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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

When the pressure comes....


shortman

9/05/2012
10:31:56 AM

So you are climbing your latest grade 9 project and trying to get the onsight and you are some distance above your last gear with some sketchy maybe grade 10 moves coming up and your leg starts shaking and your mind starts to doubt....what do you do?

Push on?

Retreat?

Think stuff it and run the rest of the climb out?

Dog it, because your pumping out and settle for another grade 8 next week?

Note: Anyone climbing above grade 11 can't respond because you guys don't understand the intricacies of low grade climbing and you are all totally out of touch with shit climbers and reality.

Winston Smith

9/05/2012
10:39:18 AM

On 9/05/2012 shortman wrote:
>So your climbing your latest grade 9 project and trying to get the onsite
>and your meters above your last gear with some sketchy maybe grade 10 moves
>coming up and your leg starts shaking and your mind starts to doubt....what
>do you do?
>
>Push on?
>
>Retreat?
>
>Think stuff it and run the rest of the climb out?
>
>Dog it, because your pumping out and settle for another grade 8 next week?
>
>Note: Anyone climbing above grade 11 can't respond because you guys don't
>understand the intricacies of low grade climbing and you are all totally
>out of touch with shit climbers and reality.
>
>

Considering that most first timers can get up routes in the neighborhood of 14 I'd suggest that your budding, possibly troll-like, grade 10 lead climber should push on with steely determination and the knowledge that he/she could easily club 4 grades harder on top rope.

PS I regularly sweat my way up grade 10s, usually loudly proclaiming that they're undergraded by at least 6 grades.


shortman

9/05/2012
10:40:32 AM

On 9/05/2012 Winston Smith wrote:

>PS I regularly sweat my way up grade 10s, usually loudly proclaiming that
>they're undergraded by at least 6 grades.
>

At least I'm not alone. Although I don't sweat, just swear.


ajfclark

9/05/2012
10:41:17 AM

>So you are climbing your latest grade 9 project and trying to get the ~~onsite~~ onsight and you are ~~meters~~ metres above your last gear with some sketchy maybe grade 10 moves coming up and your leg starts shaking and your mind starts to doubt....what do you do?

How do you climb anything other than on-site? If you're not on the site of the climb you can't be climbing it.

kieranl

9/05/2012
10:41:56 AM

Being a well-known wimp, I would scream for a toprope. However, I know which option you would choose, Dan.


shortman

9/05/2012
10:46:31 AM

On 9/05/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>you're*, onsight*, you're*, metres*, What*

Thanks for that. Ever done any proof reading? God knows I coold do with sum help.


shortman

9/05/2012
10:47:51 AM

On 9/05/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>>So you are climbing your latest grade 9 project and trying to get the
>~~onsite~~ onsight and you are ~~meters~~ metres
>above your last gear with some sketchy maybe grade 10 moves coming up and
>your leg starts shaking and your mind starts to doubt....what do you do?
>
>How do you climb anything other than on-site? If you're not on the site
>of the climb you can't be climbing it.

Fark. I give up! Can I just give u my login details and u can touch everything up for me?


ajfclark

9/05/2012
10:51:28 AM

I'm not touching anything up for you Dan... Thanks for the offer. I'm flattered but not curious.


shortman

9/05/2012
10:55:10 AM

On 9/05/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>I'm not touching anything up for you Dan... Thanks for the offer. I'm
>flattered but not curious.

Ha Ha...

However, I do remember someone flicking my balls with a rope on my first ever rope climb here in Victoria. You seemed to find touching my nuts hysterical on that occasion. What has changed?


ajfclark

9/05/2012
10:57:31 AM

Glad I made an impression but it obviously stuck with you much longer than me...


Sabu

9/05/2012
11:03:34 AM

quiet day at the office huh?


ajfclark

9/05/2012
11:07:01 AM

Still in my pyjamas actually. Should get moving I guess...


shortman

9/05/2012
11:14:52 AM

On 9/05/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>Glad I made an impression but it obviously stuck with you much longer than
>me...

Well they are my balls.


shortman

9/05/2012
11:16:02 AM

On 9/05/2012 Sabu wrote:
>quiet day at the office huh?

Yep. About to put in a new dunny seat, because the fat guy on LVL 16 keeps breaking 'em.

Olbert

9/05/2012
11:25:03 AM

As a serious answer to the question of how to up your trad leading:

- Spend enough time placing gear in a variety of situations and styles of climbing before attempting climbs that you think you may fall off of.
- Try and not let being scared stop you. Assess your fear, decide if it is rational and you should back off, or it is irrational and its ok to keep going.
- Aiding can really help you trust your gear.
- You first fall should be *after* you have made the decision that you may fall but that falling ok.
- Experience - the more experience you have at trad climbing the better you are at it.

So in the situation you describe you should make the following assessments:

-Is my gear below me gonna hold a fall?
-Is the gear below that gonna hold a fall?
-How much redundancy is in the system if I am wrong with the previous questions?
-Is a fall a reasonable prospect ?(on a grade 9 I would wager that a fall would not be a pleasant undertaking - most people fall on vertical or steep routes where there is nothing but air to hit.)
If you have ticked all the above questions (the first question is not necessary but it's helpful if the answer is yes) then sure go ahead and attempt that crux, taking a big whipper in the process.

If you don't get adequate answers to the above questions then you should probably downclimb or aid.


ajfclark

9/05/2012
11:25:46 AM

Speaking of being under pressure...

Are you sure he's on level 16? We used to have a guy we called the phantom pooper. He caught the lift up to level 6 about 10am every morning, used the loos, then went back to his own floor... Took us a few weeks to realise who was making the mess...


shortman

9/05/2012
12:05:19 PM

On 9/05/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>Speaking of being under pressure...
>
>Are you sure he's on level 16? We used to have a guy we called the phantom
>pooper. He caught the lift up to level 6 about 10am every morning, used
>the loos, then went back to his own floor... Took us a few weeks to realise
>who was making the mess...

You're on the money. Works on 16, broke another seat on the ground floor. Everyone thinks they are the original phantom pooper.


shortman

9/05/2012
12:07:41 PM

On 9/05/2012 Olbert wrote:
>As a serious answer to the question of how to up your trad leading:
>
>If you don't get adequate answers to the above questions then you should
>probably downclimb or aid.

Thanks Olbert, but I think grade 9 is hard enough, after having broken the thru the grade 8 barrier.

One Day Hero

9/05/2012
2:29:22 PM

Dan, you gotta start thinking about your climbing longer term. As difficult as it is, don't fall into the trap of seeing success and failure on a route by route basis.

Do you enjoy climbing? Are you planning to continue at it for years? If yes, then plan for achievement and improvement over a timescale of years. In that context, botching one lead here and there (and calling for take) is irrelevant. However, if you continue to solve problems by shaking to the top without placing gear, you'll end up in hospital.

As to the whole shaking thing.........I'm a closet shaker too. However, there's no reason that shaking should prevent you from climbing hard (but not nicely). My mate Skinny Dave (from the Blueys) has ticked 29 whilst vibrating like a dildo.

I've had a couple of very memorable rattlefests,

-trying to do Orestes (the hardest trad route I'd tried at that point), belayed by my best mate who didn't subscribe to the whole supportive/tactful thing.............by 3m in, the strenuous stemming had my calves vibrating nicely. My belayer showed his sympathy by joining in with the shaking.

Me; "Cut that out, this is hard!"
Tim; "Don't be cruel"
Me; "I'm serious, trying to concentrate here"
Tim; "to a heart that's true" (had begun singing by this stage)

higher up

Me; "WATCH ME!"
Tim; "You ain't nothing but a hound dog!" (By now it was a full on Elvis show, with hip gyrations and sneer....my more supportive friends were rolling around in stitches, I was close to tears)

anyway, I managed to stutter my way to the top, my hardest trad tick to date, but all anyone cared about was the champion heckling effort by my belayer!?!


shortman

9/05/2012
3:13:10 PM

On 9/05/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>Dan, you gotta start thinking about your climbing longer term. As difficult
>as it is, don't fall into the trap of seeing success and failure on a route
>by route basis.
>
>Do you enjoy climbing? Are you planning to continue at it for years? If
>yes, then plan for achievement and improvement over a timescale of years.
>In that context, botching one lead here and there (and calling for take)
>is irrelevant. However, if you continue to solve problems by shaking to
>the top without placing gear, you'll end up in hospital.

Yes I enjoy climbing. Yes, I plan to continue. However, I have absolutely no climbing ambitions. And truth be told I only shake after climbing when I climb without placing gear, not on the way up. But, put me on a 19 and I will start Elvising with the best of them

Anyway, It would be totally going against the grain of this thread if I was to admit that I can climb higher than grade 9's.

I was just a bit bored this mornin.

There are 24 messages in this topic.