Second edition

The second edition corrects the first edition's mistakes, listed below and
in the book's new appendix "Corrections to the first edition". Every figure
is redrawn: the climber has a more natural shape, the muscles at work are
stippled, the hands have an adult's proportions, and every pose was checked
against photographs of its technique. It also adds a one-page summary to
use between attempts, an "In motion" filmstrip for the hands chapter and
21 more videos.

Errata

• p. 11, Climbing the worked problem, frames 1 and 4: the arms were drawn
  over the head, although the hands are on the wall beyond it. The head now
  hides them. In frame 4 the right arm is hidden by the shoulder too, and
  the crossing left arm passes in front of the right hand.
• p. 17, Rest between attempts: the long rests (10–15 minutes after a
  30-second try, 10–25 for a long problem) were given as the rest for any
  attempt, though their sources give them for attempts at your limit. The
  section now says so, adds the sources' short rests for easier problems
  (30–60 seconds) and for repeats of a hard one (1–3 times the climbing
  time), and says that a session mixes the two. The troubleshooting row on
  p. 233 says "at your limit" too.
• pp. 42–43, Heel hook (b, c) and the heel hook filmstrip: at hip height
  the toes point out to the side and only a little up, the foot pointed.
  They were drawn 30–40° up, as for a high heel.
• p. 51, Knee bar: the body hangs back from the locked knee instead of
  sitting upright on the thigh.
• p. 61, Stemming: the legs are wide and only a little bent, as the text
  says, instead of a squat.
• p. 69, Straight arms, common mistakes: "Hanging slack with shrugged
  shoulders" → "Sagging onto fully straight arms with slack shoulders", as
  the source says.
• p. 77, Bumping: the text says to keep the holding arm straight, but it
  was drawn bent at about 90°.
• pp. 85–86, Drop knee and its filmstrip: the dropped foot points out
  along the wall, rolled onto its outside edge with the sole facing up, on
  a foothold at hip height as the text says. It was drawn pointing down, on
  a foothold at knee height.
• p. 98, dual texture: "The smooth part can turn a big hold into a hard
  one" → "…a big, easy hold into one that needs precise movement".
• pp. 104, 164 and 217: a foot at or above the hip was drawn sole up, in
  Mantle (frame 1), Pogo and the sit start for tall climbers (a). The top
  of a shoe now always faces the shin.
• p. 110, Half crimp: the half crimp was drawn as a claw. The base knuckles
  were bent 70°, so they sat above the edge and the fingers hooked down
  over it. In a half crimp the hand hangs below the edge, the first finger
  segments rise almost in line with the back of the hand, and the middle
  and end segments lie on the edge, pointing into the wall. Its thumb
  pointed back toward the climber; it now rests beside the index finger,
  as the text says. The same half crimp is redrawn on p. 60 (Matching),
  p. 97 (positive and negative holds), p. 98 (the hand positions plate) and
  p. 114 (Re-gripping). The open hand, half crimp and full crimp now match
  photographs taken from the thumb side.
• p. 114, Re-gripping, how to do it: the step "Change grip as your body
  moves past the hold" had no support in its source. It now says to switch
  between half crimp and open hand on a long run of edges to rest the
  fingers, and the matching step adds "or pinch it", with a new source.
• p. 130, where "deadpoint" comes from: "Güllich studied the idea in the
  1980s" → "By 1987, Güllich was studying how to use the deadpoint", the
  date its source gives.
• pp. 143 and 150, the dyno: the captions say "eyes on target" during the
  sink, but the head faced the wall. It now tips back to look at the
  target.
• p. 148, Latching (b): the fingers behind the index hung in front of the
  jug. They now hook into it.
• p. 154, Campus move (a): the text says the arms are slightly bent, but
  they were bent to about 120°.
• p. 156, Double clutch (b): the text says to catch with the arms slightly
  bent, but the catching arm was straight.
• p. 164, Pogo (a): the arms were bent, under the label "arms straight".
• p. 165, Tic-tac: the grade note now cites coverage of parkour-style moves
  in competition boulders. The symptom "You stood too upright against it"
  → "Lean further away from it and step quickly", as its source says.
• pp. 169 and 184, overhangs: the body was close to a plank, the arms bent
  under the label "arms straight". The feet are now high and the knees
  bent, with straight arms and the hips close.
• p. 171, Corners: the figure showed a deep squat; it now shows a bridge,
  the legs wide and the arms nearly straight. In the text, "Sometimes you
  can let go with both hands" → "Often…", as the source says.
• p. 173, Traverse: the flagging leg read as an inside flag. It is now
  drawn behind the standing leg, as its label says.
• p. 182, Arêtes (b): the text says the heel hook rests the arms, but they
  were drawn well bent.
• p. 186, Roofs: the summary said your body "hangs nearly flat". It now
  says "you hang underneath it", since in photographs the climber pikes at
  the hips, the feet pulled up to the roof.
• p. 188, Sit starts: the arms were bent into a W. They are now nearly
  straight to the start holds.
• pp. 216–224, Part IV: these passages now say what their sources say.
  • Tall climbers: forum climbers say the advantage of height fades by
    about V6, not around V3–V5. "Big jumps … hips sag away from the wall on
    a dyno" → "Big moves with cut feet": tall climbers find the swing
    harder to hold.
  • RED-S: 17 of the 114 climbers "said they currently had an eating
    disorder".
  • Reading a problem first means fewer and shorter stops; the study found
    it didn't change how often climbers reached the top.
  • Novices learned from watching a video of a skilled climber.
  • The hover-hands drill holds the hand still for about 3 seconds, not 2,
    and now has a source.
• p. 217, the sit start for tall climbers (c): the long leg's shoe sank
  into the mat. It now stands on its foothold.
• p. 235, glossary, incut: dropped "Incuts are easier than they look",
  which nothing in the book supports.
• p. 236, glossary, MCL: "Drop knees and frog positions with the knee
  twisted can strain it" → "A deep drop knee can strain it, especially when
  you're tired". The book names only the drop knee as a risk to the MCL.
• pp. 243–253, sources: titles, authors and dates are corrected for
  several UKClimbing articles, which could only be read as search excerpts
  before. Two citations now point at the Gresham articles that make their
  claims ("Toe-Hooking and Clamping" and "Technique – Use of the Toe").
  E17's full title is "Training to Become a Better Climber – Part 3".
  Movement's "Intermediate Technique Series", the Mountain Project thread
  "Progressing from V2 to V3 Boulders" and a paper on route preview were
  each listed twice; each is now listed once, so some source numbers
  change.

Added

• p. 116, Hands and holds: an "In motion" filmstrip before the Sloper
  entry, re-gripping a sloper in five frames. The chapter had none. It
  adds a page, so pages from p. 116 on move down by one.
• Appendices: "On the mat", the book on one page to look at between
  attempts. It comes before the troubleshooting table (p. 230) and holds
  the reading steps, the three questions, one thing from each technique
  chapter and what to do when a problem doesn't go.
• Appendices: "Corrections to the first edition", the errata above, with
  the first edition's page numbers. tools/errata.py builds it from this
  file, so the list is written once.
• Videos (Watch links and QR codes) for 21 more entries, among them most
  of the hardest techniques: Bicycle, Heel–toe cam, Pulling with the toes,
  Drop knee, Twist lock, Compression, Backstep, Opposition, Pocket, Pinch,
  Re-gripping and adjusting, Wrapping, Hip pump, Cutting loose and swing
  control, One-handed dyno, Double dyno, Jumping to a foothold, Lache,
  Arêtes, Overhangs and Roofs.

Changed

• Title page: the subtitle is one sentence, "Learn to read a problem from
  the ground and work out the techniques you need to climb it", instead of
  a list of what the book covers. The colophon on its back says what the
  pelican on the cover is about.
• The climber in every figure has fewer lines and a more natural shape:
  • The seams, creases, finger lines and hairline are gone, leaving the
    outline and the hems.
  • The shoulders slope and the back narrows to the waist.
  • The sleeves are snug, and the upper arms have a deltoid and a biceps
    instead of being tubes.
  • The torso bends at the waist wherever a body would, e.g. sideways when
    it hangs off one arm, and forward over the knee in a rockover or over
    the hands in a mantle.
• Muscles at work are stippled, in every figure where the text or labels
  say they do the work: e.g. a bent arm that pulls or presses, a leg that
  stands up or drives, the hamstring in a heel hook, the shin in a toe hook
  and the core in body tension. Straight arms, resting poses and falls have
  none. The dots are large and sparse enough to stay dots on an e-ink
  screen, and the climber's grey limbs are one of its 16 greys.
• p. 63, Crossing hands: the right hand crosses about 25 cm past the left,
  not 10.
• p. 65, Layback: the flake grows out of the wall with the crack behind
  it, instead of standing free like a pole, and is dotted where the hands
  cover it. The body hangs off straight arms with the chest lifted.
• p. 92, Twist lock: a third panel shows the lock from the side, with the
  right forearm pointing into the wall. The caption says so.
• p. 119, Gaston (b): the elbow is out to the side and below the hand, as
  in photographs, so the forearm rises to the hold instead of pointing into
  the wall, where it showed only as a stub. An inset shows the arm from
  above, with the hand pushing ...

First edition

The first complete edition of Reading the Wall, a technique handbook for
indoor bouldering, edited by Simon Gray and written and illustrated with
Claude (Anthropic).

• About 90 named techniques in five categories (feet, body, hands,
  dynamic movement and terrain). Each entry gives the grade where it starts
  to matter, how to do it, when a problem asks for it, common mistakes and
  notes for tall climbers, with figures and links to videos.
• How movement works and how to read a problem, with a worked example.
• A guide for every grade from VB to V8+, each with five things to keep in
  mind.
• Chapters on climbing tall or heavier, starting as an adult, learning
  technique and falling safely.
• A glossary, a troubleshooting table, an A–Z of technique names, a grade
  conversion table, the sources and an index.

The text and illustrations are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the code
that builds the book under the GNU GPL, version 3.