Joe Crotty

Infraspinatus Muscle

It has been just over six weeks since injuring what I thought was my Latissimus Dorsi. After four weeks of total rest from all sports I was nearly pain free except in the late evening when the wear and tear of the day would lead to some aches.  So, I took two more weeks off and decided that at six weeks I would see a PT specialist to help direct my recovery. My main concern was discerning what exercises to use and when so I could return to full sports ASAP – especially climbing.

As luck would have it one of my fellow parishioners at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Daneen Luna, is a back specialist with many years under her belt at the Veterans Affairs facility here in Denver, CO. Daneen has a cozy PT facility setup at her house in north Denver and after catching up on life for a half hour we settled down in the examination room. After 15 minutes of background discussion she began probing, pulling and testing ruling out lat, teres major, and teres minor muscle injuries. More then likely she was sure I had an infraspinatus muscle injury that was for the most part healed. Further, she noted that my caved in chest and over development of certain muscles had left my upper back susceptible to injures. Of course her assessment was spot on as I have had many shoulder injuries the last five years: trapezius muscle both right and left, left SLAP tear +/- (i.e., barely), left rotator cuff strain three times, and some deep muscle injures between the lumbar and cervical regions affecting breathing (i.e., mostly resurfacing injuries from snow boarding/skiing accidents).

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Just before the move that partially tore my latissimus dorsi. Note the upper body rotation.

Monday January 18, 2010 I hiked into the remote Diamond Head crag in Eldorado Canyon State Park with a few friends to try some obscure climbs that I had long dreamed about. Just as we arrived at the base of the climb the wind picked up and a fresh bank of clouds rolled in plummeting the temperature 20 degrees. I donned my heavy winter down coat, but my under garments were all wet from the nearly two hour hike and I remained rather chilly. Due to our location at the crag and a lack of any easily accessible warm up climbs we opted to get on Cameron’s Corner . I did a set of 30 jumping jacks before my lead. This was only my second day of climbing since my wife and I took a two week vacation and my body felt great having just recovered from a minor upper back injury to the middle of my right trapezius. 40′ above the ground you climb past a large ledge into the crux corner (.11b) which consist of making a rotating reach with your left hand for a great ledge while holding a chest high right hand crimper. The foot work mostly freezes your hips and the rotation and extension come primarily from the upper back. As I pulled into the move I felt a transverse shooting pain along my right middle back which nearly caused me to fall off. However, I wanted the onsight badly and reset my foot slightly to get a bit more left hip rotation and fought my way through the back pain successfully. Some ten minutes later lounging at the belay I was uncertain of what I had injured or the extent.

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It all started a few years ago when I became obsessed with a new line in Eldorado Canyon.  Eventually, things culminated and I began to set out to figure out how to bolt the new climb.  With a borrowed drill, charged batteries and good selection of drill bits I drove to a semi secluded overpass in North Denver and walked down to a secluded creek bed next to a biking trail and located some suitcase size granite boulders to drill a few practice holes.  Right away I slapped on a 3/8″ bit and went to work.  The action of the hammer drill produces a lot of rock chips flying about as you start the hole and the noise level is significant.  It’s not jack hammer loud, but much louder then your typical hand held home handyman drill.  The hole start is critical.  You have to get the angle correct in the first half inch or less because the rock is totally unforgiving any deeper.  After the 3/8″ hole was down to about 3″ depth I started a new hole with 1/2″ bit which seemed about twice the work.  After about an inch I quit and then just for kicks tried out another 1/2″ bit that looked fairly dull.  This was a total nightmare as the dull bit refused to gain any purchase no matter how hard I pushed.  Keep in mind this is standing on both feet using my full body weight.  I could only imagine what it would be like hanging from a rope on an overhanging cliff side with a dull drill bit.  Feeling confident in my foray I packed up and went home.

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About a year ago I applied for a bolting permit in Eldorado Canyon State Park via ACE FHRC to put up a new sport climb on the north side of the canyon on a rock formation known as Lower Peanuts.  The bolting application process was fairly involved requiring me to top rope and clean the route, photograph with tape marking the proposed bolt and anchor locations, and submit a written proposal to FHRC.  Thankfully, two FHRC members helped me out with the write up and even came out to the crag to top rope the proposed line.  The application was approved and a permit issued to me Spring of 2009 by Park Manager Steve Muehlhauser.

Flash forward to the middle of September, about three weeks ago, I came to the stark realization one morning that as a traditional climber of 25+ years I didn’t know squat about bolting.  I had asked a handful of local bolting experts what the specifications for new bolts should be and the resounding reply was 1/2″ stainless steel camouflaged for everything.  No problem, I thought, a few phone calls and I’ll have everything by the afternoon and will bolt the route in a few days time maybe a week tops.  First, I called Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder, CO and was informed they stopped carrying bolting equipment about five years ago.  Second, I surfed to Bent Gate Mountaineering Golden, CO and realized they didn’t have bolts matching my specifications.  Feeling stumped I googled and landed on Fixe Hardware which has been dealing in stainless steel climbing hardware for at least ten years to my knowledge.  After pouring over their online catalog and a few phone calls to friends and Fixe Hardware I settled on the following hardware for the climb:

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Rob Kepley and I headed out Saturday for The Black Wall at Mt. Evans, CO for a day of alpine climbing.  Our goal was to ascend the three pitch splitter crack Cary Granite and then pick off an easier climb like Cannonball Corner.

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My buddy Rob Kepley and I were up at Lumpy Ridge last Saturday, June 27, for a nice day of climbing in the moderate temps and gorgeous setting of Rocky Mountain National Park.  It had been nearly a year since I was last up at Lumpy and as luck would have it that trip was also with Rob.  After picking him up in Westminster we quickly knocked out the 1.5 hour drive and then ambled out of the parking lot after racking and packing for the roughly one hour approach to the Book vicinity.  We warmed up on Joy and Tribulation which is a one pitch variation to the top of Fantasy Ridge that sits just left of harder routes like Between the Sheets.

Climbers on Bookend formation routes Lumpy Ridge near Estes Park, CO.

After hemming and hawing for what seemed an eternity about our next route we hiked over to the Book and tried Corner Pump Station.  I had heard much about this route lately as Rob tried to onsight it last year and it has a reputation for being a quality climb.  Well, I failed on my onsight attempt, but it was a great battle and nuggets of knowledge were obtained for a future redpoint attempt.  I’ll be back for sure as this was a quality climb.

I remember last Saturday, Feburary 7, pretty well.  Steve Annecone and I hooked up in the lower Eldo parking lot and headed out to do some multi-pitch trad climbing on Lower Redgarden wall.  We settled on Evangeline into South Face of Tower One.  After warming up on Temporary Like Achilles Steve launched off into the first/crux pitch of Evangeline and then continued past the usual belay where most parties bail and aided out the seldom done roof to the next belay putting us in position to tackle the upper face climbing pitches.  Steve lead

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Rob sent Practice Climb 101 January 18, 2009.  I am sure Steven will send soon too.  I am hoping to hook up with him this weekend and if we have enough time give the fourth pitch a go in addition to the first three.  Steve Levin confirmed about a month ago that the entire route has never seen a complete free ascent of all four pitches in one go.  Rob and I went up to very over hung Kloof Alcove last Wednesday.  Kloof was a great on sight and I am really jazzed to give Sequential a try soon.  Rob dropped a TR on Superfly and this looks like the next long term project.  Very bouldery and I will have to come up with some sequence to fit my long frame into this tight boxed in problem.

In the meantime between outdoor climbing stints weather permitting the usual winter beat downs happen two or more times weekly at the local gym.  I have been mixing in brutal Spot sessions once a week that require two to four days to recover from properly.  Hopefully, this will bring back my power.  R&J North is working it’s usual magic to get the endurance back up to par.  If I can just keep from getting injured it should  be a great Spring ‘09!

While shopping around for a new set of technical cams (i.e., small) to supplement my eight or so year old run of Metolius TCU’s 00-3 the question, ‘whose technical cams reign supreme’, came to mind.  I primarily climb in Eldorado Canyon and Front Range areas.  Initially, I leaned towards the new Metolius Master Cam as much out of brand loyalty as wanting the latest in single stem technology.  I bought a 1-Blue to test drive and liked it, but in the mean time a voice in my head keeps telling me these are good cams, but something else might be better.

To appease the nerd in me I dumped the raw available numbers (i.e., range, strength, weight) into an Excel spreadsheet and started calculating.  BD C3s are the clear winner on weight and CCH Aliens hold the upper hand for both strength and range.

This MP.com thread has strength and weight chart images.

Note:  I wasn’t able to figure out how to use Excel to come up with a nice looking cam min/max range floating bar chart so if someone could pave the way great!  Download the Excel spreadsheet if you wanna give it a go.

I couldn’t find any numbers for head width to gauge how deeply cams need to be placed for all lobes to engage.  Further, I don’t have a clue about cam physics.  How does cam lobe shape and design impact holding power in sub optimal placements (e.g., tipped out vs. over camed)?

Enlighten me.  I am more interested in hard numbers then nieve allegiance/bias towards a particular product.  Granted CCH has had QC issues, but their base numbers on paper look good from a non scientific view point.

For my friend Todd Langley and anyone else in need of a list of exercises for rotator cuff conditioning with a slant towards the rock climber.

Key assumption is you can find a modern athletic facility with a well equipped weight room.

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