From the Military to the Alpine: Using "Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast" as a Climbing Mantra

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“Don’t rush or you make mistakes.” Well, at least you are more likely to make mistakes. Seems like a truism, right? Kind of hard to argue against, maybe to the point of not being particularly helpful advice.

Also, in the next breath, we will say, “speed equals safety.” The correlation is obvious when we sit and think about it: if we rush we end up taking more time having to redo things (like - say - tying a knot) and therefore end up taking more time than we would have had we just slowed down and done it (whatever “it” is) right, the first time.

All kind of straight forward.

But it’s not. Because some of us are guilty of making these types of hurried mistakes from time to time. I know I am.

As you watch the video, maybe it will strike you that “slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” is military in its origin. Think about who is having to apply this concept and when they have to do so: soldiers, and often when someone else is trying to kill them. So, really it’s about engraining the habit to “slow down” when maybe every fiber in your being is telling you to speed up.

Of course, like I also talk about in the video, that doesn’t mean slowing down is always the right answer. I don’t think a soldier is going to stroll from one position of cover to another. Seems like that’ll be done at a hurried run. I don’t think I’d stroll to get out of an avalanche path, either.

But when my emotions and body are vibrating with energy and telling me that I just need to get out of this situation of risk, I find that is when I most need to evaluate what the best path is out of that risky situation. Is it to hurry? Or do I need to methodically (for example) set my rappel device and ensure I get my system built correctly. Just by asking the question, I am slowing down enough to think about what best serves my longer-term interest. My longer-term interest is not doing the task at hand as fast as I can. No, my longer-term interest is in getting out of the dangerous situation as fast as I can. Those are different things, and maybe that longer-term interest is better served by slowing down.