Ah, trad climbing. The ultimate, "real" climbing goal for some is to be able to lead it. To those of you (like my fam) who might not be too knowledgeable on what exactly "Trad" is, let me explain: Traditional (trad) climbing is where you bring your rope up with you, and set and clip into protection as you go along. There are different kinds of protection - cams, nuts, hexes, tricams, slings, your teeth, etc... You get the picture. The skill comes in choosing the right gear placement and the right gear to go in that placement. If you do a good job, it stays where you put it and holds you when you fall. If you didn't, you keep falling. The strength comes in holding on for a much longer time while you place your gear.
I don't lead trad.
I don't lead trad.
I do follow it though, and marvel and the nerve of the person who went first. I also read climbing magazines and marvel, drop-mouthed, and the stories of climbers in patagonia and other wild places who do this sort of thing over thousands of feet of dead air. When you think about it, if you fall trad climbing a few hundred feet off the ground your chances of kicking the bucket are just as high as if you were thousands of feet up. Somehow though, being closer to the ground makes me feel more confident. So does being hauled up on belay, which is why I follow :-P
Despite my extreme lack of badassness, I enjoy trad for the extra mental challenge. I like cleaning the gear, waiting at the belay anchor, and rapping off at the end of the climb. I like how I'm learning to manage ropes, and I like knowing that the only reason I'm having trouble with a move is because I'm scared, not because I physically can't handle it. My leader has been good to me that way thus far. It's one thing to pull plastic on a 5.7 in a gym, it's another to do it on an exposed face while trying to figure out how to get the cam out of the crack.
This summer I've been trad climbing twice (hopefully this weekend will make it three times). Both were at Seneca Rocks, a town at a intersection, in front of a giant fin of rock. You can see the north face from the pizza place. You can see the pizza place from the north face. My first climb was Conn's West (do the Direct route, the finish is bad), my second was the first two pitches of Skyline Traverse, and my latest was Le Gourmet. For some amazing pics I did not take - go here.
On every occasion I reached a moment where I thought I just couldn't do it any more. I was ill positioned, getting tired, scared of falling and hitting a ledge - but I cleared my mind and pulled through anyway.
Parents bring their kids to my climbing gym for that very reason - to help them learn to persevere and overcome. I may still be new at this climbing stuff, but I doubt the feeling of doing the impossible will ever get old. Maybe that's why we like this so much, working through a problem, applying skill, strength and science, and coming out victorious at the end.
Or it could be for the view.
