Wide_boyz

Wide_boyz We are the Wide Boyz and want to share, educate and spread the crack climbing joy

17/09/2026

How to Read Offset Cracks (Palm Facing In or Out?)
An offset crack—where one wall sticks out further than the other—can either work massively in your favor or leave you slipping off completely. It all comes down to where your palm faces relative to the offset wall.

Here is how to read and handle offsets based on jam size:

1. Finger Cracks: Backs of fingers to the offset Keep the backs of your fingers against the offset wall so you can perform the correct palm wrap for your finger jams (something we teach in Global Crack School).

2. Thin Hands: Palm towards the offset Press the palm and thumb pulp directly against the offset wall. This gives you extra friction and keeps rigidity through the jam.

3. Hand Cracks: Since your hand fits fully inside, use the offset for body positioning. Either “jamback” with feet against the offset for speed, or shuffle with your shoulder against it (if it’s large enough) if you need to go slower and comfortably place gear.

We’ve just re-opened Global Crack School so if you finally want to understand jams to make them feel easier, join us now! Use the link in our profile to sign up 👉

16/09/2026

Offwidth Footwork Secrets (The Pushing Foot)

Failing on offwidth cracks? Fix your outside foot!

When teaching offwidth climbing, the biggest takeaway is almost always how people position their “pushing foot” on the outside edge of the crack.

When your outside foot flails around without purchase, you end up thrutching wildly—which scrapes you up. Your outside foot should do the pushing, while your inside leg and arm bar (or stack) do the holding.

The Heel-First Rule:
• Insert your heel deeper into the crack first so the back outside edge of the heel touches the inner crack wall.

• Let your toes naturally rotate inward to gain friction from the shoe rubber against the crack edge.

• Keep the heel sitting slightly deeper in the crack than your toes!

Avoid going toe-first or pointing your toes down—this forces you to manually jam the foot rather than letting the shoe automatically cam into place.

If you want to see how this exactly works and learn all the subtle details plus let Pete troubleshoot your personal offwidth struggles then join Global Crack School.

We have just re-opened the doors, however they close again on the 20th September and won’t open again for the rest of 2026, so don’t hang around

Use the link in our profile 👉 to join

How to Stop Foot Jam Pain (4 Quick Rules)If your foot jams hurt, it usually means you’re doing something wrong. Foot jam...
15/09/2026

How to Stop Foot Jam Pain (4 Quick Rules)
If your foot jams hurt, it usually means you’re doing something wrong. Foot jamming shouldn’t feel like torture—it should feel like a rest.

Here are 4 straightforward rules to fix foot jam pain:

1. Flat shoe setup: You need a flat shoe where your foot actually sits flat inside. No aggressive downturns or bunched-up toes.

2. Find the depth “sweet spot”: Aim for the crack edge to sit about half a toe’s length past the webbing of your foot. Too shallow puts huge pressure on toe knuckles; too deep puts the edge of the crack across the boney part of your foot.

3. Drop the heel: When you twist your foot into a hand-sized crack, gently drop your heel toward the ground. This engages the low-profile outside edge of the shoe, spreading the load over more rubber and taking direct pressure off your toe knuckles.

4. Reset your expectations: Your foot tolerance takes time to build, just like forearm stamina or finger strength did when you first started climbing. Don’t overcook it on day one!

If you want your jams to stop hurting and start feeling secure, check out Global Crack School, we have re-opened the doors. It’s the only place you can directly ask your crack climbing questions to Pete about specific techniques or projects.

Doors close on the 20th of September, so sign up now so you don’t miss out on improving your crack climbing yet again!

Sign up using the link in our profile 👉 The Crack Climbing Community

The #1 Jamming Mistake (and the fix)The most common mistake we see when teaching crack climbing isn’t bad technique ins...
14/09/2026

The #1 Jamming Mistake (and the fix)

The most common mistake we see when teaching crack climbing isn’t bad technique inside the crack—it’s expanding the jamming body part before it’s actually inside!

Every jam has two separate positions:

1. Starting Position: body part in its thinnest orientation outside the crack.
2. Finished Position: Expanding/locking inside the crack.

Intermediate jammers often know what a good jam feels like, so they instinctively start shaping their jamming body part into that wider jamming shape outside the crack. The result? You make the body part you are jamming bigger too early, preventing you from reaching proper depth.

On thin hand and paddle cracks, a few millimeters of hand depth is literally the difference between an unholdable crux and a bomber rest.

How to fix it:
• Keep your hand in its thinnest dimension as it enters the crack.
• Don’t expand until you are 100% sure you’re at the required depth.
• Engage the lock only once you’re fully inside.

If you want to know the starting position, finished position and the exact steps to go between, Global Crack School will teach you all of this for every size you need to climb from grade 4 to grade 8a cracks.

Global Crack School is back open NOW, and closes again on the 20th September. If you sign up now we can personally help you on your crack climbing journey.

Use the link in our profile 👉 The Crack Climbing Community to sign up

10/09/2026

A recent extract from our Podcast where and chat all things ‘solo’ and ‘rope solo’.

Check out our full length episodes on your favourite podcast platform (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music or YouTube). Just search for The Wide Boyz Show and you’ll find crack chat, educational crack tips and some crack banter.

In this week’s newsletter Pete Whittaker talks about a recent first ascent crack climb, in Kristansund, that he made wit...
09/09/2026

In this week’s newsletter Pete Whittaker talks about a recent first ascent crack climb, in Kristansund, that he made with Mari. Plus the big takeaway from the climb; which is something we can all think about when going crack climbing.

If you didn’t know we have a weekly newsletter packed with crack climbing tips and knowledge that is written by Pete. If you want to improve your crack and trad climbing for FREE then this is the best place to start. Use the link in our profile 👉 The Crack Climbing Community and sign up.

Even better, we now have the newsletter in podcast format over on The Wide Boyz Show Podcast, so if you’re busy and don’t have time to read, you can easily listen whilst you’re on the go.

📸 photos taken by Mari, of Mari and Pete climbing Kong Harald.

08/09/2026

We've been asked for quite a while about when is the Wide Boyz Podcast coming...

Well if you didn't already know we started one earlier this year.

Our latest episode has been one of our most popular ones!

If you want to tune in to all things cracky, check it out on either Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music or YouTube!

The cracks and walls of Stetind 🤩In this weeks newsletter Pete Whittaker talks about some recent reminders from a trip t...
02/09/2026

The cracks and walls of Stetind 🤩

In this weeks newsletter Pete Whittaker talks about some recent reminders from a trip to northern Norway!

If you want these weekly tips, tricks and stories to land in your inbox to read over a cup of tea in the morning, then sign up using the link in our profile.

You will also notice you can now listen to our newsletters on our podcast. So if you're busy busy and don't have time to read, you can pop it on and listen as you go.

Our Podcast 'The Wide Boyz Show' can be found on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. Follow or subscribe on your preferred platform so you don't miss any crucial tips again!

You will also notice you can now listen to our newsletters on our podcast. So if you’re busy busy and don’t have time to read, you can pop it on and listen as you go.

Our Podcast ‘The Wide Boyz Show’ can be found on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. Follow or subscribe on your preferred platform so you don’t miss any crucial tips again!

When we teach Crack Schools,the biggest pain point that we often see is foot pain, more so than hand pain.There are 2 si...
24/08/2026

When we teach Crack Schools,the biggest pain point that we often see is foot pain, more so than hand pain.

There are 2 simple reasons why this can happen:

1. Climbers reach there foot jamming threshold. When they go over their threshold then it becomes painful.

Your foot jamming threshold increases or decreases the more or less amount of time you foot jam. Do more foot jamming and your tolerance for it increases.

It’s exactly the same as when you do ‘normal’ climbing at the bouldering gym for example; do it more and the skin on your palms will become more tolerant and your session will be longer. Do it less, your skin gets softer and your session time decreases.

This is where many people tend to go wrong...the expectation. They try crack climbing a few times and immediately expect their jamming session to be as long as their normal climbing session. It won’t be because they haven’t built the tolerance. Any new climbing style or technique needs some time and sessions to let the body ‘warm into it’

Swipe for reason 2 👉

2. The second reason that climbers can get pain in their feet when foot jamming is a loss in technique.

This isn’t the sort of technique that we regularly teach (I.e. Turn foot to its thinnest dimension, twist, knee to the crack, straight leg up and away from the crack), this is subtle things you can do which other people aren’t thinking about.

In our free newsletter this week Pete Whittaker gives you those tricks! Link in our profile to sign up.

If you want more than just a newsletter, you can now get direct feedback from Pete on your crack climbing and jamming skills inside Global Crack School. The course re-opens 13th of September. We won’t be opening it another time in 2026, so if you want to level up, join the waitlist and don’t miss out

Get free weekly tips from Pete: sign up to our newsletter 👉 link in bio The Crack Climbing Community

Get direct feedback from Pete and REALLY level up your knowledge: join Global Crack School 👉 link in bio The Crack Climbing Community

What mistakes do we see time and time again when teaching crack climbing?1. Pushing too hard with the fingers and not sq...
19/08/2026

What mistakes do we see time and time again when teaching crack climbing?

1. Pushing too hard with the fingers and not squeezing enough with your thumb.

The squeezing action with the thumb whilst jamming is very different to the process of grabbing and pulling on holds with our fingers, as we do in 'normal' climbing.

It's important to train the familiarity of this sensation, so you understand how much force can actually be put through the thumb.

If the backs of your fingers are hurting when jamming, it probably means you aren't putting enough force through the thumb.

2. The outside foot when offwidth climbing...

If you don't use your foot on the edge of the crack effectively, you'll end up pulling far too much with your stack or armbar. If you do this it leads to poor technique and inevitably the feeling that offwidths are desperate.

Get that outside foot working effectively and everything will click into place

3. This is the most common mistake we see.

As it's the most common it deserves a fully written and audio explanation.

Sign up to our newsletter to get both of these, for free directly to your inbox.

Link in our profile 👉 The Crack Climbing Community

Address

17 Water Lane
Oakham
LE157LS

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wide_boyz posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category