The Trad Headspace

I firmly believe that my trad head is poor because I don't fall off.  I don't mean that in an "I'm so good I never fall off" kind of way, I mean that I never, or rarely, get into a position where I am likely to fall off on a trad route.  Now some might say that is a good thing but if you never take the falls, you'll never truly believe in the gear.  Or I won't anyway.  I can grasp when a placement is theoretically good but I have not taken a leader fall onto gear in such a long time that my instincts make me fear it.

My sport climbing onsight grade has far exceeded my trad grade. The suggestion that simply getting on more trad climbs building a base, though an important element, I don't think cuts it.  I believe that I could go out and (with the caveat of route choice) climb a whole season on E5s and possibly E6s without falling off once.

Considering the sport grade on most E5s; 6c-7a+ perhaps, I would be horrified if I fell off with bolts.  Unless it was some weird slab, or über-lichenous I could safely say I would onsight close to 99% at this level on bolts.  If my life depended on it, I could probably solo at that level without too much of a problem.  So getting on E5's with bad gear falls into the latter category, in my mind I'm soloing but I know I'll make it and those with good gear just feel like an easy sport route.  Within the E6 category, the story is obviously different but even at the upper end, I'd fancy my chances against a lot of sport 7c's.  With careful route choice the success odds are still upwards of 70 percent I reckon.  Dalraida is case in point, long, very steep, 7b climbing was home territory and so I never actually felt out my comfort zone. 

No, what I really need to do is actually fall off stuff!  Crazy as that might sound, I need to go for routes that will be hard for me, get out of my comfort zone and into positions where to cry "take" is not an option.  I'm not getting into death defying stuff here, there are loads of fall-offable hard E6's and E7's.  I need to take a few wingers onto gear that I know is good and put theory into practice.  Obviously if I were to get a few onsights in the process that would be a good thing!

Having had the frustrating day in Glen Nevis it was good to be able to get back on the horse straight away, with one of Scotland's true trad gurus too, Niall McNair.  We set off for Iron Crag in the Lakes, home to host of E6s, E7s and one of the UKs most deadly trad routes If 6 was 9, E9.  Niall had been trying to climb an E7 called Iron Man ground up and had fully embraced the falling off thing.

There was a lot of seepage and a few showers and when I went for an attempt on Western Union E6 which shared half of Niall's route the flash pump and the wet holds put me off.  I said "TAKE" again. I threw my helmet on the floor and had a tantrum about being a pussy.  After Niall's second attempt ended in another fall from the last move I felt like I really should have another go.  This time the confidence was there.  I climbed up beyond Niall's gear, through the wetness and into the independent top half.  It all went rather smoothly and was definitely comfortable stuff.  

Niall sent on his third attempt, adjusting the top sequence made it all look rather easy.  The seepage down Pheonix of Obsidian appeared to have regressed enough to climb it.  Despite nearly saying take on the first hard section I fought the urge and climbed up into the roof.  From here the crux traverse left was wet.  I had a nut and a cam and it was a long way to the last piece.  They had to hold if the wetness beat me.  After an attempt at the traverse, and frustrated by the wetness I shouted for beta from Niall.  With confidence that there was something good coming up I went for it and succeeded on my second (guidebook) E7 of the week.  Niall won't give me the E7 tick, but I felt like I had had much more of the E7 experience than on Dalriada.  I'd be interested to hear the grade consensus from the experienced trad heads out there.

So no falls yet.  Looks like I will have to return to Iron Crag for Iron Man, which looks to have much greater potential for a big ride!