Those techniques don't come quite as easily.

Check out Paige Claassen's author page.

Improve faster and avoid injuries by climbing just below your limit—roughly 80 percent of your maximum ability—about 90 percent of the time.

Improving your mental-game can be easy. Seriously.

Professional climber and coach Neil Gresham's advice for training yourself to grip holds just enough, and not so much you waste power.

Straightforward techniques for effective sloper sending

A beginner climber is forced up a route, gets in a dangerous situation and her partner refuses to help. Should you intervene?

Here are a few reasons to haul, tips on how to do it, and some cautions gleaned from years of experience.

And maybe even learning to love them.

Learn to use your legs, because finger strength is useless on its own.

Michel Serres, mountaineer and philosopher, wrote that inhabiting the body and finding flow can serve as antidotes to our increasingly immaterial digital world. It worked for me.

From the print archive: "Having one leg created new balance points, and understanding them was crucial for progressing to the point where I am able to climb routes now that I wasn’t able to climb pre-accident."

No so long ago, hand jamming seemed a trad-only skill. But now jams play a crucial role in World Cup Comps and on America's first 5.15c sport route. Is it time you learned?

Her mother was "belaying" by holding on tight to the climber's end of the rope with her bare hands. The girl had the Grigri clipped to her harness with the rope running through it.

Instead of lowering to the ground, you can often “boink” back up to your last quickdraw by pulling up on the rope, unweighting, and allowing your belayer to quickly take in slack.

Don't know how far it is to the next rappel anchor, and/or your rope is too short to make it?

Honnold is famous for (among other things) cramming as much climbing as he can into each day. To do so, he's developed some efficiency tricks that the rest of us can imitate.

Learn to simul-climb and short-fix for faster ascents

Studies point to stress itself as the culprit for accelerated fatigue; not how hard you grip.

It seems simple in theory—throw your heel around a hold or feature to use those powerful leg muscles to pull you into the wall—but it’s much more nuanced in practice. Here's how to perfect it.

We’ve gathered experience-driven tips and tricks to create a foolproof recipe for success on pumpy layback pitches.

Although the correct process to cut a rope is very simple, there are two things to keep in mind when you’re done.

When the lactic acid builds, many climbers abandon these basic principles. 

The author has been climbing for 30 years. He's also only 5'6". And he has some tips for shorter climbers.

Terminally pumped? Follow these tips to achieve a restful stance on vertical rock, steep caves, corners, and more.

Get the weight off your arms by putting more on your feet using the miracle of the drop knee. Here's how.

Onsighting is a practice, and there are tricks for improving. Here are nine steps that apply to both indoor and outdoor settings.

Climbers often neglect limbs that can be especially useful for climbing, like the head, shoulder, knee, and hip. These seven tips show the importance of keeping an open mind and using any body part, no matter how ignoble a figure you cut.

Climbing straight on, hips parallel to the rock is the natural way to climb, but on steep rock this technique drains power and limits your reach. Learn the proper way to outside edge and step through and you will boost your performance without having to get stronger.

There's something magical about doing big routes in faraway places. But on these walls it's important to have your systems and tactics totally ironed out.

Climbing is a jargon-filled sport. And sometimes the jargon isn't even a complete word—it's an abbreviation.

Racking them, placing them, threading them, stacking them, trusting them. Here's what you need to know about using nuts.

Understanding how to climb a boulder before stepping on is crucial to (a) maximizing the usefulness of each effort and (b) sending fast. Nina Williams shares tips for how to visualize a boulder problem and break it down into small, easily digestible parts.

In the long run, technique will take you much further than a strong back and a vice grip. Instead of getting stronger, get better.

When your rope is stuck, you ain’t going nowhere. Here are my hard-won tips for getting your rope unstuck and—even better—preventing it from happening in the first place.

Progressing from weekend cragging to long alpine routes can be intimidating for anyone, even strong and competent traditional climbers.

Eight tips for climbing safely in loose terrain.

Crack climbing wizard JP “Peewee” Ouellet shares how to use rubber, tape, and glue to climb off-size splitters without destroying your skin.

Like most climbers you probably train by developing your lats, pulling down rather than squeezing or pushing, but climbing often demands a variety of techniques including using "non holds" such as opposing slopers.

Check out David Flanagan's author page.

A directional is a piece of gear, be it a bolt or a cam or a nut, that places your climbing rope in the most appropriate location for zigs and zags on a climb.

When the wall kicks back past vertical, the pump clock starts ticking. It’s all about getting to the chains before that alarm goes off.

Climbing takes power, endurance and technique. Here's a simple step-by-step program that's concise, easy to follow and will have you climbing your best practically today.

From knots to selecting your first rock shoes, to training and safety, you'll find it here in our climbing 101 compilation.

Here are our six keys to master-class slab climbing.

Nothing is more frustrating than falling because your foot slipped. Here's how to avoid it.

When swinging leads on a multi-pitch route, the belay transitions are often the biggest time suck. But they don't have to be.

Knowing the tricks and training techniques for toe hooking can be a game changer.

Heel hooking is a critical skill that you must master to realize your ultimate potential on the rock. Pro climbing coach Neil Gresham's nine tips will get you there.

Whether you’re seeking out pods and pin scars in Yosemite, tackling the blissful parallels of Indian Creek, or just trying not to blow your chances in your next bouldering comp, we’ve compiled tricks of the trade that will open up a whole new world of crack climbing.

Climbing your best and most efficiently isn't just about using your hands and feet.

The best climbers aren't always the strongest, they have the best technique. In this first installment of our new Quick Hits series, pro coach Neil Gresham teaches maximizing footholds.

Send more routes first go with savvy planning and execution.

Want to increase your maximum strength and power? Would you like to feel stronger on small handholds and increase your prowess on dynamic moves? Are you stuck in a performance plateau and need a boost to surmount it?

Descending at maximum efficiency on long routes should include lowering techniques as well as rappelling. Here's how to make it work.

Most climbers think that being good at onsighting means being good at improvising beta and hanging on for the ride. But the world's best don't just rely solely on improvisation: they map the route beforehand, from the ground.

Rappelling in alpine terrain can be the crux of big routes. Stuck ropes, high winds, leaving gear... a lot can go wrong. Here are five tips to stack your odds.

Expert instruction on how to get started on the rock—in the gym.

It's the dead of winter, you're bored, tired of the cold, and unmotivated. Use coach's tips to get back in your game, now!

The dark art of slab climbing is both incredibly frustrating and fantastically rewarding. Here, Bob Gaines dishes on the secrets.

Climbing is literally a steep learning curve. This boxed set of advice will flatten the bell, helping you to become a better climber by smoothing out your footwork, teaching you to think outside the box—there's even sections on crack and slab climbing, and 25 tips to improve your belaying.

As a human you are programmed to climb, but your intuition isn't always correct.

Still falling on your sport-climbing project? Then you might have your tactics all wrong.

Check out Josh Larson's author page.

Unlock hard sequences and recover with a solid kneebar.

Check out Pete Whittaker's author page.

A 5.9 climber recruits the best climbing coaches in America to see if he can jump two number grades in two months. Here’s what he learned.

How Heather Weidner learned to embrace routes that challenged her weaknesses to become a stronger, more well-rounded climber.

Is it true that the most effective way to improve your climbing is to simply climb? Yes. At least up to a certain point.