The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

those experiences and you can begin the process of learning how to climb cracks painlessly.
    A second form of non-objectivity is metaphor . It is a process of abstraction, representing something to yourself in an abstract way. For example, if you see a crack as a wound, then you are thinking of the crack metaphorically. Thinking this way, you will automatically carry over the emotions you associate with wounds that don’t belong to cracks in rock. There may be negative connotations attached to wounds, making cracks metaphorically repulsive to you.
    Memories also can taint your objectivity. New things can remind you of a similar thing you experienced in the past. A certain crack climb—perhaps all crack climbs—might remind you of a climb called Keyhole at the Shawangunks, on which you struggled desperately during your first year of climbing. The memory of Keyhole colors your perception of all cracks, and you presently avoid crack climbs.
    If you look and describe objectively, a crack is a feature on the rock face with definite contours, steeper here and less steep there, wider here and narrower there. It will admit various parts of the body and will take climbing protection such as nuts or cams. These characteristics have nothing to do with associations you have about crack climbing in general, nor with crack metaphors or memories of specific cracks in your past. Being aware of associations, metaphors, and memories can help you describe situations more objectively, and loosen the self-limiting aspects of past experience.
    Responsible Climbing
    Clearing your mind of the past and the subtle habits of deception helps you look with fresh eyes towards gathering useful information, to help you climb. Let’s move on to gathering that information, to discerning the true nature of the challenge facing you.
    Climbers suffer from a variety of flaws in their problem-solving ability. We often overreact to an unexpected challenge before we even know for sure what the challenge entails. We tend to wish a situation was different, rather than focusing on what we can do given the facts.
    In order to accept responsibility for taking a risk, we need to know what we’re accepting responsibility for. Too often in climbing we are under the power of phantom fear , a vague, nagging fear of unknown origin. There may be no real substance to such fear. Conversely, the fear may indicate real danger. However, the fear is of limited protective value unless we can identify the specific danger that’s causing the fear. Often, phantom fear is simply a general fear of the unknown, of the world outside our comfort zone.
    Phantom fear makes risk-taking an effort. This is beneficial, to a point, because without some resistance to risk-taking, we might be soloing 5.13s and killing ourselves. Without taking some risk, however, we can never learn anything, never expand our comfort zone and make progress. To take appropriate risks, and to take them well, we need to weaken phantom fear.
    By its nature, phantom fear can’t be investigated directly. It’s a phantom. Phantom fear creeps in when your information about a risk is too vague, and it grows as you focus on it. You can reduce phantom fear by improving your understanding of a risk and by describing your climbing situation objectively. Be vigilant with the words you use in your description. If you say, “This section of the route has good holds, but it looks pumpy,” you aren’t being objective. “Good” is a value judgment about the holds. What do you mean by good? If your goal is to be challenged by the climb, good might mean the holds are small, sloping, and strenuous to use—but you probably mean the opposite. By saying “good,” you color reality with ill-considered wishes and intentions.
    Stick to the facts. A more objective description would be, “The holds look flat, four fingers wide, and about finger-pad deep.” Remember, precise wording and radical objectivity are important. You are involved in a two-fold search for information. Some of the information you’re seeking involves the rock. Just as important, you want to uncover what might be in your mind making you hesitant, inefficient, or unprepared.
    Analyzing the Challenge—Risk Assessment
    Analyze means to break down into parts. Taken as a whole, a climbing challenge can be overwhelming. Broken down, it becomes more manageable. When you actually launch into a climb, you’ll immerse yourself in the experience as a whole.