Winter training part 2

Check these out, they're called Figfours. Designed by Pete Dollman, they're in prototype stage at the moment but Alpkit are doing a series of demos at UK climbing walls see here http://www.alpkit.com/dryice/ I've been lucky enough to have a couple of sessions with them at The Edge in Sheffield and I think they are going to transform my winter training. They manage to hit the parts (particularly your hands and forearms) that standard climbing misses. It's also surprising what relatively marginal holds you can use them on. Ive sticking with top roping with them as you need lanyards for public safety reasons and any falls are likely to leave you dangling by these tools and risk damaging the rubber band. Nevertheless Ive made it up all of the steepest walls at the Edge, so it might be time to get a weight belt out.