Climbing · Worth knowing

Rock Master 2026, a 40-year celebration of climbing in Arco, brought together more than 10,000 climbers from across Europe for three days of competitions, meetings, and inspiration. The event featured legendary climbers including Lynn Hill, Didier Raboutou, Robyn Erbesfield, Yūji Hirayama, Muriel Sarkany, and François Legrand sharing stories from sport climbing's early days, while contemporary athletes demonstrated the current highest level of competitive climbing. Positioned as the world's biggest climbing event, Rock Master reinforced Arco's status as the home of climbing within the sport's community.

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The knee bar is a geometry-based technique for steep climbing that works by wedging the lower thigh into a feature while driving the foot in the opposite direction to create opposition and reduce arm strain. Success depends primarily on matching the climber's leg length (called the Shindex) to the available hold geometry rather than on strength alone. Key training progressions include starting on stable, forgiving terrain like inside corners, learning to create opposition between foot and thigh, practicing controlled entries and exits, and gradually increasing wall angle—always avoiding sharp pressure on the kneecap. The technique became standard in modern climbing during the 1970s–1980s with the rise of steep sport routes and overhanging terrain, and is now widely used on roofs, overlaps, and compression features both indoors and outdoors. Practical considerations include using kneepads for comfort (though they may change precision and fit), maintaining dry hands with liquid chalk on long routes to support repeated rests, and exiting slowly with foot pressure maintained to prevent swings away from the wall.