Dyno Madness!

La Guillotina7A+ in the international capital of dynos: Albarracin.

A Parable: Two climbers, let's call them Dynamic Dave and Crimpy Chris, are working a problem: A sit start on tiny holds leads to a huge dyno to the lip. Dave pulls on at the dyno and easily sticks it. Chris has more trouble with the move, and after half an hour of trying, still hasn't stuck it.

After a while, they both start working the problem from the sit, and here, roles are reversed. Chris dials the crimpy moves and is quickly falling from the dyno again, this time from the sit. Meanwhile Dave, who did the dyno with relative ease, can barely pull off the ground. 

Chris goes back to working on the dyno and eventually sticks it with great difficulty. He then goes from the bottom and, after a few falls, eventually sticks it from the sit and tops out the boulder. Dave is still struggling with the sit. A new climber: Rounded Reginald arrives at the boulder and, after warming up, flashes the boulder, crushing the crimpy moves and effortlessly sticking the dyno.

The moral to the story: Non dynamic people can do dynos, it just takes them more time and effort. However, if you lack the crimp strength for a certain problem, no amount of dynamism, persistence or any other skill can substitute. 'Finger strength is king', but it's obviously better to be a Rounded Reginald with a broad range of skills.

You have to be a special kind of masochist to do a granite dyno. Ingravido 7B in Corme.

Dynos are a difficult beast to train compared to crimps, which are relatively straightforward. If you hang on a fingerboard, as I've been doing consistently for the last four years, you can't help but improve, but dynos don't lend themselves to systematic training in the same way. This is because every dyno is different: the quality of the feet, the distance travelled, the angle of the wall, the quality of the start and finish holds and the cut loose factor. With so many variables, the method of training has to be equally varied.

In my usual training sessions, I alternate between Woodsing: climbing on the smallest crimps possible, and Webbing: climbing on physically powerful slopey or compression problems.(guess which one I like most!) Also I make the effort to throw a few dynos into the mix. Variety is key with this, and I also try not to make them too hard. You'll ultimately learn more movement from twenty easy/moderate dynos than from just one insanely hard one. Also, if you suffer from terrible skin, dyno to slopers!

Gato con Botas 7A+

Take it outside: Dynos outside are really cool and I've always gone out of my way to do them even though they are a weakness of mine. Each one is unique in a way that inspires me to suffer the extra time and skin damage. 

Tolmojoncito 8A

 Here's how I measured my progress. Last autumn I tried Tolmojoncito (8A) the stand start to this monster by Nacho Sanchez. I was unable to stick the first move at all, I wasn't even close. I started to try it again a few weeks ago and now can actually stick the move. Of course the rest of the moves are nails too and it probably won't go until next year now the temperatures are in the mid-thirties. But even small progress is still progress!

On an unrelated note, this is the king of all dynos in Spain. Maybe in a few years I'll be brave enough to try it. It's HUGE!