Ice Climbing Tips

Lots of tips from our favorite ice climber Will Gadd. He suggests using the same rock climbing skills when ice climbing. Interesting point, because most people when given an ice tool just want to bash it into the ice above them and then hang on it to pull themselves up. But he explains:

“Push on the ice with both your hand on your lower tool and by taking your hand off the tool and pushing on the ice to balance, just like rock. I do this a lot, it's intuitive now, but as I teach and coach I remember it's not obvious until it's learned. The long head of my triceps always gets sore from pushing when climbing ice, along with the lats... If you think about rock climbing you'll probably remember all the pushing you do to move up, not just the pulling. Ice is the same, if one hand is pulling the other is pushing on the lower tool or ice.”