![]() ![]() As a heavy sweater with a history of hamstring cramps on long run outs, I tend to supplement with salt tablets, too. For this reason, Gatorade, which is primarily designed to taste good, is inferior to products like Scratch and Tailwind, which are primarily designed to support seriously sweaty athletes. ![]() Remember that you’re primarily looking for salt, not sugar, though sustained sugar intake is also helpful in the heat (see below). Take a hint from the runners and cyclists and make sure you’re replenishing your electrolytes. If you’re climbing in the heat, chances are you’re sweating far more than you’re used to. If that’s you (it’s me) find a cleanly overhanging sport route and take some practice falls right up front. It can take a bit of time to get comfortable climbing on a rope at night. Rope climbing? Grab a headlamp and get used to it. (It’s actually usually better to climb in the sun if the rock has only just hit it than in the shade immediately after it’s been cooking in the sun for hours.) If you want to make the most of your summer sessions, go pick up a rechargeable construction light-or better yet, grab two, since having two lights shining at a boulder from different angles decreases the interference of your shadow. I love a good morning session, but in mid summer, when sunrise is at 5:15 a.m., it’s pretty hard to beat the heat to the crag, so I prefer climbing at night, preferably something that faces east or north and hasn’t seen sun in a few hours, since the rock absorbs heat and will remain hot for hours after the sun leaves. And in the summer, finding even marginally good temperatures often requires late nights or alpine starts. Ever wonder why the pros consistently session hard boulders by headlamp? It’s all about temps. When it’s above 65 or so, I make sure that even my between-climb hangout is shady, since I find that my fingers start to sweat (and climbing performance plummets) if my body temperature gets too warm between attempts.Įmbrace climbing at night. Personally, my skin is sweaty enough that I avoid even warming up in the sun if it’s warmer than about 40 degrees, particularly if the rock is dark in color. East-facing crags are for afternoons and evenings. Do your research and visit crags when they’re shady. The combination of sun and heat means terrible friction, terrible skin, swollen joints, overheated core temperatures, and sloppy shoe rubber. But you should do your absolute best to avoid it. What follows are the things we should have done (and brought) to maximize our performance in the heat, and-because why not-a list of the climbing areas that are still fun on the hottest days of summer. The thing is, though: I’ve been climbing in the heat for years I’ve thought through my systems and yet, on that day-the first truly hot day of the summer-I forget to implement them, and as a result my friends and I traded a ton of time and gas and skin for not very much climbing. We managed a couple of V5s, soaking our swollen feet in the wet mud between attempts, and then, plagued by cramps and bugs and thrashed tips, we fled back home in the early afternoon. And the boulders themselves were sizzling despite the dappled shade offered by the pines. As we hiked into the boulders, we found that the stream, which had been a happy cascade just several months earlier, was now a buggy trickle, barely deep enough to cover our feet, much less our bodies. Packing up our pads, my friend realized that he’d forgotten his fan, and I realized that I’d forgotten my hat, sunglasses, and salt tablets. ![]() We were fundamentally incorrect and-in hindsight-tactically incompetent.Īfter an error-rich series of sleep-ins and breakfast stops, plus a 1.5-hour drive, we didn’t arrive at our warmups until well after 10:00 a.m., by which time the sun was high and the temps were already in the mid-80s. The forecast called for temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s in Santa Fe, where we live, but we hoped that the boulders in the Ortegas, which sit about 1,500 feet higher, would be tolerable if we got out there early, kept to the shade under the pines, and occasionally swam in a nearby stream. Two weeks ago, in early July, a few friends and I decided to go bouldering in the Ortega Mountains of Northern New Mexico. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! ![]()
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