Sport Climbing, From Top Rope to Redpoint

As a climber with trad roots, sport climbing has always been fun but I’ve never taken it too seriously. When I look around, however, all the guys I know who climb the hardest trad routes put in some serious time clipping bolts, getting strong on steep choss and then taking that strength to the trad lines. So I’m excited to check out a new book coming out this fall written by Andrew Bisharat, who also happens to be the senior editor at Rock & Ice, called Sport Climbing: From Top Rope to Redpoint, Techniques For Climbing Success.

In Andrew’s own words, here’s what the book is about:

“Sport Climbing: From Top Rope to Redpoint, Techniques For Climbing Success intends to define the new face of this exceptional discipline, and to address both the basics for getting started as well as the cutting-edge strategies that climbers use to redpoint routes at their physical and mental limits. These techniques will help any climber on any route, whether 5.8 or 5.15.

No matter how seriously you take it, or what grade you climb, there is one underlying truth that you will hear repeated throughout this book: sport climbing is the very best way to improve your abilities as a rock climber. “

You can read more about it on his website.

Topics covered include:

– Learning sound free-climbing technique.
– Gear: how to choose it and keep it safe.
– Leading: From top rope to the sharp end.
– Advanced leading techniques.
– Better onsighting.
– Advanced redpointing.
– How to be a great belayer.
– How to best apply these skills at the crags.

We should have a copy to review once they become available, and I’m hoping to gain a few nuggets of insight here and there that’ll help me take my climbing up a notch. Stay tuned.

Sport Climbing- From Toprope to Redpoint from Mike Call on Vimeo.