The “Heel Hook”—A Climbing-Specific Technique to Injure the Leg

Acute injuries in rock climbing either come from a fall onto the lower leg or from performing a hard move and injuring the upper extremity. Further evaluations of lower leg injuries in rock climbing athletes have been performed recently finding sport characteristics such as peroneal tendon dislocations or chronic deformations of the feet. One injury mechanism described in case reports is the so-called heel hook position, which is used more frequently today compared with the beginngs of rock climbing. In addition, the number of these injuries is expected to rise with the increase in popularity of climbing and bouldering. Therefore, it is important to further analyze this pathology. We investigated 17 patients with injuries of the lower extremities after performing a heel hook.