By Eric Rhicard
May 5, 2008
| This is what is great about our sport. You are faced with a choice. You made one and it hurt. Had you not fallen you would have felt great. I think it is cool you went for it. You got banged up but you didn't need a rescue and you are smarter for the pain. Don't waste your money on the gels, balms, and witch doctors. Chiropractic work is good now and them but unless there are real scientific studies that show that the other stuff really works save your money for health insurance. Good for you for at least going for it. |  |
By David Shiembob
From slc, ut
May 5, 2008
| I had a fall last summer that made me step back and reconsider things a bit. I had been doing a lot of trad near my limit, and my luck finally ran out, and I took my first real big fall. I'd had a couple of occasions before then where I'd barely pulled it off a ways above my last gear, and like others have said, that rush feels really good. However, blowing it and taking a 40'+ ledge clipping, upside down, facing the wall whipper, in a wilderness setting stole a lot of my boldness, and had me climbing mostly sport for the rest of the season. I wasn't seriously hurt, but I think I'm having some of the same mental issues afterwards, trying to decide what it is I want out of climbing.
I've started to feel like certain types of trad might be too nervy for me. For example onsight, sustained pitches at my limit, where I'm not able to place much gear. I'm faced with that decision of where to place, or simply the knowledge that I can't place without falling, and the only chance for success is to punch it and hope for a good stance up higher somewhere... Of course a lot of things go into that decision, like having clean fall potential below you, but it still seems like a risky but necessary choice on hard trad. I'm just wondering if I really have that mental fortitude and risk tolerance for that.
Do you guys have a particular fall or experience that made you back off in one way or another? Or do you find it's more a matter of getting back on the same type of stuff, and just trying to be smarter about it? | |
By Not So Famous Old Dude
From Denver, CO
May 6, 2008
| David Shiembob wrote: Do you guys have a particular fall or experience that made you back off in one way or another? Or do you find it's more a matter of getting back on the same type of stuff, and just trying to be smarter about it?
Yes, I've been injured in a couple of falls. Both were associated with long falls due to runouts above good protection. It did have an effect on me along the lines of what you suggest. I began to substitute true courage for phony, self-bullying. When I first started climbing, I had a tendency to think I was a wuss if I was scared and really bully myself to "go for it." Then I learned that is fake courage. Real courage comes from a careful assessment of the risk, then facing that risk with cool-headed determination. Nowadays, I still may take on a dangerous and/or unprotected section, but before I do, I make a careful assessment of my ability compared to the difficulty of the moves (sometimes admittedly guesswork on an onsight), consider better protected alternatives for skirting the section, and consider the consequences of a fall (scary but uneventful, or potentially diastrous). I consider these things within the context of the location (alpine, long way from help, or in Eldo with help nearby). Then I make a level-headed decision to go for it or back off (or go around if possible). The only time I'll bully myself now is if my fear is completely irrational (short fall from a roof onto totally bomber gear with no chance for injury). Once I begin a risky sequence, I try really hard to control my head and not rush things "just to get it over with." That's how mistakes happen.
I've found over the years that the cooler, deliberate head has allowed me to manage more risk successfully that the "storm the castle" mentality I had early on. | |
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