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Uber classic oz offwidths 9-Jan-2017 At 8:01:09 AM Wendy

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I think maybe you credit a simple layer of tape with too much! For example, all the classic 5.10s at Indian Creek are cupped hands for me. In order to make them perfect hands, I would need to wear at least 2 pairs of handjammies, which are much much thicker than tape. One of the reasons I can't stand any type of commercial glove is they really change the size of your hand and the feel of your jams. This is not for any ethical objection - I have spent a lot of years climbing with these hands and I know what their dimensions are, how to place them, what certain jams feel like and what that means for their chances of holding. Tape doesn't effect that - I can jam perfectly well with or without tape, I don't notice any difference in the dimensions of my hands. It is just nicer on my skin if I tape. Commercial gloves really change both dimensions and feel.

Shoes really change the feel of rock as well. You could easily argue that shoes and chalk change the nature of holds. Someone in tight edging shoes is likely to find thin vertical faces easier than someone in loose slippers. Heel hooks in slippers feel different to heel hooks in lace ups. Slopers with chalk feel different to slopers without. Whether to use gloves, chalk or what type of shoes are decisions individual climbers make all the time that make climbs different experiences and potential feel like different grades. A whole bunch of early hard climbs at Araps were first done in EBs, Fires or some other early boot. The even earlier stuff was done in various sorts of walking boots. Surely all of these climbs feel easier these days with sticky rubber and modern shoes? Are we all aiding them? Or should we just down grade them?

I get the problem you have with purposefully manufacturing tape or gloves to fit a crack. It rapidly gets silly. But general use of tape confers less of an advantage on climbing that shoes or chalk. And I'm not sure if it constitutes anymore of a form of aid than specifically choosing shoes to a particular route. What about taping to reinforce your tendons or cover flappers?Choosing liquid chalk to save you chalking up on route? Does finding a fine line somewhere rapidly get ridiculous?

Incidentally, Douglas normally wears tape gloves for crack climbing, but he couldn't get his hands into Child in Time with them on, so he took them off. Was that an aid ascent? I did Kryptonite Crack with a slipper on one foot and lace up on the other because I couldn't get the lace up into the crack and couldn't heel hook with the slipper. Was I aiding? Would I have not been aiding if I had just taped the slipper to my foot to stop it coming off on the heel hook instead of wearing the lace up? Was Nyree Dodd aiding when she took her shoes off to climb the roof on Passport?

Nathan Hoette famously said using knee bars was aid and claimed the first knee bar free ascents of various routes! Knee pads make a world of difference to knee barring - mostly in pain reduction and skin protection, but a rubber pad adds fiction and either add significantly more in dimension to your leg than a layer of tape. Mind you, this can work both ways - some just won't work with a pad, particularly the chunky commercial ones with can be very thick and rigid. I tend to stick with plain old neoprene cut from an old wetsuit for greatest versatility with reasonable protection.

If you want to climb purely based your physiology, I am looking forward the the trip reports of your naked, shoeless, chalkless sends!