UKC

Had a great weekend climbing at Polldubh in Glen Nevis.

Spent lots of time working on slick changeovers at belays (I lead all pitches).

I'm still in the very early stages of leading, but feeling really comfortable with it so far, happy to lead up to Severe. At the moment I'm trying to avoid leading anything that I couldn't solo, just until i'm more smooth with my placements (there's still quite a lot of faffing about just now!).

Everything was going really well until we got on to the second pitch of Secretarie's Direct, which is a really slabby route which follows a very thin crack. The holds are very small, but are quartz and give good grip.

There isn't any gear immediately above the belay, so I needed to gain a bit of height to get my first bit of gear in. I've got no problems climbing above gear, but really started to flake when I couldn't find a solid foothold to get in a decent position to place gear. I ended up bottling it and down climbing back to the belay after getting pumped.

I know in my head that my feet will stick, but that all seems to go out the window if I get in a stress. I don't think I'm able to put enough trust into my feet at the moment to allow me to get comfortable on slabby routes like that.

Are there any ways I can work on knowing and understanding the limits of grip I have? I was thinking about seconding some really slabby routes and just trying to find my limit? Or are there any tips for building up confidence in your feet when relying on friction rather than a nice foot hold?

Practising on lead when I've not got any gear in to protect the belay doesn't seem to be the best place to start learning where my limits are!

In reply to professionalwreckhead: Sounds as though you are well on your way to becoming a solid and safe lead climber.

When I started out I would get to a hard bit and want gear then try to place it from small holds/smears for feet. Would it have been possible to downclimb a bit, place gear, then climb through the section with no footholds? Or, failing that, to climb past the slightly run out section and place gear?

Learning to trust friction comes in time and it does help if you have a good handhold to place gear from.

Robert

In reply to professionalwreckhead:
Bouldering might help - lots of opportunities to try delicate moves on slabs without much penalty for falling off. My footwork improved massively after I went to font.

(I'm in the same situation, by the way.)

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

You're right, learning how to trust your feet when trying to protect the belay is not the best idea.

I suggest you do the following every time you go climbing, especially when at the climbing wall or out bouldering:

Find a boulder problem:

1 Examine its footholds and look for the perfect part of the foothold to use.
2 Think about the best part of your foot to use on that foothold
3 Place your foot on that foothold slowly and deliberately, making sure you use the part of the foothold and your foot that you decided on in stage 1 and 2.
4 Count the number of scuffing noises you make when doing the boulder problem.
5. Repeat, trying to reduce the number of scuffing noises to = 0.

Once you manage to reduce this to 0 then find a new boulder problem to do this on. Pick boulder problems of every imaginable style and you will develop a wide repertoire of different types of footwork. E.g. do it on slabs one day, walls the next, overhangs the day after.


This exercise is called silent feet, if you apply it diligently for a while then placing your feet in this way will become automatic. I imagine that you'll be able to do moves 3 technical grades harder.

Enjoy

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

I think that you are well on the way to sorting this out simoly by acknowledging that you have a weakness. This means that you will automatically be focusing on your footwork everytime you climb. You can set out to train it, but a lazy persons approach is also useful - just play about with your footwork. For example, when you are at the bottom of the crag waiting for your partner to find his sandwiches, find a bit of rock and try walking up it or using a particular foothold, or find a few good holds for your hands and try using only smears for your feet. When you are seconding, try the to use the obvious footholds perfectly, taking as much weight off your arms as possible, then (as you improve) try to avoid the obvious footholds and use tiny ones next to them. Focusing on your footwork everytime you are on rock will give you some really rapid gains in ability.

In reply to all:

Thanks guys, that's really helpful.

I'll definitely try that bouldering technique, I like things that I can work on to a specific aim, rather than it just being a case of "try to climb better"

Part of the problem may also be my rock shoes. I spend all day standing around in them so they are slightly bigger than they could be (the instructor my girlfriend and I use did point out that my shoes were a tad too big). Not much of an issue on long, easy multi pitches, but it's certainly more noticable on delicate holds.

They're getting a bit trashed now anyway (DWS and gabbro rock aren't a great mix for shoes!) so perhaps I'll treat myself to some new ones for indoor stuff over winter.

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

Glad we were of help

In reply to professionalwreckhead:


Might be good to save the old shoes for indoors and have nice ones for outdoors in the Spring?

Playing around on slabs of rock/slabby boulders is really good for finding out what holds work.

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

Take a trip to Ailefroide - you'll go from smearing reject to slab supremo in less than a week*


* caution - mild trauma may be experienced during the learning phase

In reply to professionalwreckhead:

Go grab a weekend or more at Font. I've just had two days there and my footwork has come on immeasurably.

Mike

In reply to professionalwreckhead: wow getting pumped on a slab thats never good at that level its usally the feet and the calfs that hurt first for me on slabs ! and just have a bit of fun lol just play around on small holds at low levels, i always do it as a warm up indoors but try it on some boulders and just pick really small hols and see what is possible to stand on.awell if you have got some low level slabs just try running up them and balancing and stuff so u learn you body possitions and get use to climbing more with ur feet. thing that most people do is not put anough weight on their feet so then they slip off the holds quicker.

In reply to professionalwreckhead: It's a weird one but it works for me as a lot of my problems are psychological. When I put my foot on something that I feel might be a bit dodgy I mutter "stick" to myself and then weight it.

Similarly, when I feel the panic coming on, if I actually vocalise it (eg with a muttered "I'm feeling scared"), I find it subsides enough for me to relax enough to work on my moves. The brain is a funny old thing.