The gaston: how to climb holds you push apart

The grip nobody reaches for

Most holds you pull down on. A jug, a crimp, a sloper, the instinct is the same: get your fingers over the top and haul. A gaston asks for the opposite. It is a hold you push away from, thumb pointing down, elbow out to the side, pressing sideways rather than pulling under. Think of prying a set of lift doors apart with one hand. That is the shape.

It is named after Gaston Rebuffat, the French alpinist who was often photographed in exactly that position, and it is one of the least popular grips in climbing. Most people avoid it because it feels weak and a little awkward, so they twist and campus around it instead. Learn to trust it and a whole set of holds that looked useless suddenly go.

Why a gaston works

A gaston is opposition, the same physics behind a stem or a lieback. On its own, a hold facing the wrong way gives you nothing to hang from. But push outwards against it while your feet and your other hand pull the other way, and the forces lock. Your body becomes the thing that holds you on, not the grip.

That is the key idea. You almost never gaston in isolation. It works because something else is pulling against it: a foot pressing out, an opposite side pull, your own hips driving into the wall. Set that opposition well and a thin, sideways edge holds your weight cleanly. Miss it and your hand skates off the second you load it.

Reading when to use one

You reach for a gaston when a hold faces into your body rather than up. Picture two holds side by side, both with their best edge pointing inward, towards each other. Pulling down does nothing. But push them apart, one in each hand, and you get a stable, powerful position right in the middle. That double gaston is the classic, and it turns a blank-looking pair of holds into a solid stance.

More often it is a single gaston paired with a side pull or a good foot. If the only usable edge on a hold points sideways or slightly away, and you have something on the other side to press against, that is the moment. Look at the hold, notice which way its positive edge faces, and let that decide the grip. Fighting a gaston hold with a normal pull is how strong climbers still fall off easy moves.

Setting it up

The position is specific, and getting it right is most of the battle:

• Thumb down, elbow out. Turn your hand so the thumb points at the floor and your elbow lifts away from your body. Your fingers curl onto the edge and you press outward, away from your midline. If your elbow is tucked in, you are not gastoning, you are just pulling badly.
• Load through the feet. A gaston is only as good as the opposition under it. Get a foot pressing outward or down on the far side so there is something for the hand to work against. The more your legs take, the less the shoulder has to.
• Keep the shoulder packed. This is the grip most likely to nip a shoulder, because the arm is out wide and rotated. Keep the shoulder pulled down and engaged, never hanging loose and passive. A slow, controlled press beats a sudden yank every time.
• Stay close to the wall. Let your hips drift out and the angle turns the gaston into a pure sideways pull with nothing behind it. Hips in, weight stacked over your feet, and the press stays honest.

Where it goes wrong

The first mistake is not committing. A half-hearted gaston, where you keep some of your weight ready to bail onto a pull, never sets the opposition properly, so it feels awful and confirms your fear of it. Commit to the press and it holds. Hedge and it will not.

The second is forgetting the feet. Climbers load the hand, feel it slipping, and pull harder with the arm instead of asking where the counter-pressure is meant to come from. Almost always the answer is a foot doing too little. Find the outward push down low and the hand suddenly has something to work with.

The third is going too hard on the shoulder. A gaston at full stretch with a cold or tired shoulder is a classic way to tweak something. Warm up the position, keep the joint active, and if a move needs a deep, wrenching gaston you are not ready for, there is no shame in finding another way round.

Drill it in

Pick an easy problem on a vertical or slightly overhanging wall and climb it hunting for gastons. On the board this is even simpler: set two holds at chest width with their edges facing inward and practise the double gaston, pressing out with both hands while your feet press in. Feel how stable the middle becomes once the opposition is set.

Then start noticing sideways holds everywhere. Every time you meet an edge that faces into your body, stop and ask whether pushing it beats pulling it. Log the problems where a gaston unlocked a move you had been fighting, and over a few sessions the grip that felt weak and awkward becomes just another tool, the one that quietly gets you through sequences other climbers have to muscle.