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Thin Jamming

Is that a thumbs-down or an OK sign? Steph Davis jamming Johnny Cat (5.11d), Indian Creek, Utah.

By Steph Davis (from Climbing Magazine, Issue #177, June 1998)

The crack above you runs forever. You reach and sink your hand up to the wrist, again and again, plugging cams at will.
You're a hero. You're laughing. You couldn't fall if you tried. Suddenly the crack gets tigheter. You can't get a hand jam;
your feet won't go in. You grope desperately, losing skin. Two hours later you've dogged to the anchors, almost as exhausted
as your belayer. The scars are mostly emotional, but there is a lot of blood.
Unfortunately, offwidth doesn't only mean wide cracks. Several brutal sizes lurk
from thin hands down. But wait- don't sell your cams to buy more quickdraws.
Offwidth thin cracks don't have to be awful. In fact, they're fun, once you acquire
the know-how. And technical jams can save you from strenuously laybacking or
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tenuously face climbing around awkward crack sections almost anywhere.

But before we get into that mysterious sizes, let's talk about sinker hand cracks
again. They're so perfect, so delightful, and they're the building blocks for tighter
sizes. When you climb a hand crack, you insert one foot parallel to the crack at
about knee level. Your pinky toe should point straight down, and your knee should
stick out sideways like a Russian dancer. Now, torque your foot by pulling your
knee in toward the crack. Stand on that foot, then repeat the process with the other.
Do this, and you'll barely need to pull on those perfect hand jams. This foot-torque
technique is the key to climbing thin hands to fingers; it just becomes more refined
as the crack gets smaller and less of your shoe goes in.

Thin Hands A thin-hand jam is one thin which your hands

The basic foot jam is the building block for

climbing thin cracks

won't go in deeply enough to get that perfect thumb-in-palm

lock. Instead, gain purchase by flexing your thumbs as though
you were getting perfect jams, and by putting your top hand
in thumbs down and your bottom hand thumbs up. Your
hands will catch about an inch behind your knuckles.
Shuffling your hands instead of crossing saves energy, as
does applying just the right amount of squeeze, a skill you
will develop through milage.

In a typical splitter crack I lead with my left hand because that feels comfortable to me, but you might
do the opposite. I jam my left hand high and keep my right hand at chest level. The right hand acts as a
lever and a stabilizing point. The left hand keeps me moving up. If, however, the crack diagonals right,
I lead with my right hand thumbs down, and follow with my left thumbs up. In corners I lead with the
hand that would naturally go on top for laybacking.
The true stabilizers in a thin-hand crack are your feet. This size crack (which, but the way, varies
depending on your hand size), is wide enough for good foot jams. Make sure your shoes are large
enough to let your toes lie flat. For hard boulder problems, I wear a size five slipper, but for hard thin
cracks I wear a size six and a half, which is the same as my street-shoe size. It might sound painful to
crack climb in slippers, but for thin cracks, the thin toe profile of a slipper is better. Like your hand
jams, these foot jams are tight but bomber once you learn to trust them. Torque your first foot, and put
your other foor in at knee level immediately. This takes weight off your hands and helps you get in
balance. The hand jams mainly hold you in place while you push up with your legs. With practice,
you'll find that even in a vertical thin-hands crack, you're barely pulling with your arms.

Ratchets Ratchets are the size down from thin hands, and the next step up in difficulty. A crack of
this size may fool you. At first, you might believe you can get by with thin-hand jams. A ratchet-sized
crack, however, is often just tight enough that trying to jam it will get you incredibly pumped,
frustrated, or both.
To climb pure ratchets, put both hands in thumbs down. Insert your hand
parallel to the crack with your thumb folded under your fingers and your
elbow sticking straight out. Now pull your elbow down to your ribcage.
You should get a camming action between the spot just behind your
index finger's first joint and the point just below your thumb joint. Make
sure to tape. Like slopers, ratchets become useless when your hands are
too low, usually below neck level. For this reason, crossing your hands
instead of shuffling them can be helpful, as it keeps you reaching high.
But in some cases, a ratchet/thin-hand-jam combo and shuffle can work
even better; pull with your leading hand in a high ratchet and anchor with
your lower hand in a thin-hand jam and chest level.
Again, the key to success is in your feet. This size is still big enough to
accept a decent amount of toe, as long as your shoe is thin and your toes
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are curled. Ratchets are pumpy, so don't ever look past a subtle widening
or discontinuity in the crack. A locker jam or foot edge might be just
what you need to reorganize, place a piece, and depump before you
plunge back into Ratchetland.

Ringlocks The size down from a ratchet is the dreaded ringlock. This is
a perfect occasion to tape your index, middle, and ring fingers. Wrap the
tape from the base of each finger. Make sure you cover both joints, and
don't tape too thick.
To climb rings, make an "OK" sign with your fingers. Now, tuck your
thumb under your index and middle fingers so the tips are pressing on it.
This is a refined form of the ratchet. The cam will be on the first joints
and knuckles of your index, middle finger, and thumb, just above your
hand (hence the finger tape). Shuffling and crossing can be equally
effective on this size. IF you feel powerful, but you had difficulty fiddling
A ratchet.
in the right jam, try crossing, If you're feeling sapped, but confident you
can ringlock quickly, try shuffling. As with ratchets, rings work best when your hands are high. Try

Jamming thin hands,

with the top hand
thumbs down and
bottom thumbs up.

Taping saves skin, and lets you climb better.

not to let the locks come below your chin or they will want to pop out.

Ringlocks are primarily difficult because you can't get much shoe
into this size crack. Use essentially the same foot torque as in a
perfect hand crack, but make it very precise. Imagine that you are
delicately inserting your pinky toe and your other small toes into the
crack. Now twist the hell out of them as you pull your knee in. In
this size, your feet must stay closer together, and, like your hands,
they must stay high to stick. Your body position is that of a ballerina
doing a plie, or a frog. Again, be smart and look sharp. One little
foothold beside the crack can save you.

Rattly Fingers If you thought feet were a problem with rings,

A ringlock.

rattly fingers will have you longing for those pinky-toe torques. You
will get rattly fingers in cracks that are small enough to keep you
from getting your thumb in, and big enough so your fingers slide
down instead of catching in a nice, secure finger lock. Don't make
an "OK" sign this time. It's not OK.

If you won't be needing your hand in the future, put it thumbs down into the crack as far as it will go. As
usual, your elbow will be sticking straight out. Now pull your elbow in. Imagine that your fingers are
playdough, and you're trying to twist them until they come off. Flex your thum up, as though you're trying
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Adopt the frog

position for a
ringlock-size crack.

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to ringlock. Sometimes, particularly if the crack is offset, you can use your thumb in opposition, pushing it against the crack.
The foot torque becomes more of a rand smear in this size; only the rubber on the outside edge of your shoe fits into the
crack. Twist hard. Keep your feet and hands really high to get purchase. Climb fast.

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Rattly fingers.

Opposing the thumb can help with

rattly fingers.

A rand smear.

Bomber Fingers It will be a relief when you finally get some good old finger locks. Thumbs down can be good, put
pinkies down can be good, too. Try both and see which feels better. These locks are incredibly secure, so make big moves
instead of wasting energy on many small ones. Keep your feet high, and reach for the sky.

Tips locks If the

crack tightens so your
fingers catch just below
or above the last joint,
it's time for tips locks. If
ratchets are like slopers,
tips locks are like
crimpers; usually
secure, but strenuous.
Again, experiment with
thumbs or pinkies
down. The thinner the
crack, the more liekly
oyu are to need your
pinkies down. Stuff in
as much finger bone as
you can, torque, and
pull hard. Before you
start climbing, scope out
potential rest stances so
Ahh...Bomber fingers.
you'll have the
Tips locks.
confidence to punch it through the thinnest sections.
While climbing, look around the crack for footholds; in this size they are crucial. For tiny tips cracks, I use a tight slipper,
which lets me smear on the outside walls and edge more precisely.
The final word on all of these jamming techniques is to do what works for you. If you're feeling fast and strong, you may
want to layback a 15-foot seciton of ratchets in a corner and be done with it. Or you may feel more solid jamming and
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getting on your feet while you place gear. Don't rule out any possibilities. Perfecting these techniques will give you more
options to work with.
Knowledge is power. Now that you're armed with "book" knowledge, go practice. Build an adjustable crack machine (two
2x6's bolted together) and work through the sizes. Get on a lot of topropes. The beauty of crack climbing is that it's not about
doing the same move over and over. It's about knowing when and how to apply different techniques. A technical jam can
come in just as handy on a sport climb as a kneedrop can on a multi-pitch gear route. The more tricks you have up your
sleeve, the less likely you are to fall when it matters. So, stock up on tape, lube your cams, and jam.
Steph Davis, 25, has learned these techniques through much loss of skin near her home in Moab, Utah.

Classic Cracks

Get in Gear

Testy Canyonlands splitters

With perhaps the most unrelenting and pure
cracks anywhere, Indian Creek offers an endless
selection of splitters and corners, from thin
hands to thin fingers. Sizes given are for an
average male hand.

Placing pro is half the battle

Knowing how to climb thin cracks is one thing.
Figuring out how to let go with one hand long
enough to place a piece and clip it is another.
Conveniently, you can use your hands to gauge
which piece will fit best in the crack. You'll
soon learn which cam or nut size is associated
with your ratchets, rings, or thin-hand jams.
How you organize the gear on your rack can
make or break you. It's individual; just make
sure you are organized and can get the right
piece off your rack quickly. Think ahead, and, at
least for the initial section you can see, try preracking the first few pieces.

Chocolate Corner
(5.9+), Donnelly Canyon, thin hands
Gorilla Crack
(5.10b), Supercrack Buttress, wide at
bottom then thin hands to hands.
Crack Attack
(5.10), Battle of the Bulge Buttress,
variety with some thin hands and fingers.
Hole in the Wall
(5.11a), Battle of the Bulge Buttress, off
fingers to hands.
Rock Lobster
(5.11a), Broken Tooth Wall, fingers to
hands.
Cave Route
(5.11a), Battle of the Bulge Buttress, thin
hands in a corner.
Jane Fonda's Workout
(5.11b), Battle of the Bulge Buttress, thin
hands.
Battle of the Bulge
(5.11b), Battle of the Bulge Buttress, thin
hands.
Lighting Bolt Cracks
(5.11b, first pitch), North Sixshooter Peak,
fingers to hands.
Scarface
(5.11c), Scarface Buttress, wide fingers to
thin hands.
Sicilian
(5.11c), Scarface Buttress, thin to wide
fingers.
Mad Dog
(5.11c), Cat Wall, fingers to thin hands.

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In the best-case scenarios, the off-size will let up

at some point and you'll find a great hand jam or
finger lock to place gear from. Don't hang out in
a ringlock crux when there's a good jam three
feet above you. Go for it and place from the
better stance. If there is no good stance, make do
with one that's just all right. Get in balance on
your feet and resist the temptation to place too
high. Place the piece at nose or waist level- it'll
be easier to clip the rope quickly and you'll be
less likely to fall with a big loop out. Once
you've got a piece, climb quickly to a better
stance for the next one. Above all, make sure
your cams are in good shape. There's nothing
worse than a sticky trigger when you're
desperate.

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