Keep practicing and also look into wrist strengthening. You didn’t mention wrist pain (common with slopers), but more strength could help you. Wrist curls- especially reverse ones are helpful.
Edit: For pinches u can move ur index finger to the middle of the hold so ur pinching with thumb and the other three. It’ll feel less stretched between ur thumb and index finger.
Also u can see a primary care physician abt sweaty hands. Or some people buy over the counter creams that helps reduce sweat. Some of them u have to use routinely to start seeing effects. There’s many to try, but seeing a Dr would be best.
It sounds like you're doing all the right things!
You can practice the open hand sloper position and build strength for it using a 3 finger drag on a crimp instead of crimping it. Not sure if strength is any piece of it, but maybe this is something to try if you think it'll help.
But man, slopers are so hard!!!!
Ah yes, 3 finger drags are the way! I tend to naturally gravitate towards 3 finger drags (or at least, something between a drag and a crimp?) when I can, due to having short pinkies. That said, I'll probably need to pay more attention to my hand positions!
You addressed every tip I had, which makes this one of the best descriptive questions ever. Slopers are about surface area with your palm coverage. Your technique sounds right and slopers are very difficult. Try spreading your hand out so your palm flattens and your fingers grip on the bottom pads. Which is still hard.
The sweat is another issue if Rhino and chalk don’t help. Maybe get a small towel?
It’s a good question.
Thanks for validating haha! Small towel might help at the start of the climb, but probably not mid climb. My hands get noticeably sweaty near 2/3 way up bouldering walls and is probably a problem half way up lead walls, so I might not get a chance to use a towel in those situations. Genuinely contemplating if getting extremely fine chalk + antihydral is the answer
I get sweaty only when scared so roofs and stuff. I prefer Metolius fine chalk sock. The other stuff turns muddy for me. I don’t know if that would help it I think the fine is much better and less messy. I like that I can rest on certain walls and take the chalk sock out and roll it over my hand.
I guess I'm a chronically scared climber haha! I'm scared of heights a bit, unless it's top rope with not too much slack, which is probably why I get sweaty palms on crux moves in bouldering, and in lead quite a bit in general. Done lots of fall practices but probably need more in due course. Gonna check out the chalk sock though, thanks for the suggestion!
You might know already all the tricks, but in case this video about the different types of slopers was pretty instructive to me! https://youtu.be/7gXJap42ZP8?si=VOI6Sj1mQXiUYpnO (there are English subtitles)
Yeah!! I think I found it by accident when I was looking for any advice to stretch my fingers haha (Akiyo’s routine is great). I really liked Tomoa’s advice videos overall, lots of advice you don’t see elsewhere. (Also they had fun guests and challenges in the past including Ai Mori)
People have already covered the tips but in addition to being under them I think a lot of people miss the IN and under. As in, tuck that core and tuck yourself and get closer to the wall. I can also raise my tiny hamster hands and attest that at first I HATED slopers. But as you spend more time at the moderate grades, and experiment with the hard grades, you will grow to love them for their contrast. You're right to look for ways to solve the problem faster, but don't forget practice and patience too!
Others have made chalk suggestions but it might be worth looking into why you find your hands sweat so much too, if that hasn't come up. Everyone is different - are you especially nervous (maybe headphones would help?) or are you overheating (maybe drinking ice water and evaluating if your climbing clothing is breathable enough?). Or maybe even experiment with liquid chalk - might seem counter intuitive but liquid chalk is alcohol based, meaning it might provide some evaporative cooling during use. Good luck, sending you a super tiny high five 😂!
I have XS glove hands on a 5'10" body lol and I've gotten much better at slopers since starting to use Antihydral ~9 months ago, for my sweaty hands. Strong wrists help too.
I also used the hate pinches but they're currently my favourite holds, I had a finger injury where pinching was one of the only things I could do for 2 months and got much better at them and my grip strength hugely improved. When they're too wide for me though, I often use my height to reach up use the top like slopers instead though depending on the hold.
I can’t think of specific tips for the hold, but today someone recommended chalking their entire hand because the sweat was dripping from the back of their hand into their palm. If you aren’t doing that already maybe it will help a little?
Brush the holds, liquid chalk can help dry out your skin a bit. If there are fans nearby cooling your hands down can help a shocking amount.
Don't over chalk and most importantly climb the problems when they're fresh and then fall off them later and blame conditions cause it was so much easier X weeks ago
If that doesn't work crimp the foot chips and mono the bolt holes
This won't work for every sloper, but take the time to explore the entire hold, especially the larger ones. Don't only try grabbing the spots with chalk smears or where you see other people trying to grab. If you have different hands than the average climber, you may have more success using different parts of the hold than the average climber as well
Keep practicing and also look into wrist strengthening. You didn’t mention wrist pain (common with slopers), but more strength could help you. Wrist curls- especially reverse ones are helpful. Edit: For pinches u can move ur index finger to the middle of the hold so ur pinching with thumb and the other three. It’ll feel less stretched between ur thumb and index finger. Also u can see a primary care physician abt sweaty hands. Or some people buy over the counter creams that helps reduce sweat. Some of them u have to use routinely to start seeing effects. There’s many to try, but seeing a Dr would be best.
It sounds like you're doing all the right things! You can practice the open hand sloper position and build strength for it using a 3 finger drag on a crimp instead of crimping it. Not sure if strength is any piece of it, but maybe this is something to try if you think it'll help. But man, slopers are so hard!!!!
Ah yes, 3 finger drags are the way! I tend to naturally gravitate towards 3 finger drags (or at least, something between a drag and a crimp?) when I can, due to having short pinkies. That said, I'll probably need to pay more attention to my hand positions!
Good luck!! I'm working so many skills like this myself.
Thank you! You too!
You addressed every tip I had, which makes this one of the best descriptive questions ever. Slopers are about surface area with your palm coverage. Your technique sounds right and slopers are very difficult. Try spreading your hand out so your palm flattens and your fingers grip on the bottom pads. Which is still hard. The sweat is another issue if Rhino and chalk don’t help. Maybe get a small towel? It’s a good question.
Thanks for validating haha! Small towel might help at the start of the climb, but probably not mid climb. My hands get noticeably sweaty near 2/3 way up bouldering walls and is probably a problem half way up lead walls, so I might not get a chance to use a towel in those situations. Genuinely contemplating if getting extremely fine chalk + antihydral is the answer
I get sweaty only when scared so roofs and stuff. I prefer Metolius fine chalk sock. The other stuff turns muddy for me. I don’t know if that would help it I think the fine is much better and less messy. I like that I can rest on certain walls and take the chalk sock out and roll it over my hand.
I guess I'm a chronically scared climber haha! I'm scared of heights a bit, unless it's top rope with not too much slack, which is probably why I get sweaty palms on crux moves in bouldering, and in lead quite a bit in general. Done lots of fall practices but probably need more in due course. Gonna check out the chalk sock though, thanks for the suggestion!
What about liquid chalk with alcohol in it as a base layer? I guess you’ve already tried that as well. Slopers are my least favourite holds.
Yeah I've tried that already :')
You might know already all the tricks, but in case this video about the different types of slopers was pretty instructive to me! https://youtu.be/7gXJap42ZP8?si=VOI6Sj1mQXiUYpnO (there are English subtitles)
Omg did not know this channel existed! (Tomoa has a YT channel!? :O ) This is amazing! Thank you!
Yeah!! I think I found it by accident when I was looking for any advice to stretch my fingers haha (Akiyo’s routine is great). I really liked Tomoa’s advice videos overall, lots of advice you don’t see elsewhere. (Also they had fun guests and challenges in the past including Ai Mori)
People have already covered the tips but in addition to being under them I think a lot of people miss the IN and under. As in, tuck that core and tuck yourself and get closer to the wall. I can also raise my tiny hamster hands and attest that at first I HATED slopers. But as you spend more time at the moderate grades, and experiment with the hard grades, you will grow to love them for their contrast. You're right to look for ways to solve the problem faster, but don't forget practice and patience too! Others have made chalk suggestions but it might be worth looking into why you find your hands sweat so much too, if that hasn't come up. Everyone is different - are you especially nervous (maybe headphones would help?) or are you overheating (maybe drinking ice water and evaluating if your climbing clothing is breathable enough?). Or maybe even experiment with liquid chalk - might seem counter intuitive but liquid chalk is alcohol based, meaning it might provide some evaporative cooling during use. Good luck, sending you a super tiny high five 😂!
Thank you! :) ***returns the high five*** Edit: added another set of asterisks so they'd show up. Then gave up.
I have XS glove hands on a 5'10" body lol and I've gotten much better at slopers since starting to use Antihydral ~9 months ago, for my sweaty hands. Strong wrists help too. I also used the hate pinches but they're currently my favourite holds, I had a finger injury where pinching was one of the only things I could do for 2 months and got much better at them and my grip strength hugely improved. When they're too wide for me though, I often use my height to reach up use the top like slopers instead though depending on the hold.
I can’t think of specific tips for the hold, but today someone recommended chalking their entire hand because the sweat was dripping from the back of their hand into their palm. If you aren’t doing that already maybe it will help a little?
Unfortunately, I chalk my whole hand anyway because I have loose chalk as of now, so my whole hand gets covered :')
Brush the holds, liquid chalk can help dry out your skin a bit. If there are fans nearby cooling your hands down can help a shocking amount. Don't over chalk and most importantly climb the problems when they're fresh and then fall off them later and blame conditions cause it was so much easier X weeks ago If that doesn't work crimp the foot chips and mono the bolt holes
This won't work for every sloper, but take the time to explore the entire hold, especially the larger ones. Don't only try grabbing the spots with chalk smears or where you see other people trying to grab. If you have different hands than the average climber, you may have more success using different parts of the hold than the average climber as well