UKC

Is there a pill you can take

In reply to botheclimber:

A friend of mine ticked a series of bold routes while on SSRI's? Said they really helped, in hindsight they found it worrying but at the time was fine.

In reply to botheclimber:

Not a pill. A sequence of neck rings works best. It's time consuming but you should get there eventually. For more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neck_ring

In reply to botheclimber:

Practice falling. Start every session routinely with a fall.

Figure that there's nothing you want more than to climb that route.

NB. Advice applies firstly to sport climbing, in which learnig your limits is more practical.

In reply to LeeWood:

I would have thought practising not falling would be better on necky routes!

In reply to botheclimber:

Do you want to get comfortable climbing above gear in a relatively safe situation or climbing in a genuinely dangerous situation?

One is easy to train, the other isn't, it's more of a personality trait though you can to some degree work around that by creating the illusion of safety usually either by climbing conservatively within your ability and experience or by headpointing.

jk

In reply to botheclimber:

Easy run out slab routes, followed by slightly harder and more run out slab routes with the odd easy run out steeper route. Keep ratcheting up without biting off more than you can chew and scaring yourself silly.

That's what I'm focusing on this year anyway, and it seems to be working a bit.

In reply to botheclimber:

the traditional technique was to drink 1 to 2 largers before setting off. Practice was required to hit the right level of impairment.

In reply to franksnb:

I once climbed with someone who had been known to put speed in his morning coffee on climbing trips (he had stopped by the time I knew him). Apparently he used to climb very boldly in the morning, tailing off later on. I wouldn't recommend it though.

In reply to botheclimber:

On multi-pitch routes, leave it to your partner to read the guidebook.

In reply to davidbeynon:

yes its alll about changing the limits of your comfort zone, as you trade up and adjust to new levels you'll get bored with what you now think are upper limits and new limits will not only seem acceptable but essential for 'a good day out'

In reply to botheclimber:

Read Mina Leslie-Wujastyk's blog, she's done a lot of work on this over the last year or so and has given a couple of talks on it.

Slight aside - I am not a fan of bold slabby routes as I'm always afraid that if I fall I'm going to slide down the rock and hit something/hurt myself - Bold steep and overhung routes however, if you fall you're falling into mid air.

In reply to botheclimber:

You need to warm her up real nice and slow...

In reply to davidbeynon:

"Keep ratcheting up without biting off more than you can chew and scaring yourself silly. That's what I'm focusing on this year anyway, and it seems to be working a bit."

I tried this and it had the opposite effect of messing my head up completely and making me unable to climb ever things that should have been easy for me, so guess it can go both ways.

In reply to LiamJC:

That's why skilled coaches haven't been put out of business by the internet

In reply to botheclimber:

There isn't much you can do IMO as I assume by "necky" you mean push yourself to accept a higher level of risk and if you do this against your true nature at one point you'll fall off badly and you'll be back to square one. Just take it as it goes, I think it's built in to you - some people are necky, often too necky, others aren't, there's no great merit in trying to be what you aren't. One day it'll come naturally, or not... why worry?

In reply to botheclimber:

I agree with Bruce, how necky people are seems to be inbuilt, Nick Dixon and his climbing friends did indoor bouldering and pull ups and different kinds of training above upturned chairs I read somewhere, to change their perspective of exposure, or what makes them go 'erk'. I've no idea if it worked or not.

There's lots of other facets to a great life etc, I wouldn't put not being necky very high up in importance. ()

In reply to Timmd:

I regularly boulder indoors with small children running underneath. Definitely helps you hold on a bit longer.

In reply to Timmd:

So whatever 'necky' is, it's pretty important then?

In reply to botheclimber: Who does hard things? He who can. Get out there and perform. 'course I only do well-protected stuff these days. Can't stand hospital food.

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Pardon?

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:


Was that that one on Castle Rock? A fall off there would have been a fun catch!

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Not specifically, although I will remember that pitch forever I reckon.

If you had the definitive, it does describe the pitch as 'serious', which means I might not have done it. 'Adequately protected'? Yes, but by a gnat's whisker.

In reply to botheclimber:

Be rational. Work out how likely you are to fall, and if you're sure you're not going to fall (at about the level of certainty of "I'm not going to crash the car with my family in it" which is something you probably have confidence in despite the far greater objective danger) then it makes no difference whether you've got gear or not.

If you're likely to fall off, back off. If you're good enough to do the route, and you want to do it, do it.

Making this judgement is quite hard because an irrational lack of confidence can make you more likely to fall off, so it's all a bit circular. This is where you really have to submit to the magic and mystery of your own psyche and just look at a route and use a bit of gut instinct, and ask yourself "can I do it?". If the answer is yes, and it can be backed up rationally, then do it. If the answer is "well yes, I should be able to, but I've just wee'd myself a bit" then come back another day when it feels right.

In reply to Timmd:


Erroneous 'not'?

Anyway, what if the OP doesn't want a great life, they just want to climb some hard routes? I think my life would be way better if I could do stuff like White Wand, Art Nouveau, Master Of Reality, etc!

In reply to Jon Stewart:


Well put. Slab climbing is a good example of where not being confident enough means you're often more likely to fail. Of course, being able to make the judgement of whether you'll get up something before you commit is very much down to experience. In terms of rational reasoning, considering one's track record is a commonly used way of convincing yourself you'll be OK, e.g. "it's only 5b, I should be fine" or suchlike.

In reply to Jon Stewart:
I've been thinking about that, if you told a short person that not being tall isn't important (if that bothered them), or is not high up in the list of important things, it wouldn't mean you were saying it's important to be tall.

I think Michael Gordon could be wrong. Though I'm not wanting to be right, I'm more wanting to know what is correct.

In reply to Timmd:


The difference is, if you take out the 'not' from the above, it still means the same thing, i.e. that tallness isn't important.

I know what you mean though - a double negative don't always convey exactly the same meaning as a positive. Think we both assumed you'd made a mistake.

In reply to Timmd:

I think it depends to an extent. There are some people who always lead at or close to their technical limit, and that is something I personally could never do.

Then there are people like me, who can happily follow routes they would never consider leading. Never any risk of falling off, but wouldn't lead it either. I think that's where you can make a bit of a difference with accimatisation.

I'm never going to climb close to my "limit", but I think its reasonable to get within 3 grades.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

Ain't that the truth!

In reply to davidbeynon:

You might have something there, Just claimed my first E1.It was three pebble slab. The non slab E1's I've tried I've fell off or bottled it and down climbed.