Climbing holds

By Laura Kukkonen

Life as a beginner climber can be complicated. You are excited about your new hobby and want to learn more. You talk with more experienced climbers, but they sound like they are from another planet. They throw around words like crimps, flagging, beta, dynos, and gastons. Usually, climbers are friendly and like to explain the specifics of the sport. But if you want to impress your new friends, you can learn the basics from this 3d guide.

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One of the most essential things to learn is the names of different climbing hold types. When you combine different holds on a climbing wall, you get a route or a boulder problem. Any route or problem can be climbed in different ways, and that way is called beta. There is bad beta and good beta. The people designing the problems are called route setters. As you progress as a climber, you begin to notice that the route setters have their own styles and preferences.

Before getting to the route setting, we need to learn some basics. In this guide, we'll focus on bouldering, which is climbing without ropes. The same hold names apply to all sport climbing, but for example, the grading of the routes is different.

The most beginner-friendly hold type is the jug. They are basically handles where you can pull yourself up using your whole hand, or even both. Two hands on the same hold is called a match.

Jugs are great for warming up, and for setting all kinds of easier climbs. You'll want to look for jugs on your first sessions.

All holds come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. What is confusing about jugs is that some experienced climbers might call a very bad and sharp hold a jug, but that's just the way it is.

After you progress from a beginner climber to an intermediate, it's time to learn about crimps, pinches, and slopers. We asked professional route setters which hold they prefer as climbers and as setters.

Route setter Dan Krulwich from the Movement Climbing in New York said that as a climber, his favorite holds are crimps because they fit his climbing style.

"I feel the most secure on a crimp and am able to climb at my best when it's on a crimp," he said.

Let's take a look at this hold type!

Crimps are more advanced holds, where only part of the fingers can be used in pulling. A specific kind of crimp can be called an edge.

Crimping is also a verb, and there are different ways to crimp. An open crimp is a position where the fingers are extended. In a half crimp, you bend your fingers up. It gives more tension to the fingers but is more powerful. In a full crimp, your hand almost forms a fist, and you use the thumb to lock the position. This is the most stressful for fingers and not recommended for beginners.

Some crimp holds are so small you can only use three or even two fingers at a time. Crimps are great for training for outdoor climbing.

Next, we have a sloper. Slopers are usually round holds that don't have obvious edges to hold on to. You are forced to use friction and body tension to stay on the wall.

Because of the technicality of slopers, many route setters like to use them in their problems.

"As a route setter, I think a large sloper is my favorite. Even though I'm bad on slopers, I love how you can use them in so many different ways that other holds don't necessarily have and you'll get different climbers - depending on ability, height, and hand size - using the sloper in different ways," said route setter Dan Krulwich.

Where are you even going to grab this hold? That's usually the question with slopers. You'll want to utilize your feet and body position to find the right way.

With this specific hold, you might want to hang as low as you can and use your palms and fingers to create friction for hanging underneath the hold. Or get your center of gravity to left and down.

See the V6 label under the hold? That is the grade or level of difficulty, which in America varies from V0 to V17. For a beginner, sending or climbing a V2 from the first holds up to matching the top hold would be impressive! V6 is a grade for experienced climbers, and everything in the double digits is more of the professional realm.

Favorites can vary throughout an individual's journey as a climber. One day you'll like jugs, another day you'll like the challenge of a crimp.

Jake Scharfman, Community Liaison at Ground Up Climbing Centre in Squamish, British Columbia, said that his favorite hold type is a sloper.

"In the moment of writing, my favorite hold type is a sloper, preferably one with high texture. My experience with holds like these is they allow for a massive diversity of movement creativity. They also often insist upon full-body climbing, which utilizes the whole of a climber's physical and technical skill set, rather than isolating finger strength."

The fourth hold is a pinch. As the name pinch suggests, you have to use your thumb to squeeze the hold from both sides.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Some climbers have a sleeping thumb, and many try to crimp their way through a pinch. You will want to train your thumb and pinching power to make them your strength.

Pinches come in various sizes. If you have smaller hands, pinching on wider holds becomes harder.

Competitive youth team coach and route setter at Ground Up Climbing Center in Squamish Judith Hirsch says she doesn't like to think holds in terms of favorites. Diversity is key!

"A climb is more than just the individual holds. It's the whole composition, how the holds work together or are positioned to each other and the movements you are getting exposed to," Hirsch said.

As a route setter, she said, she wants to work towards diversity in each difficulty grade.

"Ask a beginner climber and they will likely say their favourite holds are jugs. Look at some gyms and their setting for beginner climbers and all you see is jugs. It's up to the route setters to create opportunities for beginners as well as advanced climbers to get exposure to a diverse hold set. Of course, there will be limits to what a beginner climber can hold onto, and it requires volumes, lower angle walls to implement that type of diversity."

Still confused about more intricate climbing words? Climbing magazine has great guides to mastering flagging, dynos, gastons, and more.

Confused with climbing lingo? Look no further