BURSTWill Gadd is one of the world’s most accomplished ice and mixed climbers. For the past 40 years, he’s been at the forefront of winter climbing, from making remote first ascents to exploring glaciers, he’s one of the sport’s leading experts.
In a new video series from Black Diamond, Gadd shares some of his ice and mixed climbing wisdom. From how to use your feet and where to place your tools to advanced drytooling moves.
We’ve included all episodes below, and be sure to follow Gadd for more mountain tips.
Using Your Feet: Good feet are the basis for solid, safe, fun ice movement, but getting solid feet on ice is a slippery process for most. In this episode, we discuss how to kick, unweight crampons, and why your crampons are probably set up wrong.
Where and How to Swing Your Tool: Good basic ice technique is the foundation for steeper ice climbing. The bad news is that most ice climbers suck at basic technique. The good news is that good technique can be learned fast and makes the whole sport a lot more fun and safer.
Steep Ice Technique: Good basic ice technique is the foundation for steeper ice climbing. The bad news is that most ice climbers suck at basic technique. The good news is that good technique can be learned fast and makes the whole sport a lot more fun and safer.
Drytooling 101: Drytooling puts the mixed in mixed climbing, but it’s not intuitive. Here are some simple tricks to evaluate placements even if you can’t see the hold, and the three most common types of placements (edges, cracks, steins).
Advanced Drytooling: Fun with steel and rock continued. How to get up the wild and weird.
Placing Ice Screws: How not to get screwed placing ice screws. Strength, length, size, and style.
Pulling the Bulge: More people have probably fallen off pulling over bulges while ice climbing than anywhere else. They are awkward, tricky, and definitely the enemy. How to battle the bulge successfully.
Building V-Threads: How to get a good threaded ice anchor. Pros and cons of different materials, configurations, and how not to die on the descent.
Sharpen Ice Tools: How to keep your picks working well and avoid the most common sharpening errors.
We spoke to Gadd earlier this year after he won the Festiglace ice climbing compeittion. Read the interview here, where he said, “The energy with all the competitors, crowd, routesetters and friends was pumping, and so I got stoked and sent the route, which is always my first goal.”
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