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Not your worst one or the one you had the other day, but your first one...how was it?

I took my first one a couple of weekends ago. I think taking your first lead fall at 41 is probably a little different than taking one at like 18 or 20. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm good though...easy landing=just a sprained ankle.

Sucks about your ankle but could always be worse.

I was just starting to lead 5.7 and I had some trouble with this move. I had put a bd cam in the area of my next hold but I was not comfortable moving onward without it in place and there was no other gear. I fell twice in a row on that cam my first and second lead falls about fifteen feet clean. It did not embolden me though, it actually made me have a little more fear but I was glad to get it over with. I eventually made the move by changing my body position.

TacoDelRio wrote:I don't know exactly when my first was. I think it was on the 5.5 or whatever "Trough" at Big Rock in Riverside, CA. I slipped on the grease about 6-10ft on that slab. I think I wasn't yet at the first bolt. Sketched me out for a loooong time. Took a while to get back into the groove. No injuries, just a bruised ego.

Hey, Taco dude! Yes, this was similar to my experience a couple weeks ago. I'd been leading .6 slab routes for most of last fall and decided to crank it up a notch and tried to onsite a .7. It turns out our guidebook is very old and the route was much more polished than I anticipated. I slid before I clipped the first bolt - scary as shit! Don't think I'll onsite anything harder than a .6 for awhile:)

5.9+ in the black hills needles. Technically a sport route, but lots of runout sections, and it was harder (or I thought it was) than the rating indicated. Wound up lowering off the route and losing a draw, but it could have been worse.

CarloMarx wrote:Not your worst one or the one you had the other day, but your first one...how was it?

First one?

1975, Huntington Ravine, Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

Climbing a long rock pitch, the crack just ended. I placed a #3 wired stopper and started hooking to my right to a book. I could feel a thin crack in the book but couldn't see it. I reached around and placed a stopper for aid. I tested it, but it popped out. Since I was on hooks, I was off-balance and fell backwards.

The entire pitch zippered except for the #3 wired stopper. I came to rest upside-down only 5 feet off the ground.

Can't remember first fall on bolts, but first trad whipper on the crux short thin crack of the Direct NW Face of Lembert dome. I just remember placing the green C3 and going for it, then flying through the air, semi-bouncing off the ledge and then hearing and seeing my sunglasses dance down into the trees. Doh! A good flight for sure and a really enjoyable route!

My first lead fall was this past spring at RRG. First climb of the trip was Autumn on Long Wall. Took a 4-5' fall on a #2 C3 towards the top of the route. The move was a little sketchy for me but I just went for it and my feet slipped off. It was a friction move and I didn't have my feet high enough.

I had been working on getting my head straight for leading all winter by only leading when going to the gym. Didn't matter the route or grade I would not top rope. Might sound lame but it worked for me. When I got outside I did not think about falling. After the fall I just got back on the wall and finished the route. Then I moved over to rock wars and took another short fall on that one.

My first lead fall was off a small crag here in PA, about 5.7. I was maybe ten feet above the ledge I was being belayed from, and I had one cam in a crack behind a bulge. I stepped up and around a small ledge system trending up and right and was aiming the place a second piece when I slipped (I guess) and swung just long enough to think "Yay, piece!"...before the bulge exploded with my piece in it and I hit the belay ledge and then the ground about fifteen feet below that. Luckily I survived with two gnarly ankle sprains from the belay ledge and a cracked helmet. All things considered it was pretty amazing because I was leading Pete's Farewell in the daks the next weekend. I'm still a little gunshy on the sharp end these days, even though I've taken small falls on pieces that have held. I use probably twice as much pro as a normal person would on any particular climb haha.

Diedre in Squamish. Fell onto a small TCU when I slipped on some ice. We were pushing the rock climbing season a bit in retrospect.

Happened a long time ago but I remember it like it was yesterday (really). I was 14 or 15 and I fell on Sail Away at Joshua Tree. Luckily, the climb ate passive pro since, back in '78 or '79 when it happened, that's pretty much all there was. I wasn't hurt. It happened so quickly and it was just like everything went in slo mo and I found myself hanging from the rope 8 or 10 feet lower. Much better than those grim falls you can see coming and can't do much about.

Sky Ridge at Smith Rocks, 2001. On a 5.8 pitch, bolted. The fall was a complete surprise. It was over before I had a chance to be scared. We went on with the route, no big deal. I remember the pitch after being so great because of a neat traverse.

Took my first whippers a couple days ago. Not just one, like 10. This was on a sport climb, I haven't taken any HONEST falls on trad yet. It was supposed to be a 10a, but I got on the wrong climb and it was maybe an 11. The crux was above a bolt and I kept trying it, taking about 15' falls each time. It twas fun! I'll get that route eventually! Never did pull that crux move...

a few years back at Lover's Leap. On The Farce...it's like 5.4 or 5.5 something like that. The traditional start traverses out to left putting you quite high before you can get a piece of gear in. I had just started leading trad, it looked easy but my partner insisted I do the direct start since you could something in sooner. Should have listened to my inner voice cuz i ended up falling and smacking my left ankle on a rock outcrop. sprained it pretty bad. read online later that the move i fell on was more like 5.9 or something so i felt a little redeemed. always listen to that gut feeling you have folks, know what i mean. i guess the most important thing is that the large nut i placed did what it was supposed to do and kept me from a 15-20 foot ground fall.

If I remember correctly, and I don't think I do, my first real lead fall was on Crack of Dissent, 5.10a trad, at City of Rocks Idaho. Pulled a piece and bruised my heal hitting the ledge with rope stretch. Prior to that, I'd done practice falls on sport climbs. Anyway that is the first fall I remember. I may actually have fallen on the Regular Route on Fairview Dome before then.