Preparing for your first trad lead

Thanks for the critique, feedback, and grammar corrections :). Just one of many ways to get started trad climbing, not the exclusive way, and yes, I am writing to those who start sport climbing first.
https://northwestclimbing.com/f/are-you-ready-for-trad-1

Hmm...  was Kelty the author?  Is Kelty Content Marketing ;-)

Per the article., I read a book and onsighted a route in the Valley...  my mentor followed behind me and gave me feedback.  Wasn't this the Traditional way to climbing?  I must be doing something wrong.  

I totally agree, if you're new to Trad climbing save those pennies to buy a standard rack.  Never borrow from a friend/mentor ;-)

So I can't claim Booty?!?  Finders Keepers?!  haha

I don’t think you need to climb 5.10 sport, or even sport at all, to start leading trad

Kelty Godby wrote:

I don’t either. This is my take on the safest way to get started trad climbing for the typical climber. It’s certainly not the only way or necessarily the best way.

Oh, ok

I didn’t get past the first paragraph so maybe you had some more useful tips in here,  but I’d really like to end the myth that sport has to be a stepping stone to trad climbing. You start by saying how different the two disciplines are, then say that you have to be proficient at leading sport before starting to learn trad? Why, when you just admitted how many of the skills don’t translate?

Following trad is a much better first step to learning trad than leading gym or sport 5.10s. 

Sport is absolutely not the only way to get into Trad. Maybe if you're in an area where there's a lot of sport, it can give you lead confidence first, but for areas like upstate NY or Western Mass, there's really only trad available. In those cases, you have to go straight from TR to trad. Additionally, there are a ton of 5.3-5.7 routes in these areas on which you can learn. You don't even need to be TRing 5.10 to get started. This feels like weird gatekeeping with the idea that you have to be "good enough" to start. All you need to start is excitement about climbing, and someone who knows what they're doing to teach you. 

BOX #1: Are you comfortably leading 5.10 sport outside? If yes,__ great. If no, __ I recommend continuing to improve your technique and lead climbing before switching to trad.

Maybe a Box 1A as above and a Box 1B for those without a sport background - like have your first lead be on something you can free solo ... and start sport climbing and later perhaps bouldering to build strength.

 Box #2 Do you have a standard rack (double cams from .3-#3 and a set of stoppers) 8-10 extendable slings, and a nut tool? Yes,__ great! No,__ start saving your pennies.

In my experience, “standard” has never meant double cams ... though I have not climbed at the likes of Indian Creek.

By the way, trad and hexes go together like bread and butter.  :)

Box #3 have you taken the time to learn the technical aspects of placing gear? Yes, __ awesome! No,__ stop and do this, or risk a serious accident.

A glaring omission in the text behind this one is aiding / weighting gear as part of learning about gear placements.

Box #4 did you select a route that you have already mock led, that doesn’t have ledges or loose rock, that protects well/has continuous placement opportunities, and that is 2-3 number grades below your comfortable sport on-sight level?

Yes,__ great! No, __reevaluate and pick a different route.

Misses being comfortable free soloing the route. And then ledges do not matter so much. Falling should explicitly not be considered an option on this first lead and probably on many thereafter.

Kelty Godby wrote:

 

If you don’t take the time to learn from a mentor/guide/school, and do a ton of self-study, then you are setting yourself up for an accident.

Seems a bit absolutist to me. But then again the whole post was. Sounds like a good way to introduce wimps into trad climbing where they likely should not be? My first lead was three pitches up, and memorable it was, even though it was 5.5

I tend to think if it is a route that the person is confident they wont fall on, fuck it give it a go. To each their own but at least this way the person is aware of the danger and not lulled into a false sense of security ie Follow these tips and you will be safe

First you let your nether hairs grow in full, boy-oh.

If you’ve got some grit in your eye and you’ve done your practice decking, you’ll be up that rig lickety split.

What?

this has to be some sort of joke, and should be in the how to keep people out of climbing forum. Make trad climbing seem so elitist that only the privileged and strong can maybe try it.

who ever wrote this sounds like they just finished up there first 5.9 gear route and is officially a trad climber now....fuck

Yeah, this is kinda all BS.  I was probably a 5.8 top rope climber when I got into trad.  So I did what any normal person would so.  I started on 5.5 and 5.6 and worked my way up.  Also, it is news to me that 5.6's tend to not have good gear.  Maybe that is a regional thing.  In the northeast, the gear gets tougher as you climb the grades.  Very rarely is protection a concern on easier climbs.

Maybe it is time to hang up the rack.

~ Gabe

Should have been titled " Preparing the Sport Leader for Their First Trad Lead".  

It's a lot easier to go from Trad to Sport.  Just ask the any of the thousands of climbers who learned to climb before about the mid-90's .

Also, while I don't disagree that a sport leader should start with a trad lead about 2-3 grades lower (back in the "Trad-Only Days" this was sort of the "rule", if you felt comfortable following 5.7 you started your leading at about 5.4, or a 5.5 -5.6 you'd already seconded). BUT the idea that even as a rule Trad is more "physical" and you "move differently" is more a matter of the specific climb and the specific area (or one area vs another) than simply Trad vs Sport.

Yeah, every point is either flat out wrong or needs to be revised. "At a minimum you should buy a book on climbing trad, read it cover to cover twice." What? Who does this? And that isn't how you're supposed to use a practical reference book anyways.

Many trad climbs in the 5.5-5.7 range, don’t protect well.

 I'm thinking you left this part out…………….(if it's R or X rated)..... You normally can sew up 5.0 - 5.9 and higher ……………………and if it's got a crack...….  

EDIT my post as I was just to harsh to someone who was probably just trying to be helpful and was not my intent to be a complete jerk.

Kelty Godby wrote:

I don’t either. This is my take on the safest way to get started trad climbing for the typical climber. It’s certainly not the only way or necessarily the best way.

It would probably be a good idea to pull the article from your website and circulate it among your guide friends for revisions before republishing it. As it stands, it doesn't make you look very credible and is putting a lot of unnecessary obstacles in the way of potential clients, if they take you literally.

The ultra safe climbing movement is all just clickbait in real life. It's meant to generate traction to someone's website or blog to get them out of their 9-5. Or it's a superiority thing where people flaunt their safety/book knowledge to the unknowing. You are climbing rocks, and falling off hopefully. The whole it's "inherently dangerous" is now a disclaimer for bad advice.
You could die right now is the first thing I tell new climbers. That's all you need to know. You are ready and swallow that lump in your throat and attack the rock with confidence, or you shudder and realize you aren't ready and need to figure shit out. 

F loyd wrote:You could die right now is the first thing I tell new climbers.

This is what I say in place of “on belay”.

Maybe there is some kind of similar guide about how to start writing, that has something to do with advice like "only write about stuff you're an authority on"?

I mean, that is bad advice... I think it's a-okay to become an authority on something by writing.  But usually that process involves a lot of research and personal learning instead of radical generalization of a couple of idiosyncratic personal experiences.

Katarina Owens wrote: I don’t think you need to climb 5.10 sport, or even sport at all, to start leading trad

You have an interesting point.  I've lead one 5.10 sport route, period.  Yet I have so much mileage on trad climbing.