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Lead climbing question! :D
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AamClimber


Mar 23, 2011, 2:53 AM
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Lead climbing question! :D
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I've been lead climbing for 2 weeks now and I'm still not sure about one thing : How should I fall?
I've been lucky enough not to fall from a high point but what should I keep in mind in the event of a fall? TThanks :D

And I've been leading on artificial walls.


billl7


Mar 23, 2011, 4:00 AM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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The first thing starts before the fall - don't get the rope behind a leg/foot so it flips you upside down ka-whacking your noggin' against the wall.

The second is try to fall upright - it hurts to fall horizontally.

The third is don't grab the rope whether that be right near where it is attached to your harness or the one zipping up and away from you to your last pro/clip - ouch!

And don't grab a draw - friend got impaled in the wrist last summer; 9 stitches but otherwise not much of a lasting issue except to the psych. More generally - don't try to grab onto things.

And it doesn't hurt to yell "Falling! to warn your belayer although it should not be necessary.

I think the other things to keep in mind are for the belayer.

Cheers!
Bill


Nold


Mar 23, 2011, 6:22 PM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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Proper footwork is huge. Like he said, always make sure that if you were to fall, your rope won't be behind a leg/foot. In my opinion this is the most important thing.


djlachelt


Mar 23, 2011, 7:11 PM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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You are asking the right question, "How should I fall?". The comments about foot-work and avoiding the leg behind the rope, etc are definitely important... but you really want to think about HOW you fall (not just how to avoid falling badly).

Arno Ilgner (author of the Rock Warrior's Way) has a lot to say about this. There is a forum on this site specifically to discuss some of his theories/practices. http://www.rockclimbing.com/...gforum.cgi?forum=63;

Arno also has a web-site and blog. This discussion has many good points about falling: http://warriorsway.com/fear-of-falling/. It's focus is on the fear aspect... but in that he mentions some imporant things about HOW to fall... what to pay attention to WHILE you are falling.


I distinctly remember a good discussion he had on the Forum here at one point, but didn't find it in my brief perusal of that forum.

Here are some links to discussions in there that have some good thoughts about falling from him.

http://www.rockclimbing.com/...rum.cgi?post=1325620
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...rum.cgi?post=1444498
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...?post=665995;#665995


AamClimber


Mar 24, 2011, 12:27 PM
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Re: [djlachelt] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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Thanks for the responses! This knowledge makes me more comfortable while leading :D I can't wait to start lead climbing on real rocks :)


ianwatson


Mar 24, 2011, 1:52 PM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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bill nailed it, be extra carfull when you transition to real rock then you have to be very aware what is below you ( ledge, big flake, etc.) at all times and know if it is even safe to fall. Congrats on the new addiction to leading.


blueeyedclimber


Mar 24, 2011, 2:04 PM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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AamClimber wrote:
I've been lead climbing for 2 weeks now and I'm still not sure about one thing : How should I fall?
I've been lucky enough not to fall from a high point but what should I keep in mind in the event of a fall? TThanks :D

And I've been leading on artificial walls.

Aside from the normal Fear and Safety discussions, I started a thread with something else to think about.

http://www.rockclimbing.com/...orum_view_collapsed;

EnjoyCool

Josh


jacques


Mar 24, 2011, 2:16 PM
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Re: [AamClimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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AamClimber wrote:
I'm still not sure about one thing : How should I fall?
I've been lucky enough not to fall from a high point but what should I keep in mind in the event of a fall?And I've been leading on artificial walls.

In trad it is better to jump than to fall. The result is the same, but when you jump, you decide where you are going and can place your body in the right position.
In trad, you have to think before you do the move where you are going to fall. If you have the choice between a barn door and a flag, look what your body his going to hit. with a flag, you are going to fall on your back and with a barn door, you are going to fall on your feet. What is best...it is your decision when you lead. But always decide before where you are going to jump if you loose control. You are going to climb lower grade, but with more spice.


blueeyedclimber


Mar 24, 2011, 2:29 PM
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Re: [jacques] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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jacques wrote:
AamClimber wrote:
I'm still not sure about one thing : How should I fall?
I've been lucky enough not to fall from a high point but what should I keep in mind in the event of a fall?And I've been leading on artificial walls.

In trad it is better to jump than to fall. The result is the same, but when you jump, you decide where you are going and can place your body in the right position.
In trad, you have to think before you do the move where you are going to fall. If you have the choice between a barn door and a flag, look what your body his going to hit. with a flag, you are going to fall on your back and with a barn door, you are going to fall on your feet. What is best...it is your decision when you lead. But always decide before where you are going to jump if you loose control. You are going to climb lower grade, but with more spice.

This is not good advice, nor appropriate. He/she is a beginner and is most assuredly talking about gym falls and/or sport falls. Trad falls have nothing to do with anything right now.

Second, you don't "jump". The more force you put into falling, the more force it's going to bring you back into the wall.

I DO advise controlled, practice falls in the beginning. If that's what you mean by "jump", then yes, but not the correct word to use.

Josh


jacques


Mar 24, 2011, 9:56 PM
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Re: [blueeyedclimber] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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blueeyedclimber wrote:
This is not good advice, nor appropriate. He/she is a beginner and is most assuredly talking about gym falls and/or sport falls. Trad falls have nothing to do with anything right now.
Second, you don't "jump".
I was in a diedral, left wall. I took a hole in my right hand and slip. If I control my fall, I had bounce from one side to the other of the diedral with an 18 feet fall injury. I jump in the middle of the diedral and the rope stop my fall (stopper number 4, ouf)and bring me back safely to the rock (bungee effect) It was a safe fall, not an accident because I jump.
In reply to:
The more force you put into falling, the more force it's going to bring you back into the wall
When the belayer hold the rope too short, it is true that you can't jump because the rope bring you back to the wall. you can not avoid a ledge too. Inside, you don't have ledges, It is the reason why in trad the belayer keep slack in the rope.
I am often scare to be belay by sport climber. I can't climb at my level. If a beginer understand many way to save his .... , he is going to be a better climber. I emphasized that my observations are for trad climbing.


(This post was edited by jacques on Mar 24, 2011, 9:59 PM)


rockforlife


Mar 24, 2011, 10:50 PM
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Re: [jacques] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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jacques wrote:
blueeyedclimber wrote:
This is not good advice, nor appropriate. He/she is a beginner and is most assuredly talking about gym falls and/or sport falls. Trad falls have nothing to do with anything right now.
Second, you don't "jump".
I was in a diedral, left wall. I took a hole in my right hand and slip. If I control my fall, I had bounce from one side to the other of the diedral with an 18 feet fall injury. I jump in the middle of the diedral and the rope stop my fall (stopper number 4, ouf)and bring me back safely to the rock (bungee effect) It was a safe fall, not an accident because I jump.
In reply to:
The more force you put into falling, the more force it's going to bring you back into the wall
When the belayer hold the rope too short, it is true that you can't jump because the rope bring you back to the wall. you can not avoid a ledge too. Inside, you don't have ledges, It is the reason why in trad the belayer keep slack in the rope.
I am often scare to be belay by sport climber. I can't climb at my level. If a beginer understand many way to save his .... , he is going to be a better climber. I emphasized that my observations are for trad climbing.


yep just going to quote this


l3uddy789


Mar 29, 2011, 5:09 AM
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Re: [jacques] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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jacques wrote:
blueeyedclimber wrote:
This is not good advice, nor appropriate. He/she is a beginner and is most assuredly talking about gym falls and/or sport falls. Trad falls have nothing to do with anything right now.
Second, you don't "jump".
I was in a diedral, left wall. I took a hole in my right hand and slip. If I control my fall, I had bounce from one side to the other of the diedral with an 18 feet fall injury. I jump in the middle of the diedral and the rope stop my fall (stopper number 4, ouf)and bring me back safely to the rock (bungee effect) It was a safe fall, not an accident because I jump.
In reply to:
The more force you put into falling, the more force it's going to bring you back into the wall
When the belayer hold the rope too short, it is true that you can't jump because the rope bring you back to the wall. you can not avoid a ledge too. Inside, you don't have ledges, It is the reason why in trad the belayer keep slack in the rope.
I am often scare to be belay by sport climber. I can't climb at my level. If a beginer understand many way to save his .... , he is going to be a better climber. I emphasized that my observations are for trad climbing.

Jacques, I don't think Blueeyed was saying your advice is not very good advice for taking trad falls. They were just pointing out that it is not relevant for this thread. I think if a beginner were to try to not only think about how to climb but how to fall on every move it would fry their brain. Could just be me though because I'm not very smart Unsure.

To OP: A couple of people have mentioned the whole not getting your foot/leg caught in the rope, but nobody really told you how to easily avoid this. One rule I try to keep while climbing is never have my leg in-between the rope and the wall. By doing this you are ensured to never get your leg caught in the rope when you fall. There is one exception to this where you can place the rope on top of a leg, but it is difficult to describe on the internet and I would advise asking a more experienced climber at your gym to show you before trying to implement it. Leading is immensely fun and it's good to see your taking a smart approach to it. Have fun and climb hard.
Ian


jacques


Mar 30, 2011, 3:21 AM
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Re: [l3uddy789] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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l3uddy789 wrote:
Jacques, I don't think Blueeyed was saying your advice is not very good advice for taking trad falls. I think if a beginner were to try to not only think about how to climb but how to fall on every move it would fry their brain.
One rule I try to keep while climbing is never have my leg in-between the rope and the wall. Ian
He said: "This is not good advice". In trad, one bad advice is to gave rule. I can told you many exception at your rule, all more dangerous one than the other. The interesting part of trad is that you have to think at what happen and how you are going to do your move. When you take a decision, it is not always true that you are going to be able to do the move.

In sport, rules works, because safety are think to pay less insurance and to avoid legal pursuit.

In trad, gravity make no distinction between someone who learn how to fall before learning how to climb and someone who learn to climb before how to fall. Is it safer for a beginer who know how to fall to try a 5.10 than to a beginer who climb 5.10 to try a 5.8 with one rule and one exception on how to avoid to flip over with his rope?

In trad, I prefer someone who learn how to fall. He can fall number of time without injury and have fun to climb all his life, even 5.6, 5.7,...5.10. A climber who climb hard the first year (5.11) can fall one time in trad and never be able to take the sharp end of the rope after.

Beginer have to know that and still have fun to climb in a gym, but differently.


jt512


Mar 30, 2011, 4:27 AM
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Re: [jacques] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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jacques wrote:
l3uddy789 wrote:
Jacques, I don't think Blueeyed was saying your advice is not very good advice for taking trad falls. I think if a beginner were to try to not only think about how to climb but how to fall on every move it would fry their brain.
One rule I try to keep while climbing is never have my leg in-between the rope and the wall. Ian
He said: "This is not good advice". In trad, one bad advice is to gave rule. I can told you many exception at your rule, all more dangerous one than the other. The interesting part of trad is that you have to think at what happen and how you are going to do your move. When you take a decision, it is not always true that you are going to be able to do the move.

In sport, rules works, because safety are think to pay less insurance and to avoid legal pursuit.

In trad, gravity make no distinction between someone who learn how to fall before learning how to climb and someone who learn to climb before how to fall. Is it safer for a beginer who know how to fall to try a 5.10 than to a beginer who climb 5.10 to try a 5.8 with one rule and one exception on how to avoid to flip over with his rope?

In trad, I prefer someone who learn how to fall. He can fall number of time without injury and have fun to climb all his life, even 5.6, 5.7,...5.10. A climber who climb hard the first year (5.11) can fall one time in trad and never be able to take the sharp end of the rope after.

Beginer have to know that and still have fun to climb in a gym, but differently.

The following is your post after translating it back into French using Google Translate. Just out of curiosity, does it make any sense to you? If it does, then we know how where your English translation came from. If it doesn't, then please realize that that is basically how your post reads to us.

According to Google Tanslate, jacque wrote:
Il a dit: "Ce n'est pas un bon conseil". En trad, un mauvais conseil donné est de règle. Je peux vous ai dit de nombreuses exception à votre règle, tous plus dangereux que les autres. La partie intéressante de trad, c'est que vous devez penser à ce qui se passe et comment vous allez faire de votre déménagement. Lorsque vous prenez une décision, il n'est pas toujours vrai que vous allez être capable de faire le déménagement.

Dans le sport, les œuvres des règles, parce que la sécurité sont pense payer moins d'assurance et d'éviter des poursuites judiciaires.

En trad, la gravité ne font aucune distinction entre une personne qui apprennent à l'automne avant d'apprendre à monter et à quelqu'un qui apprennent à monter avant comment tomber. Est-il plus sûr pour une débutante qui savent l'automne pour essayer un 5,10 pour une débutante à qui grimpent 5.10 à essayer un 5,8 avec une règle et une exception sur la façon d'éviter de retourner avec sa corde?

En trad, je préfère quelqu'un qui apprennent à l'automne. Il peut tomber nombre de fois sans se blesser et avoir du plaisir à monter toute sa vie, même 5,6, 5,7, ... 5,10. Un grimpeur qui dure montée de la première année (5,11) peut tomber une fois dans trad et ne jamais être en mesure de prendre l'extrémité pointue de la corde après.

Débutant faut savoir que tout en vous amusant de monter dans un gymnase, mais différemment.

Jay


l3uddy789


Mar 30, 2011, 4:30 AM
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Re: [jt512] Lead climbing question! :D [In reply to]
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I agree with Jay, I was really confused trying to read your post. Also why is the conversation of trad still being talked about this question is specifically related to sport.


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