Sunguramy :nb_lily:<p><a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/Karstmas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Karstmas</span></a> day 3!</p><p>Yesterday was rappelling into caves, so now let's talk climbing! There are a couple of common climbing systems but the one used world wide is the Frog System, or "Frogging" (adj.). This is not necessarily "the best system" - after all that's subjective and depends on what you are doing in particular - but it is easily adaptable to many rigging styles, simple in concept, quick to learn, and requires fewer pieces of gear than most other systems which makes it the most affordable. Practically every caver knows how to Frog, even if they prefer something else.</p><p>As you may have guessed from the name, you kinda look like a frog when you climb this way. It is a sit-stand system. You put your feet in the footloops, raise the upper ascender which lifts your feet up to your bum (the "sit" part). Then you stand up in the footloops, which moves your croll up, and this captures your progress. Inchworm like this up the rope. Erm. Excuse me. FROG up the rope! :D</p><p>This works great in theory. But...try having a chest/breasts/belly...anything that would make you fall away from the rope, and it gets exponentially more difficult. </p><p>You see, this system was made by skinny tall athletic men. After all, that's mostly who was caving in the 1960's. It certainly is an optimal system easy to use with certain body types. If you don't fit into this category, it's more of a struggle.</p><p>Done right, the lift is mostly all in the legs which are much stronger than arms, your arms just hold the direction of motion for the most part (aka, keep you from falling away from the rope, and standing UP rather than kicking BACK - which backwards doesn't help to climb UP!). </p><p>Enter my own epiphany & invention of sorts back in 2012. I had to get my first harness *custom made*. Traditionally, caving harness were all made for Frogging and the doctrine was to make the croll very low, so you can get the longest stroke when you stand. However, if you make the rise of the harness taller, more of you is "in" the harness, and if you can get your 'center of balance' into that harness, you sit upright like the skinny folk without much trouble! PHYSICS! </p><p>I wrote an article about this for the National Speleological Society newsletter over a decade ago, and got a *LOT* of hate for it. I literally got hate mail saying I should just lose weight if I wanted to cave, so I could "do it right". Eesh! </p><p>Naw...what I did was I challenged the Norm as Made By Men ;) </p><p>If you'd like to watch a video about this I've made those! You can also see then how this Frog thing works. <a href="https://youtu.be/grvRSzhzAL8" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">youtu.be/grvRSzhzAL8</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p><a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/karst" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>karst</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/karstmas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>karstmas</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/geology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>geology</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/cave" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cave</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/caves" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>caves</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/caving" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>caving</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/fat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fat</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/fatphobia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fatphobia</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/inclusive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>inclusive</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/nature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nature</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>adventure</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/explore" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>explore</span></a> <a href="https://flipping.rocks/tags/speleology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>speleology</span></a></p>