World's Longest Indoor Slab | V4? V11?

Okay, today is your slab episode. This is all about slabs. And as a result, I've got a special guest on the episode. It is Anna Hazelnut. Hi. We are going to set the world's longest indoor slab. I reckon an hour to set this thing. First person to successfully tick it buys dinner for the rest of the week. Up, up, up, up, up, up. I'm so inflexible. It doesn't have to be black either. We can like change into purple now. We can make it like a rainbow. That was so good. That was such a good problem. As you might imagine, or know, she is a slab expert and we are going to set the world's longest indoor slab. We think. Yeah, we're gonna do it. We Googled it, can't find anything longer. And we do have a completely open blank wall behind us. And this is the plan. We came up with three main styles of slab climbing. There's the friction slab, which is what you might find in Yosemite, Joshua Tree, La Pedriza. It's a lot of palm smearing. The friction slab's gonna have palming, smearing. We're gonna throw in a down climb and a mantle in there. The next type of slab climbing is edging. And this is kind of your like hard crimps, your high steps, little holds. So we're gonna pair edging with the piano match and a high step rock over. And then we have our third style of slab climbing, which is comp style. And this is what you will see at comps. So we have a thundercling or a thundercut and a step through. So kind of like think dynamic movements on slabs. And those are our three styles and all the moves we're trying to incorporate in our long slab boulder bubble. Should we give ourselves an hour? Ooh. I reckon an hour to set this thing. So we'll go hyperproductive and we'll just splash, slab creativity on the wall. Yeah. And we'll try and stick to that plan. I think we can do that. We have a good outline, beautifully drawn. First person to successfully tick it buys dinner for the rest of the week. For the rest of the week. Okay, the rest of the two weeks. Maybe probably until I leave, really. It should just be a full, full commit. You gotta spit. Get away from me. Right, let's do it. So we're gonna pin them in position initially, then tweak and see how they visually look. I don't know if that's gonna be good enough. We might need another hold on top of that one. I was thinking, Tom, that maybe this will be really hard to step on. Yeah. So we might need to put like a little thingy thing. Oh yeah, yeah, actually. Look how nice this is for thumbs. Isn't that nice? I wasn't gonna use the word nice, but go on. Cause look, that's like, ooh. I guess you could just pinch it, but same idea. Have a foot there to kind of jump into a hold to lead into a good jump. We're gonna do a double dynamic. It doesn't have to be black either. We can like change into purple now. We can make it like a rainbow. What color do you wanna go to afterwards? Let's go to purple. Yeah? Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna want something to kind of catch. So this could be a cool foot stopper. Yeah. Like here. We have no time to lose. Okay, so we throw into here. Safety pole. Bomb. And now we're here. And this is a really good, like, set up something for a thing here. We're gonna have to come out of an unstable press, aren't we? Like we're in a stem. So something that's like pushing hard. Come in. And match it. So maybe like that should happen here. This is exciting. Do you like slab? No. And then this is where we're gonna put like a high foot. Does that feel reasonably high? Is that reasonably high? Is it too high? No, no, it's all good. We'll try it out. No, no, it's good. I'm liking it. Okay. And so you have the rock over now. You know what we could do too, Tom? Is for a rock over, like have like some side pole that's really bad at some point here to finish like the stand up. Okay, so we stand up and then I think we do one of those like nice like rainbow float moves. Oh, check that out. Could have like a series of these going across the wall like a pretty pattern. Yeah. Or do you think that's too much? Yeah, or we could do something like funky where we could do like edge to edge so we can have like a little pairing, like a little bap. You can turn around to like teddy bear ears. You can make a teddy bear. Oh, there's so many options. You can make a rabbit. Okay, okay. Slab rabbit. Okay. Oh, I can make a box. Oh yeah, like, like, like that? Yeah. Okay. So we've come down from here. We've mantled down, got down to the base here or the base there. And we've probably put a foot up. So foot up, yeah. And we're gonna need some kind of, ooh, some kind of palm that way maybe to push into this palm. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm liking that. I've never set a down mantle, so I wonder. I feel like we want a down mantle on this side. Yeah. But for this move, we might need, oh, I guess. Do you work out how to do it upwards first? Like, how would you do it upwards? So like, I guess you would mantle and grab that is the idea. Oh, it's gotta be into those, isn't it? Oh yeah. So we need to bulk this out. The only thing is, I think we can't go there because with that, you'll just stand on that and go straight over to that. I think we have to make them go low. Talk about them, it's like, I'm talking about us as like a third party. I think they'll struggle a lot with this. Especially in their old shoes that I know they're definitely gonna have brought today. Yeah, they brought shoes with holes in them actually. Yeah. So they're definitely gonna have problems. Kinda getting there, isn't it? I almost feel like we're in a beta testing phase. We're safe now. Full safety mode, deployed. Full safety mode. Yeah, go on. Go on. Okay, more energy. Yeah, yeah. Still low, yeah. Gotta jump in and then do that. We have two foot swaps. We just did the same move twice, Tom, in a row here. Oh, with the foot swap? Yeah. Oh, you have to do it on that as well? Oh yeah. Hips. This is very exciting. These moves are really cool. It's hard to generate from that. Come on. I do think it goes. If we had maybe, we could try it. Thumb over there? Yeah. Oh, that's there. You just like, did that move. That's an easier move for me. That second one is easier for you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. On that mark there, probably. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Okay. Yeah. Okay, but closer. Yeah. Tip for doing these like comp style moves is, like I started trying to learn these style of moves, maybe like two years ago, and I was really, really, really bad at them. I probably still look relatively bad. But the trick is, is that for momentum moves, if you can't quite get the position, it's just run at it from the floor. So if you're thinking, I want to be in a perfect position here to hit that and do a step through, then rather than trying to get onto the problem and climb into it, just come from the floor and step through and try and catch the hold. It's a really good way of learning how to do that move a little bit easier. Yeah, I think you've taught me that or something when we sat here last. Oh yeah, I did, yeah. And that's why like for this one, I did it from the floor as well. Oh, it's such a good technique. Okay. Yeah, you do that so well. Just go for a bit more momentum. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I did it really easy there. Yeah, that was good. Okay, momentum into the corner. My foot slipped. And just like that one move on the Coreyman, you just rock into it. Yeah, and then grab that one. Come on. That's a rock over in half. Crikey. Oh, that holds. Yeah, I think we need to... Controversial. And a hazelnut saying more positive on a slab. I shall register this moment and hold it tight. For at least a year. Did you... You heard that, didn't you? Yeah. I'm always the one that's getting gunned for like saying that something's a really tiny hold. And I get back. That's a jug. Come on. Good. Come on. Yes. All right, come on. God, that's horrible. No, you chose that hard. Can you match up with the leg? There's something doable there. Nice. So you can see that the hold hit there and scooted right off. This one's the worst side. This one's not as bad, but you can see it's coming through. But it should be fine. It's just like this left one that I have to navigate around today. Come on. Strangely scary. Okay, you got this. Can you get your foot down to the hold? Wedge it. Yeah, come on. Good. That spins. Oh yeah. Oh, do we not screw that back in? Yeah, yeah, it's not screwed. Just stand right in the middle of it and it won't spin. Climbing on spinning holds. Oh, you know what? We learned the down mantle by climbing it up. Yeah. That's, I think it's the trick. Maybe the tip tip. One big push. Yeah. Come on, come on. Foot up. Come on. Up, up, up, up, up, up. One big push. I'm so inflexible. Like a sack of potatoes. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Go on. Okay, tell me where that foot is. Another four inches. Two inches, one inch. You're there. Go on, go on. Boom. That's the move. That's cool. That's a tricky little move. Like that. No, no, no, you can't move your foot up into here. Oh, right, okay. The slab starts with our compy thunder cling feature. And what's really cool about this is that it's a lot about body positioning rather than maybe thumb strength or whatever, I don't know, whatever you think when you think of thunder clings and thunder cuts. I think that's also what you say. So you just wanna keep your body as close to the wall as possible and really keep pressing up with these moves. It also has a jumping element to it. And so for this, because it is more of a technical jump rather than a pure dynamic lunge, because you are off of thunder clings, bad holds, I really like to focus on landing my foot in the right spot and making sure both hands are going to the really good hold. For dynamic step through comp style moves, I think the main things you wanna pay attention to is one, generating as much momentum as possible in the move. So think of your hips or your center of gravity as like a ball that you're trying to throw in the direction of your finishing point. So it needs to go all the way to the finishing point. Next is what you're gonna do with your hands and your eyes. So before you start and you're setting up the move, concentrate on the footholds and where your first part of your movement is going. As soon as you clock that and you've started the movement, then focus your eyes on the finishing point. So footholds with eyes first, but once you start the movement, look for your finishing point. Next, we have the edging section. And the two key moves on this are the piano match and the high step. So for a piano match, basically that means you have one hand on the hold, but you want your other hand on there. So you slowly introduce the other hand while you lift off the hand that was already on there. The key tips for this is to go slow and just to make sure that you're kind of slowly working finger by finger your hands into the position that you want to be in. So the best thing to do with high step moves is instead of looking at your next hand hold, I think it's important to get your body over the foot first. So rather than locking off and just trying to strength through a move, just focus on going the direction of your foot and getting your body completely over that foot. Because that'll put you in a good place of balance. It'll be more efficient, less energy inducing. Like you don't have to use as much energy for it. It's more efficient. And from there, you can then step in the direction that you want to. Mantles on slabs or on vertical technical terrain are all about getting your chest and your shoulders into the wall and over your hands. So think of your hands as being your base of support, much like your feet are typically on normal climbing. So once you get your hands established in either a narrow or a wide position, get your chest really open and rock right into the wall with your chest and your shoulders open. A key feature to getting good at this style of climbing is to learn it in both an upwards and a downwards movement and also work on your shoulder and chest flexibility. Because if you can't get close to the wall, it's really hard to do this movement efficiently. And lastly, to finish off our boulder slab, we have a really friction based slab. So this includes a lot of palming and a lot of smearing. So for palming, what you want to do is make sure your body is already in the direction of where you want to go. So for example, in this move, rather than focusing on the arms again, it's more about getting your body position, popping that hip where you want to go and then pressing it out. And for smearing, it's really like hard to keep your foot on the hold if it's like this, if it's perpendicular to the wall. So really drop your heels for smears and that will really help you get up funky movements with really bad feet. Should I try it? Yeah, yeah, go for it. I'm worried about the second part. So for me, it's going to be like- Yeah, yeah, let's go for it. For me, I think that that's going to be the same as- Yeah. Come on. Good. Come on. Yeah, that's it. Rock it out, rock it out. Yeah, nice. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. Really good. This is when you know it's long. Shaking out on a slab. Come on. That's it, breathe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good. Can you tell me? Four inches, three inches, two inches, one inch, and there, up to there. Yeah, that's it, yeah. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Stick with it. That's it, press it out. I think I could have some chalk. Yeah, of course. Come on, come on. Good. That's it, two inches, one inch, and yep, you're there. Come on, nice and steady. Nice and steady. Come on, come on. Boom! Good work. That was so good. That was such a good problem. And first go. First go, yeah. Damn it, you put the pressure on now. Are you ready to buy me dinners? Full pressure. Holy smokes. Have you thought about where you're gonna go for dinner? Yeah, ooh, I think we should go out to that place, that restaurant you were talking about. Dinner on you. Oh, that place? Yeah, okay, that's fine. Is it expensive? Yeah, it is moderately expensive. Depends how many dishes she orders. I'm a hungry, hungry hippo. Yeah! Come on! Good. Never wanna do that move again. You're in it, you got this. Keep going, just keep going. Yeah, you did that really well. I thought you had that the rest of that. Okay. I would like to note that I would never ever normally do any kind of fist bump if it wasn't for an American accent in the room. Wait, y'all don't do fist bumps? No. I would never do a fist bump with a British climber or person. But suddenly like an American accent gets in the room and like this sort of like kind of become okay. Has everyone just been fist bumping me because I'm American? You're American, yeah. You don't fist, it's not like, oh nice, let's go. No, I would not fist bump Pete, anyone. But I fist bumped Pete because I'm American. Yeah. Why did I not know that? We just don't do that. Good. Good, reach. Yeah, really good, really good. Yes, really good, breathe. Inch by inch, get there. Yes, keep at it, you're good. You're on. I award you the winner. Oh, good effort. I think that was my best. Right, I guess you won that one. I guess I get dinners for the next month and a half. Another challenge lost. Well, I hope you have all enjoyed that, everyone. That was our slab testing challenge day. Longest slab in the world. And... Slab indoor boulder traverse. Actually, that's very true. Because we've climbed longer slabs than this. That is very true. But the principle behind it is, even if you can't set your own stuff indoors, creative stuff like this is incredibly valuable to your climbing. So what me and Anna did there was just, make up a framework under which we wanted to set a challenge for the session. We came up with all these different moves and just tried to create them on the wall and then spent an hour testing and then an hour trying to do it and link it all together. And it's just really good for your climbing, isn't it? It was great, especially from the very beginning where we're like, okay, what kinds of slabs are there? That's where we started. It's like, well, there's the comp slabs, edging and friction. And then we went from there, like, what are really good slab moves? It was just a really cool process, actually, through and through. Yeah. Oh, and we did it so successfully. We got every single element of slab, it seems, that we could cram into here. I mean, I'm sure there's more elements we could have tried to do, but this is such a good tasting palette. Yeah. Tasting palette for everyone. So make sure you check out the other videos that we have also done on footwork technique, in particular. Go and have a look at stuff that Anna has also got on her channel. She is really, really good with flexibility and slab climbing in particular. So some good, like, trad outdoor stuff on there, indoor sessions, and everything like that. And otherwise, we will see you again very soon. Bye.