How to climb trad #3: Resilience 

I could really get behind more on location "Storytime with Dave" episodes!

"You really don't want your first experience free soloing to happen by accident" so true lol

Most “how to trad” videos feature someone proclaiming their virtuosity in the use of climbing paraphernalia. It is refreshing to see lessons about actual climbing that assume the student trad climber is capable with protection and is ready to dive into the unknown. Trad climbing at its most basic is a ground up on-sight ascent and you have to expect the unexpected.

Dave. I was bloody gripped by that account. I had a similar situation which i can share although I was sport climbing. We were visiting a sport climbing venue in the southern french Alpes for the first time and attempting an on sight of a multi pitch graded F6a. My partner climbed the first 30m pitch with no issues. I started up the second pitch which immediately moved around a blind corner. I was confronted by hard climbing and should have backed off but i muscled through onto a ledge. I was now in a position where i could not see or communicate with my partner nor could i down climb, i was about 10m above my last gear which was a single bolt before my belayer on a hanging stance, one pitch up the face. I could not find my next bolt or see any above me. After some minutes of looking i visually located a bolt about 10m to my right. The terrain between me and the bolt was unclimbable. So i could not down climb nor could i climb to the bolt and i knew i was off line so had no way of knowing what the difficulty would be above me. Essentially i was on sight free soloing high on a mountain crag. I was very scared for a moment but quickly realised that only by staying cool would i get out of this. It was clear i had only one option which was to attempt to climb up to a safer position. I knew if i fell i would likely rip both myself and my partner off the wall. In the end i was able to climb about 5 more meters where i rejoined the original route and was able to clip a bolt and continue safely. So even though i was sport climbing i still found myself in a serious no fall, free solo, situation where I coped by drawing on my experience and simply staying cool. Dave i think this runs deeper and has implications outside of climbing. I loved your analogy to driving around bends. Every time we get in a car we put ourselves into massive risk situations without giving it any thought. Self imposed exposure to risk and danger in small, manageable increments is the absolute best way to be safe and confident in any situation in life.

Excellent episode. I really like the analogy of driving around a curve.

Thanks for another great video Dave! As a beginning-intermediate trad climber, these videos are super helpful. It's so easy to get hyperfocused on gear placements and lose sight of your primary safety system, being your ability to not fall. Thanks for all your work on this series!

The no fall zone can also happen on sports climbing outdoor routes. A missing bolt or a long enough stretch of easy climb after a protected crux that could mean ground fall. I totally agree with the idea of getting familiar with the situation if you are going to lead climb.

"That sort of situation, a key moment, an epic, surprise, otherwise known as adventure." ... made me laugh, and it is so true :-D

I had quite similar happen to myself, climbing supercruise at st loy incornwall (VS). my last bit of gear was 8-10 metres below me and I couldnt find any gear placements and started to panic, as the ground was barely 20 metres below. I finally decided to move on and overcame my panic, and found some gear placements a few metres up. a scary but exhillarating experience, and it has made me a better climber since.

Excellent discussion! As a pastor & climber, this talk is so useful for not just climbing, but life in general. Life is full of unexpected, unplanned, and unpleasant "adventures," and having the resilience to get through it makes so much of a difference. I meet so many people struggling in the moment because they don't even realize the resources they have inside themselves! The more you safely risk in everyday life, the more you can navigate the challenges that come your way. Thank you, Dave.

Excellent!... Glad I stumbled across this before the weekend. Will be seconding a couple of routes which are a big step up for me. Although I won't be leading, much of the advice here is very useful nonetheless.

Always excited when a new video comes out Dave. Thanks for putting in the time and effort!

Such an interesting and insightful video. Others have mentioned the wisdom that shines through in your discussions and that's a big part of it. Also you clearly think deeply about all of this and the systemic issues you raise around risk are spot on I think. Whilst it's a real cliche, growing up in the late 50's and 60's, I spent hours out of sight of my parents climbing trees. exploring the countryside and becoming self-reliant albeit in a privileged upbringing. My introduction to climbing from the age of 14 at school was not dissimilar to what you describe for yourself but without climbing walls back then. A steady introduction through the grades, with lots of mileage to build experience and skills before the leading at that grade and alongside that seconding higher grades and so on. I've not thought explicitly about soloing by accident whilst leading but one does it as part of leading trad and I now realise that subconsciously that set me up to enjoy soloing a lot at one time. Keep up the brilliant videos, we learn so much from them.

Great episode with loads of insights!

RU-vid is full of climbing knowledge, but your channel has a lot of wisdom. I’m a beginner, bouldering at Dumbarton. Your videos have been really helpful and inspiring at the same time. Thanks...Sam✌️

I love these videos. So helpful, thanks Dave!

I think this was a great followup to the last video. I was a little perplexed by the previous video (is he really advocating soloing to beginners?), this one helped clear things up!

Thank you for the thoughts. They're thought provoking. I appreciate you!

Dave you're such an inspiration. I really like listening to your how-to videos, your advises and experiences; also reading your books, and learning from them. But listening to these kind of stories, and seeing how you get from them a learning advise is amazing. Thanks for all man.

Dave, I've been climbing since 1970, from the age of 8 years. It has always been in my blood, so to speak. I developed through a LONG apprenticeship over the years, through both self-directed experiences and mentored, to finally (maybe not finally) progressing as an Instructor here in the UK to MIA trg level. To Winter ML level. I was never great at climbing, although it was my main interest - I actually turned out to be a better more natural Canoeist in the end... What I wanted to say though is that I think Confidence, Resilience etc are super important, but more important is to build these over time (the apprenticeship). Times haven't changed over the decades - folk still make a big jump from grade to grade to grade too quickly in some manner. Climbing is a lifelong experience, treat the progression and learning of it as a lifelong experience also. After a quite long layoff and at the age of 60, I am beginning to get back into the hills both summer and winter. Using skills and knowledge to 'solo' explore easy ridges and gullies under snow again. Kudos to you and your philosophy. atb from Knoydart.

What an excellent video. Ive never heard such succinct, insightful and advice. Appreciated Dave.

Wow, great thought provoking episode Dave! Amazing to listen to such a pro

Invaluable information! Thank you for the insights.

Been a huge fan of your work for a years. I have always appreciated your careful understated style, and broad base of experience. Characteristics which make you the perfect person to begin a project like this. Forwhatever it's worth this video was what motivated me to join patreon.

Great insights and direction. I really like the series. Looking forward to more. Climb on!

Another great video - love the stories and camera work! Beautiful countryside and I appreciate the detail in your videos! In sport and life, getting in over your head, followed by panic usually ends up badly. So learning to analyze situations, prepare, and operate in that uncomfortable zone is vital, and something you carry with you into other aspects of sport/life.

Brings back fond memories. Well done.

Such a great discussion

I think the important caveat, here, is that whilst you do need to be able to calm yourself and assess the options, continuing upward is not always the best option. Arguably, they should have downclimbed when they realised how filthy the route was... It's not always "tactical" to continue upward; it's sometimes hard to assess clearly what is the most tactical option. Doing your best to avoid ending up in a situation where you are soloing because your gear is so far away is usually the better option. I don't disagree with the point being made here, but feel a lot of people will misinterpret this as "you just need to be able to calm down and climb on when things get tough", which is not really a great way to continue trad climbing with your legs and spine intact...

Great content! Thanks Dave

I loving these videos! Keep’em coming please 😄

Your content, given your depth of knowledge and clear style of communication, is brilliant, Dave. Thank you for sharing.

Wow this opened my eyes so much! Thank you for making this video!

Brilliant video! Thank you

Great vid, deserving of a comment! I am a beginner and I'm nearly 50. Not a great combination but I still love it. For me climbing is a mixture of technique, strength and mental resilience. Great to see a video that talks about the last of these. I find it the hardest of the three. That feeling when you get to a point where you feel a bit exposed. The adrenaline kicks in, the arms start shaking, the breath, the heart. Your advice to focus in on those safe points, take your time, approach each move in a controlled manner is golden. Thanks Dave.

Great insight and measured advice here Dave! With a lot of people learning and climbing in the gym for a long time before heading outside these kind of ideas are very foreign to that demographic, so it's great to have this advice for those climbers to think about when moving into trad climbing.

somehow one of the funniest videos I've seen with dave, yet so poignant.. casual and calm

So good I had to watch it twice. This should be mandatory watching for any aspiring new trad climbers. Thanks Dave!

Amazing, thanks Dave

Such good content. These videos are fantastic.

Your approach really speaks to me. As I want to become a complete mountain climber, I find it really useful that you teach us about how to become one. I came from a sport climbing background, but I was doing a lot of mountain hiking, especially in winter in the High Tatras, then I stepped into trad climbing and easy summer mountaineering. Your videos really help me to find my path further into the mountains!

A very good description of what spreads experienced and outdoor climbers from gym climbers

Thanks Dave great video as usual

Hi Dave, I’m currently consolidating for my CWI and going through the pre requisites for my RCI training. This content has been really useful and would love to see further episodes to this series. Thanks for the great content.

Love these videos, thanks for your time and effort! I believe that honing this mindset enhances safety even in situations with acceptable protection! A softer version of this training that I have enjoyed is skipping bolts on sport routes to practice coping with what feels like no-fall situations, creating PG-13/R sections but avoiding the X factor.

There are so many RU-vid videos on how to climb full of information but maybe none of them are full of wisdom like this. I've trad climbed (at no fantastic grade) for nearly 30 year but still learning stuff about mental training/conditioning from this. Thanks Mr MacLeod, another excellent video

quite good episode this time. thanks dave

Great, as always. Thanks.

Wow thanks for the explanation and the story. I'm sure the climber is pretty grateful for you saving their life!

The most useful and insightful climbing video I've ever watched. Very well explained Dave. I wish this concept had been conveyed to me when I started trad leading. Rather than being afraid and completely avoiding no-fall-zones I would have learned to see it as just another skill to master. (I too was not completely clear on the last video, makes perfect sense now)

Brilliant advice, as trad climbing is a risky pastime, but also a very rewarding one. A sensible approach to help calm the mind

I have been reintroducing myself to climbing and your episode are really helping get back into the correct mindset. I would love to see more episodes of "How to Climb Trad."

Really thought provoking and as usual very wise. Thank you. I've not been climbing trad long and at first thought, there's no bloody way i'd solo anything! Then i realised i have already been in exactly the sort of situation you describe in the video, although less serious and just gave myself a talking to and sorted myself. You suggest bouldering won't develop this resilience but, as a novice, there are plenty of times bouldering outdoors on higher problems that i feel i've reached 'no fall' and i think this has helped me, as well as scrambling as you suggest. These three videos are so valuable, thank you Dave (and for all your other work inc books)

Appreciate your content good sir.

My most memorable climbing ‘adventure’ moment was while rapping off of the Kain Route in the Bugaboos - second rap was quite diagonal, and the end of the rope just would not pull through the rings. We really needed our rope, so I sized up the climbing I’d have to do, which was an exposed traverse (couple thousand feet up a sheer face) decided I knew I could do it and pulled the trigger. Felt amazing! Certainly glad for my previous free soloing experiences.

That's some really excellent advice in my opinion, and it can be usefull for every climbing related activity, wether sport, bouldering, ice climbing, mountaineering, etc... I've just recently identified that fear of falling was my number 1 obstacle, and also that the resilience to it is something you can train or untrain. One of the big takeaways in these videos about trad for me is that it is absolutely natural to feel uncomfortable or anxious in certain situations at all levels, and that there are many tools to deal with it, vs a lot of climbers who tell you that you are either scared and should top rope or you are not.

I don't climb but greatly admire all that do. I enjoy your risk analysis/experiential learning lessons which I use to help manage my vertigo on hill climbs/basic scrambles (less extreme but same principles).

I'm so glad I started trad climbing before watching this video. I would have been scared too shitless! Trad can be really comfortable if you climb well within your limit.

Dude love this. Totally dig the be comfortable in no fall zone mentality. I just lead my first 5.4 trad. Which i know is a common free solo route for folks. Felt like i could downclimb the whole time too but obvi preferred to complete the climb and then we rappeled from the top.

Great points and argument made Dave. Keep em' coming...yes trad and sport leaders are free soloing in no fall zones.....more often than one cares to admit. I have missed a clip on a pretty exposed route allready....clipped the tail of my figure 8 in the draw trad lead climbing ,made the committing moves only to have my partner tell me i am not protected.....the last piece was 3 or 4 meters down on a 100 year old piton...lesson learned ashamedly. Over 100m or more exposure below me...regards fm Cape Town

1000th like yeeew. Haha. thanks for sharing this story, loving these trad videos, keep it up mate! Also that location looks amazing 😍

One of the best videos I’ve ever seen on RU-vid. Should be required viewing for any new climber.

Love this. Will be front of mind next time I kick out a runner

I really enjoyed this episode. I've been climbing trad in California for about 8 years now. And I realize how lucky I've been that nearly all the routes I get on are amazing continuous cracks that just eat gear. There have been very few times where I was truly in danger. It was a very slow process for me to get comfortable being way above my gear (20+ feet) and I think taking the approach mentioned in this video would have helped to accelerate that feeling to help me progress much faster. Thanks for the insight Dave!

The 3 dislikes are Karens asking for the manager of Glen Nevis

I would name the video "Resilience: Do I Really Have to Free Solo?" Great vid, unexpected idea, concrete, with a vivid story!

I'll admit, I was one of those "no free soling for me" kind of a climbers. Watching the video, as well as reading the comments, it's clear that as we progress as climbers from indoor lead to outdoor lead and in the future, trad. Climbing in no-fall zones is relatively common in outdoor lead (?) and almost inevitable in harder trad? To me, it just further highlights why a climb apprenticeship is key and solidifies my decision to move to an area in the UK famous for climbing to be surrounded by those far more experienced.

Would love to see a part 4!!

After watching the previous vid & this one, this makes lots of sense to me. Actually I've been somewhat into that process myself - on easy for me trad routes, I've started to really space out my gear more. I personally try to avoid as much as I can having just 1 piece between me & the ground, although in those climbs it happens often, even higher up. There are clearly times in those climbs where I do not want to fall at all. I've noticed it's made me much more able to commit to hard moves above gear, even small pieces, which was my initial purpose. It's also made me more comfortable placing my 1st piece of gear fairly high up (if the pitch starts on the ground).

Awesome story!

Excellent account Dave.

Hey Dave! Ive been climbing for two and a half years now, and yesterday i just climbed my first e1! It wasn a clean ascent still, or even a really hard line but we managed to finish the route and we're really psyched, it was so scary and there were couple of times that we were thinking about your series, and how you would recommend to approach the situation, really helped us out! Anyway, i know its cheesy to tell you about it here, but it might as well encourage other begginers to go out there. Big shoutout from São Paulo, huge fan here :)

Excellent!!!

I really like Dave, & his videos! Credit to him because these videos are for our benefit & he does this because he's a nice bloke. He is absolutely right in that this is very interesting (soloing for begginers in trad). I'm not going to say I'd disagree, let's just say instead that I've taken his point on board & actually I'm wondering if my lack of soloing has created a barrier in my progress, but whilst I'm continuing to ponder that (I have been since watching this yesterday)... I'll just say, for me there isn't one way that suits all to get into trad. By far the best way is to climb with a very experienced person who is good at advising you, judging your ability & choosing the right locations & routes for you when you both believe you are ready for the next step. You may think "where am I going to find a person like that?" - try the walls on wet week days or your local club. Then, pitched scrambles whilst practising gear placements is an option, or you can even do routes where your partner has placed enough reliable gear (then place your own between)... There are so many different ways because there are so many abilities, backgrounds, confidences. Regularly you find that people who start off by soloing recommend soloing & if you're coming into climbing in a "self taught" kind of way then the ability to down climb & the no fall rules are unquestionably the most simple methods of keeping yourself safe but when it comes to getting into trad there are alternative less daunting & personally taylored ways for the less confident individual.

That story made me really emotional!

So first, you have a great voice and I appreciate the clear mic. Second, you really made me think on this one. I've generally been against any kind of free soloing, thinking it's selfish and foolish, but you brought up some interesting points. You made the point of being prepared in the event of a catastrophe and soloing at a level you can handle. Both of these are goods points and it's a skill worth having were it to be needed. The second point I've thought of myself, which is the driving analogy. We are used to the degree of risk in driving but not in free soloing. That being said, I think there is a breakdown in logic in the driving analogy. In driving, I agree there is substantial risk and it's a risk we are all used to, however, the risk is well prepared for (we drive all the time) and reasonable (the risk is measured with guard rails, air bags, etc.). In free soloing ( for instance the free solo you did) it was well prepared for (you are good at what you do) but in my opinion, unreasonable (the risk is too high). Perhaps this gets at the larger conversation of risk taking in general, but there is an argument to be made that anyone can inevitably push the envelope until they die (John Bachar to Alex Honnold). The question is not if there is risk, but how much is reasonable. For me, as a father of two, sending a route isn't worth the solo, but I do still climb. Thanks for the video!

This is excellent 👍.

That's pretty fascinating story.

Very interesting video. Thanks for reinforcing my decision to focus on bouldering (on lowballs!) :P Seriously though, this video and what it gives the viewer in understanding of trad and climbing is something everybody should watch...! If everyone had done so Im confident we would have so much less incidents! Thanks for scaring me :D

Once again, another brilliant video from you. I can't help but wonder what happened to the idea of taking a slower and more efficient not only on Trad but also on Sport. Nowadays you see people just gunning for the higher grades and keep forgetting the basics, be it technic, ethics in climbing, so on so on. I feel kind of priveliged to have had the chance to learn my way around climbing like this, just going slowly and taking in every aspect to be learned

Climbing is just plain dangerous. Many folks from the gym generation doesn't seem to grasp that as well as they should. Learning to deal with the danger is everything. Great points all around. And a gripping story.

thank you

Brilliant video, that account got the heart rate going.

This was a great video Dave ! I couldn't help but notice how applicable this was to life in general. Things will go wrong but if you condition yourself to such situations over time you can take much better decisions.

great video

Good video! Hard trad leads will often have "easy" sections that will have no protection. You must be comfortable getting through these sections stress free.

Dave, I wish I could hire you as my shrink. Incredible content. Respect

Great! Something I know that had been interfered with by time and other perspectives.

Brilliant.. and fundamentally what I also teach/coach with novice climbers keen to learn to lead trad. Its not unusual for some people to, when confronted with this reality, decide that lead climbing is not actually for them. That doesnt mean they cant continue to enjoy climbing in other ways.. but for me, 'success' in trad climbing is hard won and the process perhaps doesnt align well with todays culture of risk avoidance.

Just coming back to this video series as I'm starting to learn a little bit about placements, planning to participate in my club's trips to the local multi-pitch trad venue, and participating in the club's mountaineering school. When I first watched these, I was curious but never planned to trad climb in my life, and didn't even have much experience climbing outdoors outside of lowball bouldering -- I thought with my climbing habits it was unlikely I'd ever end up in a situation unexpectedly free soloing outside of an exposed scramble when out hiking. Eventually my climbing habits changed as I started to climb taller boulders and got into sport climbing, but still I didn't really think it would ever be the case that I might unexpectedly free solo as described in the video. Well one day I saw a lovely 5.9 with a boulder-y start to the second bolt, and what looked like a little hand traverse in a horizontal out to the third bolt, and then traverse back to climb a hand crack. I decided to jump onto it and figured out my way to the second bolt. Once up there, I realized that what I thought was the third bolt was for an entirely different route and could not be easily reached; this wasn't a sport climb, it was a mixed route. I thought through my options. I could try downclimbing through the boulder problem but I thought I hadn't thought of reversing the moves as I was doing them and wasn't confident I could do it. I could try to traverse to the bolt on the other route and bail. Or I could simply continue straight up to the 5.5 hand crack and run out the 6 or 7 meters to the anchor. I was very certain I could climb what was above me more easily than the other two. All the options had some possibility of a ground fall with potential for injury, and even though the fall from above would be much more serious, looking at the terrain I knew I wouldn't fall whereas I was less confident about the other options. These videos have been terrific to revisit, especially now that I have experienced for myself these situations will happen to anyone who climbs long enough. If I was more prepared and had proper knowledge of the route (and its neighbors!) or had thought about downclimbing each move, I would've perhaps felt like I had even more options for escaping my situation, exactly as Dave advises in these videos.

Another fantastic video, thank you so much for these. Do you think there are some people who just aren’t cut out for trad/lead climbing and the more risky elements of mountaineering? Would be interested in your take on nature v nurture in this regard.

I'm only a scrambler up to Mod and come across this scenario very often. For me, the main thing I have to learn is properly start checking my route before I start up it - I have a habit of rushing up scrambles without any thought and can often find myself compromised.

Great wee story...those pol dubh slabs are awesome...can really fool you...spent a great many hours on them.

"You really don't want your first experience free soloing to happen by accident". That is so true. It happened to me recently doing sport climbing on the hardest grade I had attempted to date. Although for a really brief period of time, I was unprotected with a potential ground fall. I was clipping into a 3rd bolt, and at that time the 2nd quickdraw popped out of the wall. Then I was around 8m above the last quickdraw. Totally my fault, and a bit of a belayer fault as well. I pulled on a rope too quickly, and she did not give me enough rope before I clipped in, so that quickdraw somehow "jumped" on a bolt and popped out. Lessons learned: as a climber, never clip in frenetically; as a belayer, always give rope smoothly.

Nice!

i didnt bother to agree with your thesis on climbing without gear in the first video, which is obviously correct. actually, i really like that you are encouraging people to learn this skill methodically. i learned to climb without gear unintentionally, in pursuit of crag and mountain objectives, and it was, at times, perfectly horrifying, a true crucible. moments of either make good decisions and live, or dont and dont. i love the idea of mastering this process methodically. well done

Scrolling through the comments I noticed that so many people have met this situation of unwillingly soloing especially in sport climbing. And I too remember that when I got into lead climbing I was terrified quite often. Just because I wasn’t used to climbing above protection. I regularly thought I missed the route, just because my nervousness gave me the impression that the route I was doing was above my grade. So quite often I climbed some 1-2m up and down again and again just to have the comfort of my protection gear to rest until finally I found courage to just do this one move that scared me. By doing so I did much harder moves than the route required but that I learned way later. I think the essence of climbing for me is to build resilience and trust in one’s own strengths and abilities and to constantly challenge the own fears just to get this unbelievable feeling of confidence when I overcome them.

that free solo at the end was just showing off jajajaja

Such a good video an explanation! I wanted to comment just to help the youtube algorithm :)

Hi Dave. Thank you for this wonderful video. What is your advice on being able to differentiate confidence from hubris?