The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

When you’re preparing for a challenge, you can break it down into parts. There are three parts to the climbing situation: the route, the fall consequence, and the climber. First, there’s the route, the entire route or the section you’re facing, possible holds, and protection points. It’s important to identify what it is about the route that will challenge you. Second, there’s the fall consequence, the falls you could take from different points on the climb. Third, there’s the climber (you), the skills and abilities you bring to the climb, specifically those skills and abilities that will help you deal with the challenge of the route. In the Accepting Responsibility process, we focus on clarifying these elements of the climbing challenge. We’re interested in dispelling illusions and gathering all the useful facts. In the next chapter, Giving, we’ll focus on using this information efficiently.
    The First Part—the Route
    First, assess the route. Determine what it is about the route that will challenge you. Doing this will identify which skills and abilities are most important to assess in the third part of your assessment, the climber part. The details of how you analyze a section or route will vary with the kind of challenge you’ve chosen. If your goal is to on-sight a sport route, you will analyze as much of the route as you can see from the ground, gathering information you can use in your effort. You’ll look for key rest holds where you will have a chance to regroup, or sections that are possible cruxes. Once you begin, you may be pretty much on the run. One long assessment opportunity may be all you get. On a sparsely protected, multi-pitch traditional route, in contrast, where protection is a major issue, you will be able to see less of the climb before you begin and may climb more slowly and deliberately, and assess in sections. You might look up at the lead ahead and find the next island of safety where you are fairly confident you will find solid protection. You might back off if the route above proves too demanding or dangerous. Let’s examine the more complex trad-climbing example in more detail.
    You have climbed thirty feet from a belay ledge and you encounter a smooth wall. You can see a horizontal crack ten feet above where you are pretty sure you’ll be able to find large holds and place gear, but the wall leading there appears dauntingly blank.
    It’s not blank, however. The holds and features are simply more subtle. As you assess the rock features up to the crack, you see sharp horizontal edges, there and there, smaller holds, there and here, and possible sidepull holds, here and here. After a few minutes of such inspection your “blank” wall is covered in holds. None is larger than half-inch, and some are much smaller, but all are potentially usable. You’re not envisioning sequences at this point (although in practice, as you become more proficient, the Accepting Responsibility and Giving processes may blend somewhat). Your goal is simply to destroy the illusion that the wall above you is “blank.” By doing this you’ve made major inroads into the unknown, diminishing phantom fears.

    Be comfortable at your stance and assess the situation. Photo: Jeff Achey
    Next, assess the gear possibilities. You have a solid cam just below your feet, but you’d like to place a nice high piece right here. There is no placement, however, and the wall up to the horizontal looks crackless. No, halfway up is a thin seam that may take gear. There appear to be holds nearby that may be large enough to allow you to stop and place a piece. Gear placements include a very likely opportunity for a piece in ten feet, a questionable piece before that, and a solid cam below your feet.
    OK, you’ve assessed the route. In practice, you may spend more time doing this, perhaps climbing up and down to feel holds and check out possible body positions. For the sake of brevity, however, and to keep our focus on the essence of the Accepting Responsibility process, let’s move on to the rest of the assessment process.
    The Second Part—the Fall Consequence
    Second, assess the fall consequence. Your goal, again, is to see clearly what you’re facing and not be overwhelmed or deceived by the challenge. “If I fall here,” you say, “then I will go about eight feet onto that solid cam just below my feet. If I place my feet where my hands are now, then I’ll be able to see if I can place something in