BANG!

Over the last few weeks @DirtbagDrive and I have been going to the climbing gym and climbing outside together in anticipation for our lead climbing course. To be completely honest, I’m nervous. We’ve been climbing together enough and I believe our skills are on track. It feels like studying for a practice test but knowing you’re that much closer to the exam. The course is on October 28th, so the countdown clock is on! We need to focus on our strength, clipping technique and keeping our nerves in check when it comes to falling and being pulled up.

How We’re Getting Certified To Lead:

We are aiming to get our lead climbing certification through CragX. You pay to do a 3hr course that teaches you how to lead climb, lead belay, lead fall and catching someone else’s falls. However, it is good if you have some foundation in there before you do the course itself. After that, you book to do your practice test where staff give you honest feedback to help you improve before your actual test. Finally, the actual test…and they mark HARD. Honestly, as they should because really, it’s for everyone’s safety but I know of a few people that had to take the test multiple times and they are strong climbers. The idea of taking this test really plays into my test anxiety.

Recently, I came to realize that on top rope, I’m very uncomfortable with falling. At first, I thought it was just because it felt unnatural to take a fall on top rope. That on a lead rope it would feel more natural, but after some soul-searching I realized this was completely rubbish.

BANG!
The game that gets you over your fear of falling

The game BANG! is quite simple and you can play it when lead climbing or on top rope. Basically, the climber goes up the wall like it’s just any other climb, at some random point (however only when it’s safe) the belayer calls out “BANG!” and the climber has to let go of the wall. Like immediately let go. 
My partner, Grant, introduced it to me when he could see I was having a hard time just letting go at the top of a climb one day. It took a bit getting used to but it made falling so much more fun and the climbs more interesting. It also helped build up strength, endurance and technique. We started on the “small walls” in CragX but then took it to the big wall and wow was that a dropper! It was way more of a drop due to the bungy in the rope. It was so much fun!
I am thankful to Grant for so many things. In this experience, I’m thankful for him helping me overcome my uneasiness with falling.If you can’t trust your partner in life and in climbing to catch you when you fall, then who can you trust?

Photo by CragX

“We should be less afraid to be afraid.”

Emily Harrington

Emily Harrington is an American professional rock climber and adventurer and is the first female climber to ascend multiple 5.14 sport climbs. She is a pro athlete and is a five-time US National Champion in sport climbing. She has completely climbing projects internationally and has many mini-documentaries that are a hoot to watch. Emily is a strong, hilarious, female climber who pushes her comfort boundaries to new levels.