Dynos are a whole different monster. Dynos (short for dynamic) are moves made in climbing that require the climber to jump to the next hold because it’s too far away. As shown in the video above, these two famous climbers, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgenson, gave a great example of what a dyno looks like in action. In this video Kevin Jorgenson had been working that move for days before he finally stuck it. This is because when a climber does a dyno, they first must start swinging their body to create enough momentum to get to the next hold. In doing so, when you start to swing and create momentum, you’re also increasing the torque on whatever hold your jumping from, which you must be able to hold onto as you increase the force and your potential energy. Once you think you have enough momentum, you then need to push off and throw your body to the next hold. The hardest part is then sticking the second hold. After throwing yourself to the next hold, you have all this momentum and kinetic energy pushing you in whatever direction you aimed for. To stick the next hold, you must be physically strong enough to stop all your momentum and immediately transfer your kinetic energy back to potential energy, and put all your strength into the next hold so that you have enough friction to keep yourself from falling. Dynos are some of the scariest and hardest moves a climber can do. I guess that’s why we do it though. We climb up huge walls using crimps only a couple inches long, and jump between holds that are 3000 ft. off the ground to push ourselves to limit, and see what humans are ultimately capable of. Yvon Chouinard, one of the first climbers that really skyrocketed the counterculture dirt-bag life that is climbing once said, “conquerors of the useless. . . that’s what we are,” and that’s how I approach climbing. It may be dangerous, dirty, and pretty much a useless sport, but that’s what makes it so great.