When you’re afraid of lead climbing, one of the scariest ideas is having to force yourself to take falls over and over again as the way to “get over the fear”.
This article from CruxCrush.com suggests a different approach….
“Conventional wisdom about training to lead climb will have the climber take falls over and over again in an attempt to inoculate themselves to this fear. This all-or-nothing approach is not just misguided, it is harmful. What I am suggesting is incremental progression to find the edge of your comfort zone, and then step ever-so-slightly beyond it, and practice in this place until it no longer feels outside of your comfort zone. Then, step ever-so-slightly beyond your comfort zone, and do it again.“
A big part of what this article recommends has to do with learning to trust your belayer. If you are uncomfortable belaying someone when they are climbing above a bolt, chances are you’ll remember that feeling when you’re the climber above the bolt too.
They then give a 5-step progression for building confidence and trust between you and your belayer and explain how this can help with conquering your lead climbing fear. You don’t have to go too far outside of your comfort zone to work on overcoming these fears.
The article finishes up by answering frequently asked questions, which you may very well have too.
Read the full article by clicking below to learn how to train away your lead climbing fears! Hope this helps!
CLICK HERE: A Step-by-Step Approach to Conquering Lead Climbing Fear
(photo courtesy of CruxCrush.com)
Hey! Link to article seem broken 🙁 i get a 404…
Thanks for letting us know! Here’s the link and we updated it in the post: https://cruxcrush.com/approach-to-conquering-lead-climbing-fear/
Hey! Just noticed that training beta picked up the article I wrote for crux crush. Thanks y’all!