Post by jcm on Mar 21, 2015 16:46:24 GMT -7
An additional note regarding acclimating you hands: Mark already mentioned some long-term strategic methods of adjusting your hands to the cold, but it also helps to acclimate your hands to the cold on each climbing day. Some have already alluded to this. What I find works best for me is to expose my hands to the cold to get them completely numb, then warm them back up inside my jacket and/or with a propane heater. Doing this shortly before the 1st redpoint attempt of the day seems to be most effective. After I do this, they usually won't numb out a second time. To numb them out, the most common solution is to hold them against the rock (assuming the rock is really cold) until they are numb. Another method that works even better is if there is a creek near the crag, go stick your hands in the creek for a few minutes until they are numb.