How to get comfortable with Class 3

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colokeith
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by colokeith »

I have been working on getting my wife comfortable with class 3 climbing. She is very scared of exposure and had a complete mental wall to doing class 3 routes. She had a couple of full on panic attack / freeze up incidents on pretty easy routes (including Lindsey gully). She has now completed all the routes at the bottom of this post and is doing quite well on class 3.

Here is my advice.
  • Route selection for your first few climbs is very important. I think a good intro class 3 route will have the following qualities: Easy route finding, easy climbing moves, ability to avoid the worst difficulties, easier descent route. Mental confidence is a huge part of the equation especially if you have had a bad experience. Climb some routes that you will succeed on with out scarring the crap out of yourself. (See below for the order of routes that worked well for her).
  • Rock climb outside with a rope. Climbing class 5 rock with a rope will help you develop movement skills and learn how to see the rock. Longer pitches and multi pitch climbing helps with exposure as well. When you can climb low class 5 without falling, you can build that feeling of confidence that you are not going to fall on class 3.
  • Get good boots or approach shoes, and make sure they are dry before climbing the hard bits. Also test every hand and foothold before committing. Routefinding errors or a slip are really the only two things that will get you into trouble here so take care to mitigate those risks.
  • Be very picky about your forecast and start early. An impending storm will dramatically increase the stress level you feel on your climbs. You want to reduce that stress and give yourself the time needed to climb comfortably.
  • Force yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit. If you are scared of exposure try a couple of moves that scare you. Walk on that exposed ridge line, stand near the edge of the drop off and look over. You need to learn how to calm that feeling of panic.
  • Learn to focus on the next few moves and not think too far ahead. Being constantly worried that you won't be able to make it over the crux, that you may be off route, or thinking about that exposure behind you are what is setting you up for panic. Of course someone in the group needs to be thinking about the route finding, watching the sky ect. That is where having someone experience to help you along works out.
  • When you do get to a part of the climb that feels hard or scary don't stop and think to much. Walk up to it, make the first couple of moves and soon you will be past the obstacle.
  • Get the most experience / comfortable person out front. Watching them easily climb a section that may look hard or intimidating lets you know it 'goes' and shows you the sequence of moves.
  • Bring along a phone with speakers to play some music which can distract you and calm fear. Similarly keep chatting with your partners, joking around, and trying to keep the spirit light. When partners start showing body language of stress it spreads to the rest of the group.
Here are the routes that have worked to get her comfort level up.
  • Pacific peak east ridge - Pretty much difficult class 2 with an option to make a few class 3 moves. If you don't like anything on the ridge proper you can drop down 30 feet and traverse. Very little exposure
  • Father dyer nw ridge with a descent of Chrystal or peak 10. This has more easy class 3, just a little bit of exposure. If you are feeling good you can stay on ridge and do more class 3. Again most of the difficulties can be avoided. (Just knowing this helps build confidence). Route finding here was super easy.
  • Wetterhorn (just an awesomely beautiful mountain with a fun route on good rock). There is a short but consistant class 3 section at the top that gives you a taste of exposure with class 3 moves.
  • Keller mountain - Stay on ridge proper for some pretty hard class 3, or work around on difficult class2 or easy class3. There are also some pretty exposed moves if you stay on the ridge. Completely optional if you don't like.
  • Tour d' abyss Has a little bit of all of the elements you will find on class 3. Some route finding, loose steep stuff, easy exposed stuff. The majority of the day is spent in class 3 terrain.
  • Kelso ridge. Easy scrambling on good rock. Some route finding but it isn't difficult. A real taste of immediate exposure with no safe way to avoid it.
Last edited by colokeith on Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
To climb is to push yourself in a way you might not normally imagine is possible. If your stamina, skill, and luck are sound you will get to stand on top. ... I realized that with climbing, I'd found something that nourished my soul and could forge me into a better version myself - Jim Davidson
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by polar »

colokeith wrote:
  • Tour d' abyss Has a little bit of all of the elements you will find on class 3. Some route finding, loos steep stuff, easy exposed stuff. The majority of the day is spent in class 3 terrain.
I take it you enjoyed Tour d'Abyss?
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by colokeith »

polar wrote:
colokeith wrote:
  • Tour d' abyss Has a little bit of all of the elements you will find on class 3. Some route finding, loos steep stuff, easy exposed stuff. The majority of the day is spent in class 3 terrain.
I take it you enjoyed Tour d'Abyss?
Yeah it was pretty fun. The east ridge was good fun scrambling. The decent down the initial gully from Evans was tedious, sawtooth was bit anti climactic, and the summits were both utter insanity. Overall though a fun scramble, I would repeat.
To climb is to push yourself in a way you might not normally imagine is possible. If your stamina, skill, and luck are sound you will get to stand on top. ... I realized that with climbing, I'd found something that nourished my soul and could forge me into a better version myself - Jim Davidson
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by colokeith »

Also you do not have to ever progress into class 3. If you do hike non standard routes on 14ers and add in 12ers and 13ers you will very likely not run out of class 1 and 2 routes to do.

However, I would highly advise progressing to class 3 rock and moderate snow climbs. Continuing to push your skills and challenge yourself will drastically increase your enjoyment of the mountains. Not to mention it will lead to much better profile pictures for facebook and twitter. For most of us there comes a point where we no longer feel comfortable upping the difficulty and risk we are willing to take on. That line is different for each individual.
To climb is to push yourself in a way you might not normally imagine is possible. If your stamina, skill, and luck are sound you will get to stand on top. ... I realized that with climbing, I'd found something that nourished my soul and could forge me into a better version myself - Jim Davidson
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by ericcc65 »

colokeith wrote:Also you do not have to ever progress into class 3. If you do hike non standard routes on 14ers and add in 12ers and 13ers you will very likely not run out of class 1 and 2 routes to do.

However, I would highly advise progressing to class 3 rock and moderate snow climbs. Continuing to push your skills and challenge yourself will drastically increase your enjoyment of the mountains. Not to mention it will lead to much better profile pictures for facebook and twitter. For most of us there comes a point where we no longer feel comfortable upping the difficulty and risk we are willing to take on. That line is different for each individual.
Thanks for the suggestion. To be honest I would be perfectly happy sticking with class 1-2 and extending our hikes to include 13ers. I enjoy the experience of the mountains and it isn't as much about crossing 14ers off the list for me as it is the scenery and exercise. But I enjoy the group of guys I go with and they fly in from out of town just to hike a 14er. Some of them are more competitive and want to get as many 14ers as possible. I once suggested doing 13ers instead but that was quickly shot down. I guess I could try to find another group of people to hike with, but these are my friends and I enjoy their company. Maybe I could just go along for the camping though and decline to hike if it's something I'm not comfortable with, I'll have to think about that one. Maybe I need to join some hiking groups or something. Although I have more social skills than many of my fellow engineering introverts I still find it difficult finding a good group of close friends who like to hike and camp and are on the same page as me regarding risk/reward. Another difficulty is that there is only one recent addition who has a true off-roading vehicle, not enough seats for everyone. So getting to many of the trailheads is a challenge, which includes some of the easier class 2 routes. I'm starting to wish I would have said "screw the gas mileage" and gotten an off-roading vehicle instead of my Forester XT. Too late for that now though.

Exposure freaks me out, I do this just for enjoyment and fun and doing things that have a relatively high possibility of killing me just isn't something I feel like I need. I have a wife and kids, it's not worth it for a hobby in my personal opinion. Having said all of that I'm also a cyclist and I don't think much of bombing down a mountain descent at 45 mph on a tire that's a piece of rubber an inch wide. In some ways that may be as dangerous, but I slowly worked up to being able to do that. I guess it's the same for this. I just wouldn't feel comfortable doing these things alone and my buddies just go once a year. I think I'll need to take a class. Perhaps this is the best one to take. Although I'm not sure yet what some of those prerequisites mean.
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by ericcc65 »

There are a couple of other things that I feel like I should mention. First of all, I'm 6'5" tall. I could afford to lose a little weight, but overall I'm not big boned and I'm probably on the lighter side for my height (just over 200 lbs). I'm a pretty athletic guy though, I played basketball in high school and played volleyball for a while on a college team. I was good at both sports and could cut and pivot well, but balance always felt like a bit of an issue to me. A few years ago I was diagnosed with a rare middle ear condition (superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome). It has some odd symptoms: noises can make me dizzy, I hear my heart and other body sounds right inside my ear, dizziness, ear fulness, etc. I think in conjunction with that I get vestibular migraines. When I have migraines it usually brings some amount of dizziness, but not always pain. It was touch and go for a while about a year ago, but I feel much better now and usually live with minimal symptoms. Like I said before I can bike up and down mountains and I just hiked Humboldt and Bierstadt. I wouldn't do these things if I were having an episode though. But for someone who already had a fear of heights and exposure adding on a vestibular disorder isn't confidence inspiring.
Last edited by ericcc65 on Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by polar »

There were a lot of good advices given, so I’m not going to repeat any of them. Like most have said, learn rock climbing is a great way to build up your confidence and give you the movement/balance skills for the much easier class 3 stuff (compare to class 5). Here are some pointers on climbing technique that are true for class 5, and should help a little on class 3-4 as well:
  • Don’t pull with your arms. Most people, especially guys with upper body strength, will start their path on rock climbing by doing repeated pullups then scrape their feet around for a foothold. Hands and arms should be used for balance, your legs should be the main engine for your upward motion.
  • Work on your balance. Balance is an integral part of climbing movement. The better your balance, the more efficient you can move. Unfortunately, balance skills are generally very sport specific, and it does not transfer well between sports. That being said, I found the balance required in rock climbing is mostly static in nature, so I found that static balance practice (for example: yoga) can help somewhat with the balance needed in climbing.
  • Look at your foothold. This is more applicable when the climb gets harder. You don’t need to be staring at your feet when you’re boulder hopping, but when people use their hands to scramble/climb, they tend to focus all their attention on handholds. You can probably scramble up some class 3 fine without looking at footholds, but as the climb gets harder, it becomes beneficial to actually looking at footholds and make sure you have the best foot placement when you take a step.
  • Drop the heels. Unless you need the extra reach, don’t stand on your tippy toes. Drop the heels will be less tiring on the calves. On slabs, flex the ankles to get as much soles of your shoes in contact with the rock as possible. The more rubber that’s in contact with the rock, the more friction you get. Maybe go into a duck stance or side step to get better sole contact.
In terms exposure, the only way to get used to exposure is to get more of it. Some people with fear of heights will get vertigo (the feeling of everything spinning around you) when looking down from great heights. I was very scared of heights as a kid. My knees would go weak and I would get shaky even just to stand at a balcony that’s high up. But when I started rock climbing, especially doing multi-pitch climbing, where one is often anchored at a belay station hundreds of feet above ground, I quickly got used it. Now that I haven’t climbed in a while, when I get to a place with exposure, I will still get a bit of vertigo. But at least I know how to deal with it now.
"Getting to the bottom, OPTIONAL. Getting to the top, MANDATORY!" - The Wisest Trail Sign
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by polar »

colokeith wrote:The decent down the initial gully from Evans was tedious.
Yeah, if not for that initial descent into and climbing out of Abyss basin, I'd do that route over and over again...
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by ericcc65 »

Thanks everyone so far for the advice and input, that's really helpful.
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by boudreaux »

Good advice here, I have a friend who is terrified of the talus fields and needs some practice developing techniques to move more efficiently over this type of terrain. Once she gets off the trail, the fear factor goes up exponentially for her. She is almost finished with her quest, but still has the fear. Usually the more experience you get, the more comfortable you get on the talus. IDK, but am up for the challenge!
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by wondering_hough »

All good points made by people with more experience and skill than I.

One more thought, find class three rock without any real exposure. There are a few areas in the flatirons that helped me tremendously. If you'd like to know where just let me know. After you have a technique for movement, up, down, traversing, etc....then ease into exposure more and more. West quandry is another level of class 3 as you figured out the hard way.
You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
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Re: How to get comfortable with Class 3

Post by PaliKona »

I wanted to bump this topic, as I'm trying to get comfortable with more exposure. I want to attempt Longs this August either via Keyhole or Loft. I have many 14ers under my belt, but no class 3. Most exposure I'd say was Castle's standard route, and I was fine.

Today I'm currently sitting on that rock cat walk on North Table Mtn. If anyone's familiar with it (by the quarry) it overlooks all of Golden to the west (so big drop) and there's a huge hole to the east that creates a 75-90' (guessing) drop. The cat walk is 10-12' wide and has exposure on both sides. It's difficult to cross because of a huge gap in the middle, but I've climbed out to the middle at the height of the exposure, and definitely don't love it. My saving grace is knowing I can backtrack off it quickly to solid ground.

My question is: am I going to get myself into trouble on Longs if even this exposure makes me uneasy? I'm not shaking in my legs, but I'm definitely nervous. Having more people around may help. And the fact the exposure is from both sides makes it tougher to handle. Thoughts?
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