I've been climbing as a hobby for nearly three years. Low altitude indoor free-soloing (or bouldering as it's actually called) I just did my hardest climb recently and it involved an obscure technique.
There are certain things that we believe exist, but that we never actually see with our own eyes: the moon landings, kingfishers, doggers.
There's a climbing technique called Figure Four and it's so obscure that you never see it used. It's an intermediate technique that really strong climbers never need. Our lord and saviour Magnus Midtbo explained that once you can do a one armed pull up you never need to use it again. It's used when there's nothing to put your feet on, when you're hanging on one hand, and when you need to reach upward with your other hand. You hook your left knee over your right elbow (or vice versa) and you can use your core and leg muscles to get a little bit of extra height. A strong climber would "campus" to the next hold but I haven't got the strength to support my weight on one hand with a bent elbow.
I've been working on one particular climb for ages after I was told "it's pretty soft for a red". I later found out that the person who told me that is a professional swimmer, spends loads of time lifting weights, and can campus the first move. I could only solve it by using the Figure Four which I've never used before, and which has probably never been used before at my climbing wall.
Here I am doing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUxo2IVS_5E
Richard "heel hook" B
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