I can’t add much to what’s been said above but I think it’s just a matter of doing more of it and getting comfortable. Trying to ‘train it’ in an artificial way just seems a load of twaddle. My braver moments on bolts have been where I’m engrossed in the climbing, happy with the state of the bolts and happy with the how the fall-line looks. Get that right that holy trinity and I can get stuck in.
What the routine you use fall practise? The ones I have see just look like good training for dropping off rather than falling. I should say this with tongue in cheek but I just find the desire to find a magic bullet for everything in climbing quite tiring.
How easy is it to find belayers who are fine with belaying 20 m falls (as you would expect a fall 6-7 m above kit to be)? When tied into the belay holding long falls often fuck up the belayer worse than the leader. I would think that would be the main issue.On the vertical nature of many multipitch route, I am not sure that taking 12-16 m falls (falling 3-5 m above gear) very often is an old man's game. Sure, once or twice is fine but the chance of injuries is not zero.Sorry for being a downer.More helpfully perhaps, in Gorge du Tarn where the bolting is generally very safe, if sparse and big falls can be taken relatively safe, I find that it takes a week or so to get used to the falls and that I am desensitised for as long as I keep pushing the boat and for about another two weeks after I stop.
Are the spaced bolts really on sections you are likely to fall off?I would 'train' by doing some bold leads at lower grades (not solos) and build my ability and head up. I wouldn't practice falling off, which I tend to think should be limited to people who can't get 2 foot above a bolt without going to pieces. Put the time into the base of your pyramid rather than the wobbly top, get really fast and competent on easier ground (for me that means anything VD-E3) and by magic your top end will also improve, you'll also have more time and energy on the day for the hard pitches.IMHO there is far too much emphasis on training at or around your limit. It might do your ego good to be spending time on big numbers but especially for big routes I think competence on easier ground is much neglected. It's like the Peter Principle, climbers rise to their level of incompetence and then tend to mostly operate in that sphere. Being incompetent is not the best way to train competence.
Are the spaced bolts really on sections you are likely to fall off?
That all sounds entirely healthy. Air miles on 20m pendulums = 'freak' broken bones.I still think building up onsights of similar but easier pitches would be a better approach than throwing yourself off. Sounds like 7a+ would be the place to start then.
Quite. I have taken ≈20 m falls on vertical ground a few times and belayed such a fall once, and never without injuring either myself or the belayer. (Nothing broken, but smacked around pretty bad).
No experience of this at all, but are they the kind of routes where taking a small amount of trad gear could help?
In terms of marginal gains and with us both being quite short we climb with one very long QD which has a wire coat hanger mummified in finger tape and the bolt krab end taped open as we often found that on those run-outs where the FA was making a point about doing a tricky move before you get to earn a bolt they were also marginally taller meaning whatever form the respite arrives in (a good hand or foothold) we often couldn't clip until one move more.
Quote from: Paul B on May 09, 2022, 01:22:54 pmIn terms of marginal gains and with us both being quite short we climb with one very long QD which has a wire coat hanger mummified in finger tape and the bolt krab end taped open as we often found that on those run-outs where the FA was making a point about doing a tricky move before you get to earn a bolt they were also marginally taller meaning whatever form the respite arrives in (a good hand or foothold) we often couldn't clip until one move more.I am tall enough to be able to clip most bolts that were put in by tall idiots on lead, but my better half isn't. She doesn't leave the belay without a Kong Panic: https://www.kong.it/en/product/panic/