How to become a braver boulderer (aka get Wellsy up Crescent Arete)

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I obviously wasn't suggesting it as a tactic, I'm just pointing out that people's perceptions of what height is dangerous are often not correct. It's objectively not that dangerous falling off the top half of West Side Story. People do it every weekend. People also break their ankles falling off awkwardly from much lower. As Duncan said, give me a flat landing and a high problem over a low problem with a shit landing all day long.
 
I tore my MCL almost in half two years ago falling off Bullworker of all things, so I'm definitely well aware of potential consequences!

When I was in font a couple of times last year after a few days I was comfortable on easy stuff (oranges, odd blue) at like 5m. It was just days of moving on rock and a bit of experience that got me there. The trouble is time on rock usually is limited for me, largely cos 1) I'm still learning to drive, and 2) cos weather. Largely 1 though.

I feel like my plan this year is good. Pass test in a couple of months. Get car. Start going out on rock regularly and look to push my comfort zones a little, join like minded people in it and so on.

Then that will hopefully couple with my training strength and existing experience to get me up cool new stuff. I think that in my head it's like, there's a future where doing amazing climbs like West Side Story is possible for me and my plan is the right thing to push me towards that, physically and mentally :)
 
Duncan campbell said:
I personally prefer a higher problem with a flat landing to a lower problem with a weird landing.

Mos def. Though it's also about the nature of the moves - how un/predictable they make the landing feel.
 
I don't want to put Wellsy off because highballing is great fun. However, I write this from Airedale hospital where I'm lying with a broken vertebrae having fallen from the move to the finishing jug of a new/unrecorded highball at Attermire. I fell about 5 or 6m and landed on my feet on my new Organic pad. I'm sure I've taken bigger falls and I'm not sure I could have landed better, though I definitely fell off rather than jumped.

Basically, falling off from height is a learned skill and can go wrong even if you get everything right. I wouldn't say Crescent Arete is one to fall off near the top because of the stepped landing.

So Wellsy, build up slowly, get confident at moving on rock, and don't overcommit when you're cold and haven't warmed up!
 
That sucks, wish you a speedy recovery!

Are you able to explain any more what happened? Seems innocuous enough, can't quite picture how this ends in hospital :shrug:
 
Fucking hell that’s really unlucky Will. Having had numerous falls from various heights over many years and broken bones but nothing as serious as yours. I wish you a speedy recovery.
 
edshakey said:
That sucks, wish you a speedy recovery!

Are you able to explain any more what happened? Seems innocuous enough, can't quite picture how this ends in hospital :shrug:

I suspect it’s a crompressed vertebrae.

Speedy recovery Will. Hope you’re not in too much discomfort
 
WRT Crescent Arete, it is quite scary. I have seem people fall off it a little obliviously and just missing that sticky-out ledge at the bottom and felt the need to look away in horror.

Then I read this post by a US pro-style climber about his wife 'shattering her ankle' on that ledge

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzghOFwtGjz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Scary
 
Or your spotter decides that you are high enough that the single slender Megagrip pad you are sharing won't make any difference if you fall anyway so drags it off in the direction of NTBTA. Nice one hongkongstuey.
 
Goes back to this a bit....
Fiend said:
I was looking at the "likely to get scared, unlikely to fall" scenario more which is hopefully the case for the grand example in question.
Which might well be the best approach for some of this nonsense (especially if it got a (undergraded) trad grade in the red Stanage guide).

Best wishes and speedy recovery @ Will

LOL @ SAChris and hongkongstuey.
 
Couple of pads and a canny spotter or two and you are likely to be fine. It's a magnificent piece of rock that just begs to be climbed, and it goes exactly how you think it would.
 
Will Hunt said:
However, I write this from Airedale hospital where I'm lying with a broken vertebrae having fallen from the move to the finishing jug of a new/unrecorded highball at Attermire.

:( Fractured vertebrae are extremely variable in severity/seriousness, I hope yours is at the milder end of the scale and you make a full recovery. No neurological damage I hope?

Best case: I have a fractured vertebra that was spotted on an X-Ray for something else but had obviously happened years before. I had been completely unaware of it and didn't know when it had happened though it's likely it was from the big fall when I fractured my wrist and a rib or two; everything hurt a bit but my back was not worse than anything else. 40 years on i've had no further consequences other than that part of my back being a bit stiff. Obviously there are much worse versions.
 
Damn, as others have said I hope it's not a bad one. I fractured a vertebrae when I was younger (bikes) and luckily it didn't take long to bounce back from.

Remember leg day if you're highballing! A 2x bodyweight squat can absorb a lot of impact!
 
Like Duncan, I had a CAT scan on my back injury after a skiing accident and they picked up a compressed vertebrae in a completely different location to the ski trauma. They said so I do anything that might cause it, I said I did climbing / bouldering, surgeon rolled eyes and said that's probably it. I guess Vail hospital sees a few.
 
One very effective tactic that hasn't been mentioned is using a rope.
Sure, it will earn you disapproving looks from some quarters, but it will certainly help you get up whatever it is you abseil down, which in turn will help you ground up other things.
 


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