Climbing: How to Jam Hand Cracks

My name is Dave Burdick and I've been climbing here in the northwest for more than half my life and I'm going to share with you today a few tips on crack climbing. Jamming is a way of climbing cracks with your hands and feet so essentially what you're doing is taking your hands putting them in the crack and twisting or squeezing so that they expand and hold really tight in the crack. It's more about the friction of your hand squeezing against the rock versus pulling down on the hold. There's a variety of techniques for different sizes of cracks but probably what you're going to look for as you start out crack climbing are hand cracks. They're the easiest cracks to jam and they're really the most secure. Find a two inch section of crack, put your hand in and you're going to squeeze your thumb in so that the meat of your hand presses against the sides of the crack. You'll push with your fingers a little bit but it's going to feel like this very secure lock into the crack. One of the things you want to do when you put in a hand jam is to get it really tight and quiet so you don't want your hand slipping around you just want to be able to set it in there squeeze and have it be in one place. If you're making a big reach or if you're maybe traversing slightly you can have a thumbs down jam which will get you into a slightly thinner constriction or give you just the right body position. You know so when you put your hand in your elbow is out and then when you bring it in tight and vertical it kind of constricts with your hand in the crack. Feet are actually the most important part because if you have a good solid hand crack you can just walk your feet up like you're standing on ledges. Think about it like putting a key into a lock and then turning it. You're going to insert your toes with your knee to the side and then turn that knee upwards so that it cams in to be a really secure foothold. A good crack shoe is something that's comfortable and snug but not maybe downturned or really crimping your toes. It's important that you're able to put your foot in there twist and stand on it and not be in a lot of pain. So the key things you look for when you're climbing a hand crack are a nice place to set your hand where you can get a nice comfortable jam and then keep that hand quiet don't try and move it around too much and then look for great feet right feet are the foundation of climbing and just stick your foot in again turn it like a key and stand up on that foot. At first crack climbing may seem really counterintuitive and it just takes practice to develop like any other skill in climbing.