A Mental Checklist to Stay Safe While Leading Sport Climbing

I once wrote about fear when climbing in the complex environments of the alpine and high peaks. My basic point is that there are a series of questions climbers can ask themselves to determine if we are justifiably afraid or just uncomfortable.

I have also written about a series of questions climbing teams can actively discuss to help keep them safer than they would be if everyone was internalizing their observations about the climb they are currently on.

So, you can see that I am a big believer in training our minds as well as our bodies; I think being aware and then making a conscious choice to intervene in mental patterns can go a long way to helping us normalize these climbing experiences that are otherwise not normal. It is the normalization of the stimulus we are receiving that allows us to adapt, perform better, and extract more enjoyment from what we do.

This is another video in that line of thinking. I go through this simple, five-step checklist every time I need to clip a bolt while on sport lead. It helps keep me in the present (necessary for performance) while also helping ensure that I am doing the things I need to do in order to stay safe.

Of course, this mental checklist is the same checklist I have been teaching to my kids. This helps improve their confidence, because they feel like they have a tool to help them manage their risk, but also helps me and the boys’ mom feel like we can better trust their process; and after all, it is their process - good or bad - that will ultimately keep them safe or not.

Without going into the whole video’s content in a duplicative way, I did want to underscore one thing: that the last step in the mental process is actually a transition out of the mental process. We have to change our mental focus when it’s time to start flowing over the rock, again: 1) because movement is less analytical, and 2) because experiencing the actual upward movement of climbing is such a big part of the enjoyment, and we probably want to be wholly present for those moments.

Safety is necessary for enjoyment, but not sufficient; and safety is a means to an end of an activity, not the activity itself.