Fear of falling

[KD]

i go back and forth on fear and falling - if i get outside enough and climb often enough - i get more and more confident - if i'm in the gym too much because or weather/job/circumstance it comes back. because of a lung problem i have i have to take an inhaler - it helps me breathe but makes me nervous too. so currently i'm leading a little, falling some, and toproping things that are way too hard for me to lead so i can become more confident in my grade. id like to take arnos seminar and even some of the one-on-one classes he teaches. in any case i love to climb even if i have a sketchy day i still love it.

[Sunshine]

Something else about falling. There are a number of routes in the Red without an R rating that I would not want to fall on. I just did another one of these routes the other day. What's Right With the Underling.

[diggum]

Well said Spragwa.

[dipsi]

You know, when I took Arno's course, I wasn't afraid of falling on purpose. I just got comfy and turned loose. I wish I could duplicate that in real situations, but there isn't time. I suppose it will come with more experience.

[busty]

My problem is that the routes I feel capable of leading are the same routes that I think I'm likely to have really unpleasant result if I fall - like C Sharp or Kampsight.

[J-Rock]

I have a good friend and previous climbing partner who is a slabmaster. I've seen him onsight a technical 12c limestone slab. He has perfected a technique of falling on slabs in which he pushes away from the rock with his hands and backpeddles very quickly and literally runs backwards down the slab. Fortunately for him he was a track star in high school and he has quick feet.

One time at Stone Mountain I witnessed a guy take a very long slab fall in which he slid down the face with his palms still on the rock. It looked horrible and when I saw his hands after the fall they were burnt and bloodied.

[dipsi]

J-Rock wrote:

It looked horrible and when I saw his hands after the fall they were burnt and bloodied.

Well now, I'm suddenly all brave.....you betcha!

[quicksilver]

I am not a very high level climber but I have climbed a lot and taken a lot of falls, including a nasty ground fall from 35 feet on lead. Also I spent an afternoon with Arno at Queens Bluff. I felt it was worth the cost of a one on one lesson just to get good advice and observations from him. He is a unique person. I have had times where I was supremely confident and soloed a 110 foot 5.7 and other times where I am terrefied 5 feet off the ground with 3 pieces of gear plugged in. I think it is certainly a head game that sets up a definite and perdictable physical cycle. Scary thoughts, tense up, over grip, hold your breath, freeze. If I take 1/2 of a Zanax (= to a large beer) I climb much more relaxed. I found this out after I developed Atrial Fibrillation following a Heart Attack. For a couple of years It would come and go including starting up right in the middle of a lead. The anxiety was overwhelming but I found that I could get by it with the Zanax. Now I am in permanent A-fib and very seldom am I anxious from it so I rarely take the Zanax. But if you get tunnel vision about other activities like you do on lead then what would happen. For instance - driving a car. I want to go to the Red but on the way down I will pass 10 drunks, six people on drugs, 15 new teenagers who just got their license, four old people who can't see etc. etc. - fuck it I ain't going nowhere. All those things are possibilities but you focus on the job at hand - driving in a safe and cautious manner. Same with climbing. I want to climb but a hold might break, I might be bitten by a snake , I might fall,
my belayer might blow it, I could break a leg and bleed to death. All possibilities but if I just focus on the job at hand and enjoy that exact moment and process I will have a great experience even if I fail. Also there is no shame in backing off or just top roping when things just are not working. Like one of the posters has on their posts - the best climber is the one having the most fun. Relax, do what you are comfortable with at any given moment and remember it is not a job. One of the 4 agreements is to always do your best - keeping in mind that your best is different at any given time. Sorry so being so long winded.

[Meadows]

From someone who broke her ankle on a lead fall and came back almost too scared to even toprope, I have to say all this advice is good. I started climbing with Wes and later, Team Suck - I trust my system when they're on belay and they fall a lot (even on purpose - *gasp*). Now I'm comfortable enough that I'm just going for it and not worrying so much where my last bolt is.

My favorite practice spot for a fall is above the anchors on Pulling Pockets - just climb to the right after the last bolt, go to the top and drop. I think Wes landed me at the first bolt the last time - I LOVE long falls.

[J-Rock]

...until a bolt takes its final fall and rips right out of the supersoft sandstone!