Rodeo Clipping (AKA how to be a BALLER): The rodeo clip is an essential tool in every sport climbers arsenal. Or at least it is in the arsenal of every sport climber who fancies himself a baller. I mean, stick clipping is nice and it gets the job done but every dipshit with a Prana Beanie and an extra 29 bucks for a squib can do it.

How to do it: Rodeo Clipping appears to be deceptively easy. Grab a big bite of rope, swing that fucker like a lariat and lasso yourself a quickdraw. BAM! You are stick clipped and you looked awesome doing it. What you gumbies don’t realize is that in actual practice, rodeo clipping is fraught with complicated nuance. You’ve got to hit the gate in just the right spot, flick the rope with just the right speed, say a couple mantras and pray to the god of cool that your party trick works out.

Grades: Just like everything else associated with climbing, rodeo clipping has grades. Though far from consolodated, grades can range from an easy R0 to mind blowingly difficult R10. An R0 is typically a free hanging draw that tall folks can probably clip on their tippy toes. R10 is probably about 20 feet high with the draw laying on the rock nestled in the back of some hueco. Though rumors of the mythical R11 have been circulated since late 2007, the grade is so far uncomfirmed.

Cons: The route needs to have prehung draws. Also, rodeo clipping is damned hard and requires a lot of dedicatiion and practice to get good at. It’s kinda like break dancing. If you do it well, you look like badass. Do it wrong and you look like a fucking idiot. And heres the kicker: you want to good at it before you start busting it out at popular crags. Nothing makes you look cooler that effortlessly flicking a bite of rope through a draw 15 feet of the ground . Nothing screams I’M A FUCKING DOUCHE GUMBIE louder that standing below a bolt that’s two feet above your head, swinging a rope around like an appoplectic idiot and tangling yourself up like a retarded cat. In other words, before you bust out your new moves at Rifle or the Red or the VRG, practice like mother fucker.

Pros: The rewards of learning to rodeo well are legion. The simple advantage of rodeo clipping is that you don’t need to carry around a stick to do it. The REAL advantage is that you look damned cool doing it. If you can consistently clip harder that R5, it will probably get you laid. If that shit don’t get you a little tingle on your dingle, you at least bought yourself mega baller points. Trust me.

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