Ive hit a wall

[geoff]

Personally I think this is really bad advice, this fear is nonsense, if you give in to it you will never move forward.

 

You need to educate yourself to the facts that you are safe, your rope cannot let you fall, its not possible.

 

Being in a rope and harness is not dangerous, its scary yes but thats all in your head.

 

Be proud, don't give in to the fear, keep telling yourself that its just your mind trying to fool you that your in danger, because your not. You need to be master of your mind, not the other way round, don't be a slave to your fears.

 

 

Before long you'll be loving it, the higher the better:thumbup1:

 

Whilst I understand your sentiment Huck,I believe an inexperienced climber,on 'hitting a wall',could well do with building confidence in himself & his kit in a relaxed way,with the intention of overcoming the challenge,is that such bad advice?

[Pedroski]

Strictly speaking that's not true. Just because you have a rope and harness on doesn't mean 'you will never fall'. People do fall and it is dangerous. A long swing can break your neck, a seemingly sound branch which you choose to anchor onto could have serious rot which isn't evident from below. There are any number of things which can go badly wrong, it pays to be cautious, at least when starting out.

 

When you've been doing it longer, you just accept there are risks and you just have to get on with it because that's the job!

 

Saying bluntly - you will never fall, it is impossible - is a bit daft.

 

Agree. Accidents have happened in rock climbing through people clipping into the wrong line, or anchor points giving way, or not securing themselves properly, passing anchor points the wrong way, climbing too far above anchor points, having too much slack in the line, rapping off the end of a rope..... the list goes on. So while the equipment is massively strong enough, it's all useless if it's not used properly, and you should only have confidence in it if you know how to use it properly.

 

Speaking of serious rot - the 120ft poplar we did the other day looked, from the ground, to be really strong with proper tough anchor points. The main crotch that the climber anchored close to, though, only had a few inches of good wood - approx 4 inches of healthy stuff, and 20+ inches of proper rot. Anchoring on the wrong side of that crotch and perhaps a few feet out could easily have brought it down in one!

[Dak]

Climb with people who make you look rubbish, if they are a nice bunch they'll help you out with tips and walk throughs, it will also make you grab your gonads an do it.

 

The competition to be better might the little help your brain needs to push that extra bit.

 

Same principle as any sport the better your oppo the better you'll get.

 

End of the day humans have evolved to be on the ground, fight the evolution and have fun

[WoodED]

Ive become a bit concerned to be honest. Usually I have a go at climbing every weekend on these few trees around my dads smallholding thing. Ever since I started doing it ive been making good progress and ive got right to the top of one of the oak's and started limb walking too(considering I started off s**ting myself the first go because I had issues trusting the equipment I think Im doing well). But the weekend before the Christmas weekend I had a go on the beech and my head went weird and I couldn't perform anywhere near as good as I had been previously. I thought oh well ill have another go after Christmas. Had a go today and it was just as terrible. Is this normal for a beginner? How can I resolve it other than just plodding along? It would be embarrassing if it happened in front of the lads at work

 

dont worry mate im in the same position as you.

[skyhuck]

Strictly speaking that's not true. Just because you have a rope and harness on doesn't mean 'you will never fall'. People do fall and it is dangerous. A long swing can break your neck, a seemingly sound branch which you choose to anchor onto could have serious rot which isn't evident from below. There are any number of things which can go badly wrong, it pays to be cautious, at least when starting out.

 

When you've been doing it longer, you just accept there are risks and you just have to get on with it because that's the job!

 

Saying bluntly - you will never fall, it is impossible - is a bit daft.

 

You need to read my post again, I said its not possible for the rope to fail under your weight, I've used old climbing ropes to pull trucks out of fields.

 

We are taking here about lack of confidence in the gear, so IMO my point is valid.

 

Human error is to blame for virtually every accident within our industry, irrational fear will in no way help prevent that error.

 

As for you "just accepting the risk" remind me never to work with you, thats not how I work, its perfectly possible to select anchor point and make other choices that mean you will not fall.

 

I have a wife an four children to support and do not have the luxury of "just accepting the risk".

 

My son joins me this year in the business and there is no chance I'm going to allow him to "just accept the risk"!!!

Edited December 28, 2011 by skyhuck

[brothergrim]

Ive become a bit concerned to be honest. Usually I have a go at climbing every weekend on these few trees around my dads smallholding thing. Ever since I started doing it ive been making good progress and ive got right to the top of one of the oak's and started limb walking too(considering I started off s**ting myself the first go because I had issues trusting the equipment I think Im doing well). But the weekend before the Christmas weekend I had a go on the beech and my head went weird and I couldn't perform anywhere near as good as I had been previously. I thought oh well ill have another go after Christmas. Had a go today and it was just as terrible. Is this normal for a beginner? How can I resolve it other than just plodding along? It would be embarrassing if it happened in front of the lads at work

 

It's just a learning curve mate, you'll have some good days some bad until you get some experience, every one gets a bit of disco foot every now and then it helps you work safe, check and double check. One thing is do you really want to be climbing on your own?? You should always have someone with you!

[WorcsWuss]

I feel it! I was 12m up an Oak a couple of weeks ago and was quite happy until I cut a piddly little whip off which was curved round behind me so that I could spike up a bit further.... the sensation of not having something close in my peripheral vision made me feel a bit bloody queasy for a few minutes.

Fortunately [?!] I was climbing for our electricians so that we could get some floodlights up and with their 'encouragement' from below ['Come one, it'll be Christmas soon!'] I soon steeled myself to crack on.

Fear is a natural reaction to any situation we are not used to and can only be overcome by making ourselves used to it.... If you can climb 25 metres on a windy day in an open crown, 12 metres on a still day in a dense crown will be a piece of cake...

I'm hoping to be able to rope Drew into coming with me for a climb when he comes back this summer..... As others have said, I think the benefits to climbing with someone with that level of experience and ability are huge...

[Gray]

i get it every year around winter time , mostly co's of the cold in your body even if you wrap up warm ,co's of the amount of daylight we get you never quite feel like your awake properly leading to that same feeling like your coming down with somthing , if you look around people in other jobs feel the same aswell, also pressure of sorting out for christmas and being a bit heavier afterwards co's of turkey dosn't help.

i find it's not the height or owt it's working a route around the tree that stumps my head, i have to do it in my head two times before i can get on with it.

your body also knows how it hurts more if you slip when it's cold. if you climb on your own on a grey misserable day your head won't be in it, just don't worry the feeling will soon go

[YoGi_93]

Even more good advice. Even though one point contradicted the other for a while I think it sounds like, at this point anyway, its all in my head. I need to get a mate to climb with I know but the trouble is the only mates that climb are my work mates and they wouldn't be up for climbing on their days off. Ill have to keep nagging

[Gray]

just anyone there helps, i used to take any mate ,just someone on the floor with a phone .

i don't know about you but in my 15 yrs climbing two guy's out of about 70+ i've ever worked with , ground staff or bosses on site could do arial rescue , and thats only recently .

if you've got no one then i know it sounds silly but watching ittc climbers on youtube realy helps(i'll get laughed at for that one) and when you climb (saw'less) try using trainers.