Carbon monoxide replacing oxygen and the body needing more time to repair as a result of the damage brought on by smoking are the only 2 effects i know of that have direct implications to climbing ability.

Anybody know some more?.

Im trying to quit smoking (almost a week), saving money.. living longer and ofc being able to climb longer and/or harder are all huge helping factors in motivation.

Carbon monoxide replacing oxygen and the body needing more time to repair as a result of the damage brought on by smoking are the only 2 effects i know of that have direct implications to climbing ability.

Anybody know some more?.

Im trying to quit smoking (almost a week), saving money.. living longer and ofc being able to climb longer and/or harder are all huge helping factors in motivation.

I quit smoking yummy delicious cigarettes roughly three months ago, and i have not noticed anything different whatsoever, except the annoying feeling that something is missing from in between climbs.

Zis iz why zee French invented zee grigri:
so you can smoke zee cigarette and belay!

Oh one more thing: money! In Canada, a pack of cigarettes costs $9.00 (I think) -- every pack is the price of a BD Stopper, or a DMM straight-gate biner. A carton of smokes would buy gasoline to drive you and your buddies to the crags and back for a month. Two cartons buys a pair of 5-10 climbing shoes

Zis iz why zee French invented zee grigri:
so you can smoke zee cigarette and belay!

Carbon monoxide replaces some of the oxygen in your hemoglobin, and your entire body is automatically challenged.

Chronic carbon monoxide hardens the capillaries, preventing them from flexing with the pulse. This is hypertension. Your challenge with this is, it reduces blood circulation in your muscles.

When you are climbing, you raise your forearms to reach your hold, and you need those muscles for grip. Pretty soon they run out of oxygen (which is already reduced in your hemoglobin) and you're pumped.

So if you quit smoking today, then tomorrow you should expect more endurance.

But your entire body has been chronically challenged, and different tissues suffer in their own ways.

The blood supply in your skin is minimal. Well the follicles of your hair (all over your body) needs oxygen for its growth and maintenance. Eventually the chronic starvation kills the follicles, and you will see bald areas -- no not on your head: on your extremities. Starting on your toes and fingers, then on your lower legs. It looks like your athletic activity is causing the hair to get worn off, but in fact the hair is dead.

It's permanent. My lower legs are bald from that. In summer, folks ask me if I shave my legs? Also my fingers, and the backs of my hands.

I knew a guy whose skin went further than that. He started getting infection on his skin. It kept happening, and it wouldn't go away, because he couldn't get enough oxygen and white cells into his skin. Eventually gangrene set in, at different places and times, and they had to amputate first one leg, then the other. He never learned how to walk that way, he lived for a while in a wheel chair. I never saw him after that.

You can guarantee that you have some emphysema. It disables your lungs, starting at the bottom and working its way up. It's impossible to guess how advanced, not without a lung-function test. Emphysema is also permanent. You can still breath OK, but it takes longer to catch your breath -- your total endurance is compromised.

That's just the effects on climbing ability. But don't forget, you smell unpleasant, and all your friends know it.

Oh one more thing: money! In Canada, a pack of cigarettes costs $9.00 (I think) -- every pack is the price of a BD Stopper, or a DMM straight-gate biner. A carton of smokes would buy gasoline to drive you and your buddies to the crags and back for a month. Two cartons buys a pair of 5-10 climbing shoes.

I totally climbed with an Itallian dude like that. Though "belaying' was maybe a little generous in terms of what he was doing with the grigri.

I get the feeling i'm not going to see any of the savings thnx to my compulsive buying better half.

Oh i don't want to know the mysterys of the univers.. nor what comes after death. I would be content in knowing why the fk they buy so much useless shit .

Hypocritical irony ofc, given the topic.

You can guarantee that you have some emphysema. It disables your lungs, starting at the bottom and working its way up. It's impossible to guess how advanced, not without a lung-function test. Emphysema is also permanent. You can still breath OK, but it takes longer to catch your breath -- your total endurance is compromised.

Just in response to the emphysema, at first you can still breathe okay. Eventually ...

Carbon monoxide replacing oxygen and the body needing more time to repair as a result of the damage brought on by smoking are the only 2 effects i know of that have direct implications to climbing ability.

Anybody know some more?.

Im trying to quit smoking (almost a week), saving money.. living longer and ofc being able to climb longer and/or harder are all huge helping factors in motivation.

I read somewhere that some people who smoke can climb better in higher altitude and I remember once I was working my ass off climbing a vertical ice wall at 20k and once I reached the summit, the local sherpas were smoking LOL

Im also a biochem major, and going into medical research and I will say that quitting should reduce any burn in the muscles. That burn is caused by lactic acid, which is formed during anaerobic respiration (when cells need energy, but have no oxygen).

I think it's really the hydrogen ions that may irritate nerve endings and cause the perception of pain (burn).

To my knowledge, lactic acid really doesn't exist in the body (except perhaps transiently before dissociation).

I'm not saying you're wrong, but that goes against everything I've ever heard about exercise-- muscle burn comes from a buildup of lactic acid, which is a result of anaerobic breakdown of glucose molecules. How does lactic acid get broken down?

this is similar to how hydrochloric acid dissociates into H+ and Cl-, but a solution of it is still termed hydrochloric acid. anyways, i think we've all had decent points, but i think this just became more of a science class.