Gumbys first lead

Yeeeehah. Yesterday I snuck away from work and had my first 3 lead climbs. All were single pitch and easy, although the climbs seemed much harder than the grade (I guess I better get used to what grades really mean, as opposed to perceiving grades with a top rope state of mind).

My regular climbing partners are all beginners like me. After several aborted attempts to link up with a mentor, including one day where we got washed out and spent almost a whole day in the climbing gym, I was getting desperate.

Then last weekend one of my climbing friends decked out from about 8 metres and made the evening news being evacuated by helicopter. Fortunately, he had relatively minor injuries.

Needless to say, this reminder of the dangers did not inspire my confidence nor encourage family support for my climbing. Like Dingus, I am struggling with the guilt aspects of the impact on my family of climbing risks (see DMT’s recent TR for an excellent summary of that quandry).

It was a perfect day at the crag – sunny but cool. By the middle of the afternoon we had the place to ourselves. My climbing partner/mentor is from England and he practically shat himself when he heard loud deep growling coming from the scrub nearby. It sounded like a tiger had escaped from the zoo. Turned out it was only a cuddly Koala bear. For such a small animal, they have a very deep and powerful growl.

The first climb I seconded before leading. The theory was that by following I would get a good idea of what to place where. In practice, it really didn’t help. Apart from the first piece, I couldn’t remember accurately what went where. So the next two climbs I did “on sight”. Feels good to be able to say that, even if they were such easy grades.

I wasn't sure whether I would have the bottle for leading (especially after my friend’s fall), but I found the nerves were OK. I did have trouble a few times where I only had a stance for one foot and took a long time to find a placement - the old sewing machine leg started to fire up. Surprisingly, I was less worried about being above my protection than I get on the lead wall in the gym.

I had a lot of trouble selecting the right piece. Sometimes I was not even remotely close (picking something half or double the size of the crack. Looks like it will be a long learning curve for me to get used to picking the right piece for the circumstances.

<CAUTION - INFO FROM A GUMBY FOLLOWS>

I only started gym climbing about a year ago and climbing outdoors last November. Basically I decided I wanted to try trad very early on.

I read a lot of the threads on leading and getting a good lead head in the Deja archives and that really helped me decide what would work for me.

First, I decided to develop some basic skills including a gumby standard of reading the rock and route finding, flexibility, grip strength and stamina on top rope/seconding before attempting to lead;

Second, I decided to get on the pointy end reasonably quickly. I am sure lots of younger, braver etc climbers got on lead faster than me, but that’s not important;

Third, I decided not to delay the process by “faking it” (eg. “leading” on top rope or clipping pre-placed gear. I did second some climbs which helped give me a limited feel for where and how gear goes in.

Fourth and most importantly, I decided to get a very experienced and safe climber to act as my mentor.

Welcome to the sharp end dude, and congrats!

Daniel

Delta Echo Climbing
www.climbing.bigstep,com

Before you buy.

Hey Total... Way to go getting your first leads in (basically, let's go fer it). Sounds like you've got plenty of bottle (that's a term I haven't heard) to me.

You mentioined...

I have struggled with that problem myself. It infuriates me when I sometimes fumble with medium nuts before I get the right size. The person who I started with never fumbles for the correct size. He looks at the placement, grabs the right piece from his never-organized rack, and in it goes. (he can also tell you the correct wrench size by just looking at the nut, but he also can't tell you where his car keys are...go figger) I've developed a 2-phase 'cheating' strategy particularly for medium nuts. I put about 5-10 nuts on an oval 'biner, then I put the whole thing up next to the placement and try to select the best one. If the one I separate out doesn't fit that placement well enough, I look for another placement for that same piece. Oftentimes, a good or better placement can be found nearby. The infuriation comes from selecting a piece that's bunk no matter where I try to place it. Repeat steps one and two.

You don't sound like a gumby to me. Have fun

Dave Knorr

I'm not to far behind you with leading but I've found a couple things helpful in selecting gear sizes. The first thing I did was make sure I double or triple racked my cams (in other words put 2 or 3 cams per racking biner... unless they are pretty big). I also make sure I do this with hexes, tri-cams, nuts, etc. This allows me to make some fine adjustments in size selection without having to go back to the whole rack. The second thing that's helped immensely is getting an idea of what gear fits relative to something easy I can measure with... for me, my hand works pretty good. I've taken all my pieces and compared them to finger size, palm size, fist size, etc. I did this sitting in my house watching TV.

I still go with one cam per biner. It's rare to miss more than once when trying cam placements.

That's a start. You should use your fingertips, knuckles, hands, fists, etc., as measuring devices.

Here's a better way: go to a crag that has a variety of crack sizes along the base. Stick your finger, hand, etc., into a crack, then find which nut or cam fits it best. Try each type of passive gear you have in each range and each type of cam. Be patient. Take aiders along and bounce test the best fits. Then try a different crack. I typically can pick a cam more quickly than a nut except for certain specific sizes, like #4 Rock, etc.

The more often you lead, the easier it is to quickly guess which is the right piece. As long as you're not pumped and dicing, it's better to take the time to get a good placement rather than rushing through and accepting a poor placement. You want to have as much faith as possible in each piece, so you can then focus on the moves ahead, rather than whether your last piece will hold a fall.

Mad 'bomber nut placements rule' Dog

Before you buy.

Actually, as the mad one well knows, it's often precisely when you're pumped and dicing that you need to take the time to get a good placement. So, basically, always take the time, even if it means falling or hanging on the piece.

-steven-

I don't think it's quite that simple. It depends on how clean the fall is and how bad you want the onsight or redpoint. If I know the previous piece or two is/are bomber and the fall is clean, I may be willing to either run past a potential placement or accept a mediocre-looking placement. I've had enough falls caught by 2-cam placements and nuts with lousy looking contact that I am sometimes willing to move on quickly rather than accepting the additional pump. My point above, however, was meant to communicate that when the pump clock is NOT ticking, you certainly DO want to take the time to slot the best piece you can. Obviously, I'd always want to place bomber gear but I am sometimes willing to roll the dice, being the goal-oriented, obsessive/compulsive, tick-listing wanna-be that I am.

Mad 'once fell on a 5.6 but at least the gear was at my waist and bomber'