How do I keep my head straight?

Darren B. wrote:I was up at Table Rock this last weekend, leading my toughest climb yet. I felt that fear begin to creep in again, but I was able to use it to help me push farther up the climb this time. The debilitating nature of my fear definitely has gotten less and less the more time I spend climbing, especially lead climbing. There's something about being on the sharp end that helps me focus in a way that is different from following.

You just answered your original question.

As far as falling goes, I am agreeing with Stich. Yes, you should be ok with falling, but no you should not practice falling on trad gear, especially not as a new leader. As you get better and know that all gear you are placing is solid, you can start to push harder grades where falling will become part of the game. Practicing falling is advice a sport climber would give, but even when you are clipping bolts, shit still happens. I have seen pictures on here of bolts that have ripped, so they aren't fail safe.

John Hegyes wrote:Provided the leader is competent, there is little to be scared of while following. If you think following or top roping is scary, then leading might give you a nervous breakdown. There are a few situations that expose the follower to hazard ie., traversing which can lead to swing falls but if you follow the rules and if the leader can build good anchors you don't have much to be scared of. Remember that knowledge is power. Learn how to be a safe climber. Know what to do if things go wrong. That should give you some peace. Approach it from more of an engineering standpoint maybe. Get an understanding of the rigging and the forces involved in climbing. Knowing about the strengths of materials should take a load off your mind by taking the mystique out of it. Or perhaps you're afraid of heights? I've climbed a few people like that and it's possible that climbing is not for you. A healthy dose of safety consciousness is obviously important but if your fears are so far beyond so as to be irrational you might be well advised to enjoy another sport.

+1

Super exposed moves are my fear. Walking out across the plank towards the diving board on Ancient Art scared the bejeezus out of me(300ft on either side of a 25inch wide walkway). But the climb itself was great and I felt confident the whole time until then. I was recently reading through "Climbing Self Rescue" (Tyson) and there just so happens to be a picture of a guy/gal humping the diving board. I realized then that the skills I was reading about, and will soon be practicing, were the partially to blame for my fear.

I remember distinctly freaking out about how will I ever get back up to my partner (who was an accomplished guide). I think I would have been less nervous had I known there were such techniques and had I also quizzed my guide on his experience and training with it.

wait, does that mean that you trust gear enough to catch you, but not enough to intentionally take a fall on? That sounds sketchy to me...

Josh Olson wrote:wait, does that mean that you trust gear enough to catch you, but not enough to intentionally take a fall on? That sounds sketchy to me...

Where is the LNT in intentionally taking falls on gear... Your damaging the gear and rock possibly. It kind of defeats of the purpose of clean climbing with trad gear. Also a cam is a hell of a lot more expensive than a $15 quickdraw and a bolt that someone else paid to install. The "shit can happen" idea is also the reason why down climbing is probably a new trad climbers best friend. Unless I made a dead point move, I will always choose to down climb and hang-dog it or whip just to be closer to the gear and reduce the load.

I have to agree with Josh. Every newbie trad climber has the same fear. "I just gotta learn to trust the gear". How pray tell will one learn to trust the gear if one never actually falls on gear. Practice falls on gear are just as important as practice falls on bolts. Just back the gear up with a 2nd bomber piece just underneath it.
Back in the day we used to place crap gear with good gear below it to test just how well the crap placements would hold. It always surprised us how often a bad placement actually held.

In trad climbing, you will find that there are plenty of situations in which you are doing really hard, insecure moves at your limit, with bomber gear protecting you.

There are other situations in which you have little, no, or terrible gear protecting you, but it is not a huge deal, because you are not doing hard, insecure moves at your limit.

The key is learning to:

-know what moves are hard, insecure, and at your personal limit
-know what is good or bad gear, and which situations are "do not fall"

and finally, most important
-making sure that you do not find yourself at your limit in a "no fall" situation.

pretty simple, really.

Pete Hickman wrote:Another approach you can take is to push away everything that is good in your life until you have nothing left that you care about. Then, you will notice a refreshingly calm feeling when you are high on the rock because there is no longer anything good down there that you desperately want to make it back to. If you make life on the ground utterly miserable, climbing high will make you feel better, not worse.

Ha!Exactly!...
Reminds of Bogart to Hepburn in The African Queen:"Oh, I ain't worried miss, gave myself up for dead days ago".

camhead wrote:In trad climbing, you will find that there are plenty of situations in which you are doing really hard, insecure moves at your limit, with bomber gear protecting you. There are other situations in which you have little, no, or terrible gear protecting you, but it is not a huge deal, because you are not doing hard, insecure moves at your limit. The key is learning to: -know what moves are hard, insecure, and at your personal limit -know what is good or bad gear, and which situations are "do not fall" and finally, most important -making sure that you do not find yourself at your limit in a "no fall" situation. pretty simple, really.

Sounds like solid advice!

camhead wrote:finally, most important -making sure that you do not find yourself at your limit in a "no fall" situation. pretty simple, really.

This really is insightful for me. As I climb more and more, I'm unearthing the different levels of involvement, both physical and mental, and camhead's quote really helped me see falling and pushing my limits in a new light.

I can now definitely see myself pushing it harder when I've got solid pro beneath me and backing off a bit when the placements might not be as bomber as I'd like.

That was the point of camhead's response, right?

db

camhead wrote:In trad climbing, you will find that there are plenty of situations in which you are doing really hard, insecure moves at your limit, with bomber gear protecting you. There are other situations in which you have little, no, or terrible gear protecting you, but it is not a huge deal, because you are not doing hard, insecure moves at your limit. The key is learning to: -know what moves are hard, insecure, and at your personal limit -know what is good or bad gear, and which situations are "do not fall" and finally, most important -making sure that you do not find yourself at your limit in a "no fall" situation. pretty simple, really.

Good advise but there are also times where you are doing hard moves above "apparently non-existent or bad" gear but when you really analyze it, the fall is clean, it may be long , but it is safe. To understand when the fall is safe (no matter how intimidating or long it may be, and when it is unsafe, is also something that takes time to understand.

chuck claude wrote: Good advise but there are also times where you are doing hard moves above "apparently non-existent or bad" gear but when you really analyze it, the fall is clean, it may be long , but it is safe. To understand when the fall is safe (no matter how intimidating or long it may be, and when it is unsafe, is also something that takes time to understand.

Sorry to revive this thread, but I was just re-reading it. You and I are saying the same thing, Chuck. It doesn't matter if there is bad gear below you if the fall would still be safe, even with the bad gear's failure. This situation is still, by definition a "safe" fall.

There are plenty of routes in which you face long falls of over 20 feet, but they are still largely safe (think Air Swedin, although I have not been on it). Just because you are facing "big air" does not necessarily mean that you are in a "no fall"situation.

I just wish the falls at my level of climbing weren't so treacherous. I tell myself, "If you start to fall, just push back from the wall and let the gear catch you," but I feel certain that when I actually do start to fall, I'll be scraping my way down until the rope catches. I imagine that this is something experience will help with.

As an aside, I've been leading more climbs and finding that I can now push myself much farther than I could when I started many months ago. Even climbing 20 feet above gear, which I did for the first time last weekend, didn't have me totally paralyzed. I was able to keep moving, watch for pro placements, and finish the pitch. Each time I climb it gets easier for me to control my fear and push my body harder.

My mind is now strong enough that I can push my body to where it's feeling the pump! Before, I'd have bailed before my arms got too tired.

85% of climbing is mental. The rest is just percentages.

I likes to take me a few dranks befo I get to climbin up somethin.

Following can in a way, be more mentally taxing- cleaning gear and climbing inefficiently because you're not on the sharp end. The lead and its consequences bring out the flow.

warriorsway.com/

chuck claude wrote: Actually when I fall unexpectedly, even though its on a low percentage move, there is no terror, no nothing. If its long enough there is a possibility that I may think, "wow, thats a long fall" but usually almost a blissful nothing. Its those climbs where you know you can't fall, and you know that you are about to fall, and you are fighting off the pump, trying to keep it together, those are the falls that are "less then relaxing".

thats how i feel too! its the anticipation of the fall that trips me, which is bad since the anticipation that you feel can block you from fully focusing on the moves themselves. regardless, once i am actually falling that fear doesn't even scratch the surface of the fear of not knowing how you'll fall.

Josh Olson wrote:I'm upset nobody has mentioned this...FALL, FALL, FALL, and FALL again. In my experience, I just took a good amount of whippers in the gym, then a bunch outside.

Did you not notice the recent death on the Yellow Spur from falling? This is very bad advice to advocate falling outside. The gym might be fine, but you can also break your ankle doing that. My friend broke hers practicing falling in the gym.

Here's a thought: Learn how to climb solidly. That competence will then lend confidence. That's what climbers used to do back in the day where falling always meant bad.

There is also another lost art out there that can save your body and mind. It's called downclimbing. Do it. There is also calling down "Take!" and getting your head straight. There is pulling on gear. There's all sorts of things that can keep you from losing it, just knowing you can resort to them if need be. It's not necessary to chose your ego over safety. Can't do the moves? Try toproping it into submission.

Stich wrote: Did you not notice the recent death on the Yellow Spur from falling? This is very bad advice to advocate falling outside.

If you don't think you can fall safely outside, you are mistaken. It's why we use gear, be it bolts or trad gear. There are safe falls and dangerous falls, both in a gym and outside. Climber discretion is advised.

I think this has been covered extensively enough.

Peter Springs wrote:If you don't think you can fall safely outside, you are mistaken.

I didn't say that. I said it is unwise to intentionally fall on routes outside. One can obviously get away with it scott-free as I have in the past on sport routes. Trad routes I don't push to the point I fall on them. Ever.

Peter Springs wrote: It's why we use gear, be it bolts or trad gear. There are safe falls and dangerous falls, both in a gym and outside. Climber discretion is advised.

We use gear to serve as a backup, or I should say gear SHOULD be seen as the backup. Your climbing ability and not falling is the primary safety mechanism on a route.

Peter Springs wrote: I think this has been covered extensively enough.

Obviously not.