The Best Climbing Crashpads, According to Climbers Who Aren’t Afraid to Take the Whip

My thumb wrapped around a small edge on Crimping Matters (V10), a 20-move series of granite crimps at Guanella Pass, just outside of Georgetown, Colorado. As I exited the cave, my elbows pointed skyward and I entered the upper crux: a cross to one more crimp. The landing’s 30-degree slope and jagged features made it difficult to spot, so the pad setup needed to protect me. I tried to pull through the last move but my hand opened. I was off. I slid down the seven pads we had placed on the slanted granite below. Luckily, our variety of pads, the small ones filling holes and the big ones protecting the slabs and flatter sections, covered the talus pit landing, and I was unscathed. Had my friends and I lacked the proper pads, I could’ve easily broken an ankle and ruined a climbing day, or even my season.

Climbers have long been flattening out landings. When Ron Kauk did the first ascent of Thriller (V10) in Yosemite, he placed palates under the landing, then nicked some employee mattresses. Other early pad iterations included sofa cushions wrapped in duct tape and creatively placed wooden pallets. Up until the late 1980s no one bouldered with a crashpad—but today, there are over 50 manufacturers worldwide providing pads with advanced harness systems, room for gear, and high-tech foam setups for maximum protection. After testing pads on the freaky highballs of Squamish and Bishop, to the ankle-twisting landings of Rocky, here are the best crashpads for any style of bouldering.

The post The Best Climbing Crashpads, According to Climbers Who Aren’t Afraid to Take the Whip appeared first on Climbing.