I was preparing a list of items to ponder for a friend who's a new trad leader. I was on a roll and the list kept growing. Here is my non-exhaustive list. Feel free to add your own insights.

Leading can be stressful.

Leading at your limit can be more stressful.

Onsighting at your limit can be even more stressful. If you want to lead a route that's hard for you, have someone lead you up it and then decide if you still want to lead it.

Get as much mileage as possible on the rock. Follow easy pitches and hard pitches. Look at the gear placements when you're following a route.

The experience of leading a pitch that's easy for you is worthwhile because it helps you get more comfortable moving above gear and placing gear.

If you can't make a move and don't feel good moving above your gear, then back off. Downclimb or be lowered back down to the belay. Have your partner finish the route or leave gear and bail. If your partner gives you shit about it, find a new partner.

When you follow a pitch that you want to lead, figure out the stances from which your leader placed gear. Find the most comfortable stances for you; it may be different than your leader's stances.

As a new leader, you most likely haven't developed the sense of when it's ok to fall and when it's not ok. So, don't put yourself in a situation where you might fall until you've learned the distinction.

A person may make a route look easy but that doesn't mean it will be easy for you. It doesn't mean it was easy for the other person either.

Is it raining or is your partner not available? Take your rack to the crag and practice gear placements and anchor building at ground level. Pull on the gear. Clip a sling to it and stand in it. If the gear doesn't hold try to figure out why.

Always place bomber gear. If you don't feel comfortable about a piece of gear then don't climb above it.

Routes are different: one route rated at 5.x may feel easier or harder than another route of the same grade at the same area.

When you're placing a piece of gear, 100% of your attention should be devoted to the task of placing the piece and getting the rope clipped to it. There's plenty of time to look at the next part of the route after you've clipped the gear.

Always look for stem rests and ways to get weight off your arms.

Placing gear while laybacking is strenuous. Avoid it whenever possible.

When you're belaying a leader, give them the same quality belay that you expect from them.

Becoming a proficient trad leader takes a lot of time and practice.

Always be open to constructive criticisms and new ideas.

There's no bonus for having leftover gear at the top of the pitch (but always have enough to build a bomber anchor). Place good gear early and often. As you gain experience and strength, you'll naturally use less gear.

Protect your second from a pendulum fall by placing gear on a horizontal traverse, even if the traverse is really easy for you.

If something doesn't look safe, point it out to your partner. A good partner will explain why it is safe or correct it if it isn't.

Climb on as many different types of rock as possible. Climb on as large a variety of routes as possible.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/trad_climbing/10_ways_to_av>>>>>

Trad routes, especially at the entry level, tend to wander across the rock. Use longer slings to decrease rope drag where necessary. It may even be beneficial to climb on doubles if climbing on sharp rock or where you will need to rappel off of the route.

Dave, what comes to my mind is having the climber get comfortable on the rock within a moderate grade before trying to lead. Then, working with patient friends -- do some mock leads on TR. Get Mileage as you say, & then get more mileage.

Growing pains, man it sucks starting out leading sometimes, because ability can dump a few grades while trying to get gear methods learned. Get in a mindset in that you will need to deal with the psychological & mental aspects of climbing including fear. EVERYONE lead climbing trad has dealt with this and probably still does. Don't feel stupid because you aren't climbing as hard as you know you can. Some days I just "feel" like I don't belong on the terrain when I make my first move, like I'm in a pool of molasses; I guess I just take a step back and come to climb another day. Just stay protected.

Learn to lead on good quality rock.
Watch the rope's position with your legs.

There's also something to be said about climbing just to runout sections. Climbing & trying to runout a climb doesn't prove very much except that you can carry most of a rack up to the next anchor. Goes along with your thought of placing gear. Not to mention, I see the belayer being put at risk in a big fall.

Falling, I would say to work on this in the gym or adequately protected sport climb, & at a high angle. Just starting to lead trad is generally at a low angle/less than vertical terrain; likely to hit something. I hate planning to take a fall, and even working up the skill set in the gym. Climbing something knowing you are getting ready to take a fall is just wicked-hard, mentally, for me. Arno has a good clinic -- Rock Warrior's Way; I need to get back to take. But, taking a fall when it just happens while attempting a move is not so bad.

Good post topic, Dave.

I think this is a great one that alot of people don't realize!

"Routes are different: one route rated at 5.x may feel easier or harder than another route of the same grade at the same area."

A couple more things to consider:

1. Follow A LOT of pitches before you take the sharp end.

2. Practice self-rescue esp. escaping the belay since trad climbing tends to have more than its fair share of epics.

3. Wear a helmet, even though it's not sexy.

Someone else had a post, I thought was pretty fair. I believe it dealt with learning to express yourself as a climber through trad, being able to have fun, and balancing climbing moves with gear placements. All of which seemed like good aspects of learning trad leading that were outside of the technical mechanics. Being able to react, adapt, & overcome what the rock offers -- learning to rise to the level of the climb without changing the natural line. The balance of trad.

Breathe

One of the most fundamental aspects of climbing that most people forget. It helps fight off the pump and helps you keep you're composure if you do end up over your head.

I am looking for a guideline where none exists:

At what point as a newbie leader do you trust your gear enough to take a fall on it?

More than once, I have clutched out when I get to a crux where I'm trying out a move I'm not entirely sure I can make. The existential crisis of making the move at the risk of producing another "Climber Goes Splat" headline is (almost) enough to make me take up cross-stitching!

Jo, I think your first sentence said it best. I don't think there is any guideline; but learning good placements & taking a Rock Warrior clinic (or two, or more -- I'm a big wuss, I'm not too keen on falling) could certainly help. I've found that this mental perception is indeed a barrier in moving up in a leading grade.

At one point, you will say to yourself: the pro is what it is; if the fall is clean, make the move or back off.

Either way, the rock doesn't care -- don't be shamed in bailing; but don't be so fearful in pushing your limit if you get a clean protectable fall section. When you fall cleanly the first time, your mind adapts, you calm down & your ability totally takes over. If you have doubts in your pro, put in more pieces, and say: now I've got a belay anchor, I can do it. Having a great & communicative belay partner really pays off here.

One tip, if you do take a clean fall, make sure to check your placement to see if the pro position has worsened before attempting the section again; a long fall, let the rope recover also.

What you might want to do Jo, is find a system of cracks that's close to the ground, where you can place the pro while standing. Have a spotter or crash pad with you and clip into the first piece and just hang on it. Once you're comfortable with that, then climb up a little ways (probably not above it yet) and fall onto it. Keep progressing so on and so forth.

When I first was learning placements and getting comfortable with them, my partner and I went to the local crag and began aiding cracks from 5.7 to 5.9 that we knew would take good pro. This helped both of us become comfortable with falling on gear.

A couple things. A good way to gain a trust in your gear is to do some aiding. Find a steep crack that will take bomber gear all the way up, and bounce test every piece. Make sure you place some stoppers too, they will hold a truck but sometimes are a little scary because they are so small and require good setting skills. If you do this though, make sure your first 2 or 3 pieces are bomber as hell (I might even recommend placing 2 pieces per placement) so that if a piece blows on you you won't deck.

Someone mentioned this before, but I'd like to expand on it. If you plan on doing multipitch climbs (especially longer ones) or any alpine routes, have your self-rescue skills down solid. You should know how to escape a belay, create a 3:1, 5:1, and 6:1 pulley system, counter-balance rappel, tandem rappel, munter-mule-overhand, etc etc. It amazes and frightens me how many climbers have no idea how to perform these operations. If you get in trouble, you will not be able to just "wing it". At least not in a timely enough manner to make a difference. Make sure you have training to fall back on.

Advanced Rock Climbing by John Long and Craig Leubben has a great section on rescue, and it is an all around great book that supplements any well taught lead clinic.

Get in touch with the AMGA for qualified guides/ schools in your area. They can help by providing mock leads and evaluating gear placements which might help some novices gain confidence in their gear placements.

Btw, those short cracks also make a great place to practice self-rescue, esp. if you can't drum up a partner. All you need is your gear and a thirty pound pack to simulate an injured partner. And practice the 3:1 Z rig for rescue, since it isn't gear intensive (you can rig it with a gri-gri and 2 klemheists) and it's good for 99.9% of all rescue hauling situations.

p.s. I'm also a big fan of cordelettes and you can find pre-cut ones at most climbing shops.

Yes, There are some fine routes at Eldo with bomber gear. I agree that "West Crack" on the Whales Tale is a great beginner lead with good gear.

I climbed on Whale's Tail after taking a spill out at Lumpy to get my legs back...you can sew that baby up and the climbing is easy. A great way to learn gear placements!

Another thing to consider: exposure doesn't make the climbing harder, it just makes it feel harder. Once you are out of groundfall range, a fall is a fall (clean, of course, as opposed to ledge fall, etc.).

Leading the second pitch on a multipitch rooute can help in two ways: from a hanging belay you aren't risking groundfall, and it will help you push through mental issues with heights.

Also, if you aren't running it out and aren't too far above your last piece, don't stop to mess with gear at a bad stance (or bad gear placements) just because you think you need another piece in. One or two more moves may put you in an ideal placement stance (with better gear options). Learn to read your route ahead of time.

One last word: rack consistently, and know where all your gear is.

The ability to place good gear is paramount.

Climbing involves three areas of skills...the physical, the mental and the technical. Never push more than one at a time.

Travel. Climbing different types of rock and different styles of climbing will make you better.

Josh

Two ideas:

1) Since you're learning how to place gear, checking it out, tugging on it, seeing what will work and what won't, you want to do that from a good stance rather than when under stress. So practise with routes that have good stances for the gear. That doesn't NECESSARILY mean super easy routes, though it can. There are a lot of 5.7s that don't have no hand rests when you have to place gear. There are also a lot that do.

2) When you're new, you can't trust your gear... so place more of it. In Eldo, this often means you place a nest of suspect gear and then scoot up to a good stance rather than try to fiddle in crappy gear under stress. The point is if you're at a no hands rest, better to put two pieces in and go to the next no hands rest than put one in and try to place mid crux. That's how it's different than sport climbing, because it takes TIME to place gear...

Practicing aid is a good way to become very proficient and confident with your gear placements. I'm not saying everyone finds it fun, but it helped me get over my horrible trad lead head.

Learn to place good passive gear...save them springy-thingy's for when you are twittin shinky's. And also learn when it's good to just send...instead of dicking around at a less than stellar stance, fiddling in bad gear, burning up.

Or do like me and carry 20 cams on a 70 foot pitch lol

But seriously, even if you carry doubles, sometimes there's 3 placements of the same size on a pitch and passive gear can save your ass..

I'm probably not at that stage yet, but like was said, "when in doubt run it out" can be useful, but quite scary when you mostly onsight..

Along the lines of the suggestion for aid climbing, to learn to place and trust your gear, the following drill was really helpful for me as a newbie trad leader:

Lead a relatively easy climb placing gear every 2 to 4 feet or so, especially at the start of the climb, but deliberately hang on every piece. (not taking whippers; just hang body weight.) (place more pieces early on, and use good judgement and/or get a spot to avoid a groundfall; but once you have a few pieces in that have held bodyweight, your risk if a piece pops is pretty minimal.)(And, good to try this on a route with bolt anchors, tree, etc., in case you really do use up all your gear.)

More like "normal" leading, and no need to figure out an aiding sequence, etc.

For me, this made me think long and hard about finding good placements, and then made me trust that the damn things really work!

PS. Don't make your belayer clean the gear; that's just rude.