How did you start Trad climbing?

Blake Neville wrote:

I disagree. I searched long and hard for a mentor and there was just not a lot of possibility where I lived. I read everything I could get my hands on and I watched as many videos as I could. I also then used this aid technique with some webbing I owned and by the time I did meet a guide that was willing to help, he just solidified what I was doing as correct. It would have been a lot nicer to have a mentor but I don't think it's impossible without one and I certainly don't think you can judge what people need without knowing where their confidence comes from. I don't think people are dumb enough to just walk up with a rack and climb something without any prior knowledge - maybe I just don't understand natural selection.

Go watch some of the weekend whippers lol. Lots of people that have no idea launch up stuff. 

You seem more like case in point of someone who was thoughtful enough to learn as much as you could before being open to asking others to check your work, and sounds like you had already established safe practice.

But Darwin is out there I assure you.

Started out last March in bouldering, indoors. My friend took me out sport climbing in May, where we traded leads.

Climbed sport all summer, up to 11d, and projected a 12a.

Followed trad in late July to 10a, then put in a trad lead (swinging pitches) to 10d in September on a multi.

Now I lead trad to 11-, less than a year from my start in climbing.

Woo!

Ben Podborski wrote: Started out last March in bouldering, indoors. My friend took me out sport climbing in May, where we traded leads.

Climbed sport all summer, up to 11d, and projected a 12a.

Followed trad in late July to 10a, then put in a trad lead (swinging pitches) to 10d in September on a multi.

Now I lead trad to 11-, less than a year from my start in climbing.

Woo!

Ya, but can you lead 11 drunk?!

Tradiban wrote:

Ya, but can you lead 11 drunk?!

Nah, and I've never done any aid-climbing either. Harding would call me a softie, I'm sure.

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

True question is how do you not lead the 11 drunk?(never drunk, maybe buzzed)

I am almost positive we climbed along side some guys in Sedona that were tripping. They didn't get a lot of climbing done, and we bailed from the Mace due to weather.

1. Climbed for one year in the gym only.
2. Started going bouldering outside (Stoney Point, etc.) - got hooked on outdoor climbing (duh).
3. Did some sport climbing here and there. Not much.
4. Then I spent an entire summer scrambling/mountaineering, bagging 50+ summits in the High Sierra.
5. Decided I wanted to do harder routes so I sought trad climbing mentors and went about learning the craft.
(I followed dozens of routes, studying cam placements and leader habits, until I was ready to lead)

...now, three years later, I employ these skills (mainly scrambling and trad climbing) to make first ascents in remote alpine settings.

I think that folks who progress the smoothest into trad climbing tend to have a scrambling background instead of a sport/gym background. Switching from sport climbing leaves a feeling of "I wish there were bolts", "I want to learn trad so I don't get FOMO from my friends going to the Creek", and/or "cams are scary but IDK why". On the other hand, graduating from scrambling empowers one with a feeling of, "Alright, I'm ready to bump it up a notch to bigger and scarier mountains. Time to acquire the skill-set to handle steeper terrain." If you're keen on scrambling up to exposed 4th/5th class, then there WILL be a time that you wish you had a rope and trad gear, and so the motivation becomes clear for buying said items and learning how to use them.

Jaren Watson wrote: First route I ever led was a short 5.9 trad pitch. I owned a rope and two cams. I walked around some cliffs on Mt. Lemmon until I saw a crack that looked like it was the same size as my cams.

I climbed up, placed one cam, climbed some more, placed the second cam, and the reached the crux, where it occurred to me for the first time that a) I had no more gear to protect a fall, b) I didn’t want to fall because my belayer had never belayed before, and c) even if I managed to make the moves, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do once I got to the top.

So I carefully downclimbed, retrieving my gear as I went.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

Goals

Buck Rio wrote:

I am almost positive we climbed along side some guys in Sedona that were tripping. They didn't get a lot of climbing done, and we bailed from the Mace due to weather.

Apparently you didn't get the "tripping required" Sedona briefing?

Buck Rio wrote:

I am almost positive we climbed along side some guys in Sedona that were tripping. They didn't get a lot of climbing done, and we bailed from the Mace due to weather.

Shocking...

Señor Arroz wrote:

Apparently you didn't get the "tripping required" Sedona briefing?

I thought the vortex meant you didn't need to use drugs to trip??? We climbed in Prescott instead. So close, yet so different culturally.

In chronological order
- Top roping ice
- Gym climbing
- Ice leading
- Sport climbing
-Trad climbing

It took me a while to warm-up to rock climbing.

FosterK wrote: In chronological order
- Top roping ice
- Gym climbing
- Ice leading
- Sport climbing
-Trad climbing

It took me a while to warm-up to rock climbing.

Pun intended?

1)  Decided I wanted to do it
2) Found a friend who did it
3) Paid for beer and gas

I started with top roping in the gym.  Then a few months later I got in touch with a trad climber with over 20 years of experience (he had even put up some difficult Squamish friction slab climbs) who was looking for a new partner and willing to teach and mentor.  Our first day out was top roping outside.  On our second day out I did my first trad lead and then we went up a classic multipitch with me seconding every pitch.

For the next 2 years we were out climbing in Squamish every Sunday weather permitting, often swapping leads on multipitches.

I was fortunate that he was a gear whore, so I got to try out EVERYTHING and get a feel for what I like and what I don't like.

I have since FAR surpassed him in terms of being a gear whore...

I learned to climb in Connecticut in the '90s, when sport climbing was just in its infancy in the U.S. and where, locally, Ken Nichols ruled with an iron (crowbar) fist.  I barely knew sport climbing existed for the first five years.  Then I went on a NOLS course out in Wyoming my senior year of college and climbed in Sinks Canyon.  It was an eye-opener, though my origins still inform my climbing preferences to this day.  Though I do it a lot, I still mostly think of sport climbing as the thing I do to train for trad climbing, or when I am short on time.

It was just climbing when I started...

Josh wrote: I learned to climb in Connecticut in the '90s, when sport climbing was just in its infancy in the U.S. and where, locally, Ken Nichols ruled with an iron (crowbar) fist.  I barely knew sport climbing existed for the first five years.  Then I went on a NOLS course out in Wyoming my senior year of college and climbed in Sinks Canyon.  It was an eye-opener, though my origins still inform my climbing preferences to this day.  Though I do it a lot, I still mostly think of sport climbing as the thing I do to train for trad climbing, or when I am short on time.

It's usually best to not mention the devil's name.

North Col wrote:What was your progression to becoming a trad climber? This is eventually one of my milestone goals as a climber myself. Just curious, did you start in the gym, did you start on bolted routes, did you start with Trad right away?

I mentioned upstream that adventure in the out of doors was embedded in my in my childhood. Later ... [a few word summary - I just kept after what motivated me like many others] ...

As a teenager to my 20s, mountaineering in the Pacific NW was my passion: backpacking, glacier travel, light roped-belays on scrambling terrain, a little easy free-soloing, etc.. This all began with a youth group who annually climbed Mt Olympus in Washington State.

In my 40s, after my kids were getting older, and on a mountaineering trip with a sister and her friend, again in the Pacific NW, I was introduced to following on multi-pitch over many days and did my first rap (2003). That was when technical climbing / trad really took hold.  

Next spring I took a five-day climb course at a local club that essentially enhanced my ability to follow on multi-pitch. And over the next six months followed more, started building a rack, practicing on the ground, and reading a bunch of stuff on the old RC.com site. During this time I also began leading sport routes.

When I thought I was as prepared to lead trad as much as I could on my own, I went with a guide for one day (wanted two days but not enough signed up for the course). We did ground-level placements and a mock lead ... big confidence builder for me to have professional input on my placement.

A couple weeks later, as suggested by the guide, my wife came out and belayed my lead of that route. I had no idea how little I knew at the time (~15 years ago).

After that, for years, I spent a lot of climb days on routes with partners who knew less than or maybe as much as I did about trad. And kept absorbing what I religiously read on that old RC.com site and later this site ... and books of course. 

Through my greatest learning period, I had one regular partner at about my level - an older sister on a similar trajectory - who I shared with a lot about climb stuff we were learning. This was largely by email as we lived about 3 hours apart by plane. And in the ~15 years since my first trad lead, we have taken more than twice as many trad-oriented climbing trips to places like Joshua Tree CA, Squamish BC, Red Rock NV, Yosemite/ Tuolumne CA, High Sierra CA, etc.

Edit: And I should add that I gained some metal in my right ankle when I badly broke it about 6 years into this trad adventure which was about 8 years ago. No broken bones since though at least one very close call more recently in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

I learned to climb at Indian Creek.  I spent a whole year thinking I was a trad climber, when I was actually just a crack climber.  It took a near-death experience in Little Cottonwood to change that.

Pnelson wrote: I learned to climb at Indian Creek.  I spent a whole year thinking I was a trad climber, when I was actually just a crack climber.  It took a near-death experience in Little Cottonwood to change that.

Mexican or Satans corner?