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Chapter 2

Exploring the Traditional Lead Experience

A CLOSER LOOK

Traditional climbing is a complex and demanding endeavor spurring adventure, camaraderie, creativity, intuition, spontaneity, and commitment. It challenges you to be honest about your limitations and entices you by providing access to extraordinary places. It can be an extremely rewarding and joyous experience, or it can be a hair-raising joyride. It is always dangerous. Jeff Achey neatly summarizes the experience:

Key to the feeling [of traditional climbing] is invoking the spirit of mountain and crag, the inherent hazards and joys. As a trad climber you can’t be squeamish. You’ll be up on cliffs when it rains. You’ll use loose handholds. On a great day maybe you’ll get lost, cold, scared, and hungry. And when you make it back, a can of beans never tasted so good, and the campfire feels like the warm embrace of Mother Earth herself.³

Adventure

It’s obvious that the risks of trad leading far outweigh those of the sport lead. Why take the added risks? Adventure. But how do you define adventure in relation to climbing? When you set off on a traditional lead climb, you open the door to the unknown. This is the true embodiment of adventure at the crags. From the ground you may not be able to see the entire pitch. You may not know if an established anchor awaits you at the top or whether you need to conserve gear to build your own. How well you read the rock from the ground will determine whether you bring the right gear. You’ll rely on your topo map, as well as your own navigational skills and intuition to find your way upward. As you ascend, the route unfolds unexpectedly, one move at a time—each corner turned or bulge surmounted challenges you. If you run into trouble, you have little choice but to accept responsibility, get into action, and execute a solution. This is adventure.

Conversely, on sport turf you connect the dots up a line of pre-placed bolts with few surprises. In what is essentially a gymnastic exercise, you can see every bolt—even the anchors at the top. You know exactly how many quickdraws to bring. You know that your partner will lower you to the ground when you’re ready—whether it be at the anchors or when you’re simply too spent to make the next move. This may be fun, but it’s not adventure.

Commitment

The risk-taking inherent in trad leading keeps commitment levels high. On a sport lead, if you’re climbing poorly or the weather takes a turn for the worse, you can almost always retreat with ease. This is rarely the case when you lead a trad route. While you may be able to retreat by lowering back down to the belay, you can’t depend upon it. Often there aren’t solid gear options left when you run out of steam. Sometimes the route traverses so much that lowering wouldn’t put you anywhere near your belayer. Most commonly you’ve used more than half the rope and a quick descent to the belay isn’t an option. A trad lead commitment to both the summit and your partner must be bona fide. You must always climb at your best because, if you don’t, your life may be at risk.

Creativity

The craft of the traditional lead is enticing because it provides vast opportunities for individual expression and creativity. Every gear-lead is itself a unique creation—a masterpiece, if you will. Free to place the pieces that you want, where you want, and when, you can stand or rest here or there. You can place a piece here if you’re short, or up there if you’re taller. You can muscle your way up the flake because you’re better at cracks, or tiptoe around it because you’re a slab master. You can jam the crack straight on, or lay it back. You can place two pieces because the move ahead looks difficult or the landing dangerous, or forgo protection for several feet when the terrain is less challenging and speed essential.

A little creativity accomplishes a lot if unexpected and complex challenges arise on lead. With hard-won experience, a solid leader’s repertoire of solutions expands as his or her toolbox shrinks. Instead of relying on technology, experienced climbers solve problems with innovation. For example, when protection is difficult or sparse, trad leaders are challenged to create solutions with just a handful of resources. I’ve watched such leaders weave intricate chains of lead gear on routes rumored by novices to be void of protection, or runout. Similar to the way a master potter envisions infinite possibilities in a lump of clay, an experienced leader, fueled by a similar creative force, identifies safe pathways up seemingly blank stone canvases.

Simplicity

A true master trad leader doesn’t need a slew of gadgets or the latest, greatest technical toy to get to the top of any climb. Self-rescue (see Chapter 8) epitomizes the concept of simplicity. A few cords, carabiners, and knots combined with knowledge of a few basic concepts is all you need to rescue yourself from any bad situation almost anywhere—quite amazing when you consider the amount of gear rescue professionals use in the frontcountry.

I’ve learned the value of simplicity in climbing through varied experiences, some unpleasant. I think the one that really shifted my climbing approach to embrace a “less is more” attitude occurred several years ago in Yosemite Valley. One fall day a friend and I decided to climb the northwest face of Higher Cathedral Rock, a “moderate” Grade IV in the valley that spits overzealous climbers from its walls regularly like a slot machine. After a pre-dawn march to the base, we were disappointed to greet two Levi–clad gentlemen sporting a slim rack of Hexes and a few old forged Friends at the base of the route. I don’t even think they had belay devices. Arrogantly, we asked the team if they’d mind much if we went ahead of them. We were certain we would be the faster party, we told them. After all, my partner and I thought, we had the big cams we knew were essential for the notorious off-width near the top. Heck, these guys didn’t even have a pack. Politely one of them responded, “We won’t hold you up, if you don’t hold us up.” We were bummed but were forced into making peace with images of impatiently climbing on their heels, sharing cramped belay ledges, and a possible walk-off in the dark. In the end, only the latter came to pass. After the first pitch, we never saw the team again, and after a long, difficult day, we spent nearly the entire night finding our way down the tricky descent.

Multidimensionality

The traditional gear-lead has numerous facets. With a number of priorities constantly jockeying for your attention as leader, your focus shifts rapidly between climbing movement, placing protection, and route finding. Each requires a degree of technical and physical prowess that is impossible without remaining calm and focused. Add to this list weather considerations, rack organization, partner communication, energy and gear conservation, rope positioning, runnering, evaluation of rock quality, and anchoring, and you can understand why many leaders are overwhelmed on their first few trad forays. The challenge lies in working toward careful prioritizing, attempting to remain flexible, and mastering the delicate skill of shifting from one concept to the other and back without sacrificing mindfulness.

Camaraderie

Friendships built within the complex emotional framework of a shared adventure are gifts of traditional climbing. Swapping leads on multipitch routes has fastforwarded more friendships than I can count. Even an afternoon of climbing single trad pitches can provide the basis of a lifetime friendship, opening the door to a sort of intimacy less common outside the realm of adventure. Here’s an analogy: Spending an afternoon sport cragging is like spending an afternoon on a guided tour with an acquaintance on a paved bike path in a city park. A day spent swinging leads on a multipitch trad climb is like sharing a maniacal rickshaw ride down the unpaved backstreets of Katmandu with another traveler, unsure if the driver is sober or knows your destination. As trad-climbing partners, you’re vulnerable and exposed to each other. Fear, joy, and trust meld to create an unforgettable experience. This quality of traditional leading makes time shared on the crags extremely precious and sacred, and traditional climbs memorable.

Access

Beyond its adventure, the one aspect that draws my heart to traditional climbing is access. Trad leading skills are key in ascending routes in some of the most spectacular environments on the planet. While there are some lovely sport climbing locales, many spires, towers, and ridges in wilderness settings can only be ascended by means of traditional gear routes. Long routes on such crags are generally incompatible with sport climbing simply because of logistics. The vast majority of established rock climbing routes in the world involve gear placement.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

The psychological fitness required of the trad leader involves a unique ability to concentrate on the task at hand, shift from one task to another, cope with fear and danger, and honor personal limitations.

Concentration

Concentration is a skill required of all leaders. Traditional leads in particular demand a climber’s utmost attention because even slight distractions can lead to dire consequences. Obstacles that make focusing difficult generally stem from internal distractions, holding us captive in either the past or the future. Your mind generates distractions that take a variety of forms. On some days, you wonder whether or not you have the skills to succeed on the chosen route. Other days you mentally rehash the argument you had with a loved one earlier in the day, thinking of all the things you should have said but didn’t. And sometimes your mind will avoid the present moment by creating lists—what to buy at the store for dinner, climbing areas you’d like to visit, routes you’d like to climb, jobs for which you’d like apply—and the lists go on.

To lead climb effectively you need ways to screen out distractions. You could explore the finer points of stabilizing the mind through relaxation and breathing techniques. Meditating regularly can also improve concentration skills by enhancing awareness. As you develop the ability to relax on lead, you notice that in the present moment your busy mind stabilizes, your focus increases, and your performance becomes enhanced.

Decision-Making & Multitasking

On gear-leads be prepared to make split-second decisions while juggling a multitude of equally important tasks. Your success will stem from confidence and intuition gained from experience and time on the rock. Most decisions you make as the leader will affect the safety of both you and your partner. In the beginning, the multitasking nature of trad leading will overwhelm you. You’ll wonder how to ever focus on the physical aspect of climbing itself. For awhile the trad lead will be all about gear and you’ll barely remember making moves between pieces. As your skills develop over time, though, your movements take on a natural flow—you’re able to focus on the climbing at hand while calmly addressing other tasks as they arise. When decision-making becomes second nature, situations that once were colossal are easily resolved.

Talking Yourself Through Fear & Suffering

To stay mentally focused during hard trad leads, I’ve had to cope effectively with two common stumbling blocks: fear and suffering. The techniques I use to negotiate both issues involve talking to myself. When I’m most successful negotiating with pain and suffering, I actually hear my voice inside my head—it’s that calculated.

Fear—If I’m really afraid, I try to moderate my breathing and concentrate on the nuts and bolts of safety. I run down a mental checklist in my head to make sure the basics are covered. Is my protection the best that it can possibly be? Is the rope positioned properly? Am I using all the best footholds and handholds? Sometimes when you’re really scared, you just can’t see—it’s as if you’ve become blinded by fear. So if you calm your mind long enough to bring these three basic things into focus, you will reinforce your feeling of being safe, which in turn makes you less afraid.

Suffering—Some climbs—long desert crack climbs spring to mind—are hard because the climbing actually hurts. The pitch may be quite safe but, as it drags on and the physical pain increases, deep down inside you begin to think of giving up—you lose interest in getting to the top. When I’m grinding through something like this, I remember that when it’s over I’ll be glad I persevered. As a waitress in Moab, my mantra for pushing through on Indian Creek pitches was would you like some more iced tea? When my muscles are screaming, my body is hurting, and I’m having a hard time finding motivation to keep going, I remind myself that I’d given up on law school, a Ph.D., and many other opportunities so that I could be doing this, so I damn well better give it my all!

—Steph Davis

Coping with Fear & Danger

For the traditional leader, ineffectively coping with fear threatens safety, let alone success. Yet fear can be healthy. By fostering your respect for (and attention to) the mountains and nature, it keeps you alive. But at its worst, it’s a liability morphing into terror, then panic and, soon, paralysis. To lead trad routes you must manage and channel fear into a useful energy that doesn’t undermine your goals.

Climber Marc Twight describes how to use self-discipline to harness fear and transform it into a source of strength:

To climb through fear, to point fear up instead of down, you need to maintain the desire and strength, the will and discipline, to go until the end of the pitch. If you are scared, reinforce your confidence by biting off what you know you can chew. Successfully swallowing it will encourage you to take another bite, another pitch…. Trust in your skill, and give yourself up to the action.⁴

Although Twight addresses extreme alpine climbing, his description of manipulating fear can apply in nearly any climbing scenario. If you are the type of person likely to respond to urgent situations with thoughtful action rather than immobilization, you’re probably capable of transforming fear into fuel to keep you safe and moving upward, a little at a time.

AMBITION

By providing the momentum needed to attain goals and gain confidence, ambition plays a positive role in your life, whether you express it by attending a job interview, giving a presentation at work, or running a marathon. In climbing, ambition lets you progress in skill level as you’re willing to tackle increasingly difficult routes. To advance safely in the trad leading sphere though, you must balance your ambition with a healthy dose of reason.

Honoring Personal Limitations

Problems develop when the excitement of achieving a climbing goal interferes with a clear appraisal of your capabilities. According to American Alpine Club (AAC) data for the past five years, climbers misjudging their abilities is one of the most common contributing causes of reported accidents in both the U.S. and Canada.

Sometimes the desire to say you’ve done one route or another, coupled with the satisfaction of checking it off your list, is more attractive than the immense effort and preparation necessary to actually do the route. During my first season in Yosemite, I found myself so enthralled by talk of big walls that I committed myself to a route high above the valley floor where I, unskilled and frightened, faced tasks I was completely unprepared for. A route that most climbers at that time completed in a day and a half took my partner and me three days. My overzealous will to “have done” a big wall, together with my misappraised abilities, endangered us. I became so flustered while attempting to follow a traversing aid pitch that I panicked and froze, requiring my partner to rappel down to help me. After our ropes became a tangled macramé, we spent our last daylight hour disentangling the mess. We discovered at one point to our horror that we had both untied from the rope and clipped off the same, single, fixed piton, circa 1950, no doubt.

A few days later, after miraculously summiting unharmed, we were safely back down on the valley floor. When an experienced local climber commented that I “had no business going up there,” I recall being miffed. Years later I realized this person had been right. Being accepted by my peers for having done a big wall at the time completely overshadowed my awareness that I didn’t have adequate experience or skills. A year later I returned to the valley with many more skills and experience on the rock, and safely completed two additional walls in decent time and with no major epics.

Questioning Motives

Thinking your climbing goals through requires rigorous awareness of your motives, as well as your skill level. Had I taken the time to think through my first big wall adventure, I would have recognized I had more work to do before taking on that challenge. I would have recognized that my ego was convincing me that I could do whatever made me look cool. Some very dangerous intentions can be veiled by ambition. Tilted heavily toward desire, they are often light on reason and humility.

Leading allows you the opportunity to work in a balanced way with all of the elements of your humanness: emotion, judgment, ability, ego. It’s an unbelievable teacher and educator. That’s the beauty of bothering yourself to put on a rack and climb up a rock really—all this potential human development. The way you are on lead is a direct reflection of your approach to everyday life. Are you organized? Are you respectful toward the natural world? Are you hurried? Flexible? Humble? Are you trying to prove something to someone else? Egos are very tricky. They can sneak up on you and play games with your mind. Just when you’re convinced you are operating without ego is often the time when it’s bigger than ever, simply because you believe this. It’s nuts! If you become egotistical about your achievements and believe you are superior because you have something more than everyone else, you’re in trouble. You miss the point, and any positive aspect of your experience will backfire. You could actually become arrogant enough that your ego will walk you right off the side of a cliff. As a new leader, follow your own experience and avoid comparing yourself to anyone else. Your true strength will shine in your ability to humble yourself and connect with the natural world with balance and respect. We’re all equal whether you believe it or not.

—Ron Kauk

When you find yourself at the base of a challenging route desiring to climb it because so and so is at the crags and you want to show off, because everyone else you know has led it, or simply because you’d like to tick it off your list, take a minute to adequately assess your abilities. Remember there’s a lot more at stake on trad climbs. Are you puffed up with unbalanced ambition? Are you succumbing to peer pressure? A climber who lives to climb another day can walk away from a trad climb thinking Not today or I’m not ready. A climber who walks away can always return another time when he or she feels ready.