The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

completely capable of moving up. If we see fifty feet of effort, however, we’re demoralized and can’t summon the will to move up that same ten feet. That ten feet of climbing is the same in the second situation, but we are different. Our attention has moved out of the challenge and into the future. If we could remain focused on climbing—the journey—then we wouldn’t sabotage our effort with anxiety about the distance to a destination. Often, that ten feet of effort will lead to new knowledge that we won’t discover if we give in to discomfort.
    Discomfort is one stimulus for destination thinking, and chaos is another. We are socialized to avoid chaos. Schools condition us to work in a highly structured environment and break down learning into tasks to be performed in an organized way, one by one. The ability to organize is an important skill, but sometimes an experience can’t be organized and broken down. Committing to a crux section of unknown rock is an example. We must take it as a whole and deal with it.
    How often have you said, “Once I get this problem figured out, then I can really get down to business?” Here, you’re postponing what you want to accomplish until you can create a serene, ideal environment. Typically, that perfection never materializes. The chaos continues, and it paralyzes you. Why not simply get down to business, chaos or not?
    In a risk situation in climbing, you constantly enter the unknown. So much new information comes in that it’s impossible to complete one task before beginning another. Most of us don’t have skills to deal well with such chaos. When our normal, step-by-step mode doesn’t work, we tend to panic or rebel. When we encounter chaos, we try to get rid of it rather than go with it. The warrior knows that’s not possible, and seeks to find internal harmony in the midst of chaos.
    Purposely seeking out risks allows us to practice dealing with chaos, but often our reaction is to mentally “leave the scene.” We passively wish for the chaos to simplify and resolve itself. In fact, when we stay relaxed and stop wishing and hoping behavior, we maximize our effectiveness to function amid chaos. The key is to accept the chaotic nature of the experience and give it our full attention. We accomplish this acceptance with a journey mindset.
    The destination mindset is also responsible for “failure” and “success” anxieties. Success and failure are in quotation marks here because a warrior doesn’t use these terms. He doesn’t see the result of his effort as success or failure. Making it up a climb may be his provisional goal, but the higher goal is learning. The warrior does not know what end result will yield more learning.
    Perhaps, you dread “failing” on climbs, specifically the repeated “failure” when redpointing at your limit. You desperately want to avoid the anger you feel when you fall, the guilt you feel for your lack of commitment or training, or regrets you harbor about eating too much the night before. These feelings drain the joy from your efforts. You reach the point where all you want is to finish the climb so you can stop those feelings of failure.
    Alternately, you may experience success anxiety. This mindset isn’t negative like failure anxiety, but it still distracts precious attention away from the moment. When you get past a crux and “success” is in sight, you become protective of your effort up to that point, as if somehow it could be lost. You become detached from the process and attached to the reward you expect if you finish the whole climb. “Don’t blow it,” you say to yourself.
    At this point, you’re no longer interested in the act of climbing; you just want to have climbed the route. You get to the crux, or past the crux, and anxiety sets in, a fear of losing the success you’ve imagined is nearly yours. Obviously your attention is not working to your advantage here. You are focused negatively on not losing an ascent you have not yet even finished.

    It’s a long ride, so enjoy it. Savoring every foot of Rock Lobster , Indian Creek, Utah. Photo: Jeff Achey
    In both success and failure anxiety, you lose focus. By over-valuing the outcome and under-valuing the process, you focus on the destination. Once you do this, climbing is pointless. You close yourself off to the present moment and you do not learn. You simply want your body to catch up with your mind, which is already in the comfort zone at the top of