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andypro
Oct 19, 2003, 8:15 PM
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Registered: Aug 23, 2003
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I think I was 14 or 15. 25 now. I took a very short sport haiatus, then got smart and went back to placing my own gear :wink:
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willing_and_abel
Oct 20, 2003, 11:21 PM
Post #52 of 165
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Registered: Oct 1, 2003
Posts: 13
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20, did my first Saturday the 18th at Lover's Leap lose to Tahoe California (I think?)
It was awesome!
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flypn
Nov 9, 2003, 2:53 PM
Post #53 of 165
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Registered: Oct 8, 2002
Posts: 25
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I was 19. My first true lead was a 5.4 slab on nasty shist. Good practice, but I don't think I'll be going back there soon.
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alikb
Nov 10, 2003, 12:39 AM
Post #54 of 165
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Registered: May 8, 2003
Posts: 20
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9 years old, if I'm not mistaken, with my dads rack of 20 year old chuinard stoppers and hexes.
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fredo
Nov 10, 2003, 1:00 AM
Post #55 of 165
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Registered: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 501
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27 is when I started climbing trad, 32 is when I started calling myself a trad climber
Rock On!
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ronamick
Nov 10, 2003, 1:29 AM
Post #56 of 165
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Registered: Nov 28, 2002
Posts: 476
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I learned "5th class climbing" on a backpacking trip to Mt. Whitney in April of 1975. I went on that trip with my friend Greg, who had just learned to climb from a neighbor who had just graduated from the NOLS school of mountaineering in Seattle. Greg liked it so much that he bought himself a rope and a small rack the day after his first climb, and he was going to teach me on this trip so he qould have a partner. This was something I had always wanted to do, and I was way up for it. He told me to buy 6 carabiners and 20' of 1" tubular webbing, and he had everything else we'd need.
We snowshoed into Trail Camp at 10,800 ft, which was under a 30 foot base of winter snow. Massive granite walls were everywhere. The next morning Greg showed me how to make a "swiss army seat" harness with the 20 foot piece of webbing secured with a water knot. He also showed me how to tie in with a figure eight knot, and I practiced all of this several times. Greg showed me how to belay, went over the rope calls once, and we snowshoed over to the base of Thor peak and started climbing.
I had on leather mountain boots and Greg wore converse tennies. We climbed a ledge system for several hundred feet unroped, and traversed the top of a giant flake out onto the main face to its end. There was a small overhang above, and 400 feet of air below us, so Greg broke out the rope. He needed all the gear for the lead, so I sat on the flake and jammed a leg behind it for the belay. Greg tied a bowline around his waist and disappeared over the roof. For the next 30 minutes I listened to terrifying wheezing, grunting and scrambling noises from somewhere up above as Greg complained that there were no placements for pro.
I was pressed against the rock, and could'nt get out of a freezing stream of meltwater without giving up my leg jam anchor, so my whole side began to go numb as I paid out rope. Greg finally called down that he was off belay. He told me to put on my harness and tie in. So I wound the webbing around me, tied the knot and tied to the rope, alone on that flake, drenched, numb and under some duress. I stared at thre knots for a long time before I yelled up "climbing!". The rope went tight, I stepped off the flake, and have been doing it ever since.
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adamtd
Nov 10, 2003, 3:37 AM
Post #58 of 165
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Registered: Nov 11, 2002
Posts: 187
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It's a scary thought, but I started climbing when I was twelve with a 1/2" nylon rope from the hardware store, a couple of snap links, and my fathers 30yr old webbing form vietnam. It's a miracle I survived. Trial and error isn't the way to learn climbing, but it worked. I was leading at 15 with a set of nuts, hexes, and tricams... and a real harness and belay device by then.
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dcaret
Nov 10, 2003, 3:39 AM
Post #59 of 165
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Registered: Oct 25, 2003
Posts: 2
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I was Forty seven years old when I started trad climbing.
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wallwombat
Nov 10, 2003, 3:53 AM
Post #60 of 165
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Registered: Jun 17, 2003
Posts: 727
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My first trad climb was also my first roped climb and my first lead. I was 19 or 20 and it was a grade 18 (5.9+) granite crack at Booroomba Rocks near Canberra in Australia. I think it was called Integral Crack. Before that I just bouldered around. I didn't know that there was much of a difference between climbing styles then . It was 1987/88 and trad climbing seemed all there was. I can't say things have changed for me that much.
Cheers
The Wallwombat
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don_pablo
Nov 10, 2003, 4:35 AM
Post #61 of 165
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Registered: Jan 15, 2003
Posts: 32
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17, and it was a hell of a climb.
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yosemite_climber
Nov 10, 2003, 4:50 AM
Post #62 of 165
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Registered: Mar 29, 2002
Posts: 43
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21 for me and my first route was Jamcrack in Yosemite :D
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mheyman
Nov 10, 2003, 6:12 AM
Post #63 of 165
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Registered: Jul 25, 2002
Posts: 607
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35, 10 years ago.
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jacobs
Nov 10, 2003, 11:24 PM
Post #64 of 165
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Registered: Jun 26, 2003
Posts: 56
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21 I was drunk, I'm still not sure if I'm off belay.
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junkie
Nov 10, 2003, 11:38 PM
Post #65 of 165
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Registered: Aug 23, 2001
Posts: 100
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16, and dumb. My first trad route, was my first lead, which was also my first climb, which was my first time climbing ever. My friend had ripped off all of his dad's stuff, and explained to me in detail that "if you stick these things in the rock, they'll save you if you fall".
Since I was 16 and he was 14, I drew the first lead. And the rope was an old static line that his dad had used for rigging purposes ealier that summer.
It was a 5.8 called the Funnel. I didn't know enough to be really scared. I think if I had fallen, nothing would have held.
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capnmark
Nov 11, 2003, 9:21 PM
Post #66 of 165
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Registered: Sep 24, 2003
Posts: 16
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Goin' on 40. Spent a season on top rope. Was intrigued by the science and art of gear. Read Advanced Rock Climbing, by John Long and Craig Luebben; More Climbing Anchors by John Long & Bob Gaines. Took a 2 day leader class at Seneca Rocks Climbing School. Hardly slept the night before my first trad lead out of sheer terror of the undertaking. This weekend was the first time since beginning trad (4 years ago) I got to second a route.
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ikefromla
Nov 11, 2003, 9:26 PM
Post #67 of 165
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Registered: Oct 23, 2002
Posts: 1216
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13
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capn_morgan
Nov 11, 2003, 9:36 PM
Post #68 of 165
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Registered: Oct 7, 2003
Posts: 565
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In reply to: 16, I assume you mean LEADING trad, because an earlier post mentioned that they don't lead, which means they must have been climbing on a top rope (which really shouldnt count as climbing trad).
first off, following trad and tr are very much different citters. You have to work alot harder to kill yourself on a tr than when you are following trad.
secondly, I started leading trad this spring at 19. Lead trad before sport. Had been climbing seriously for about 6 months and had followed a handfull of pitches of trad.
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roadguy
Nov 11, 2003, 10:48 PM
Post #69 of 165
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Registered: Jul 30, 2003
Posts: 52
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I was 17 and it was 1971...parents sent me on Outward Bound for a month in the Sierra....first rappel was a dulffersitz (ouch)...first climb was a 5.9 offwidth our Brit instructor thought would be a perfect introduction to climbing....hip belays...etc...oh yeah...goldline ropes too...
bergheil
Pat
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malabarista
Nov 11, 2003, 10:49 PM
Post #70 of 165
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Registered: Nov 4, 2003
Posts: 46
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I did not lead a trad climb until the grandfatherly age of 28.
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reno
Nov 11, 2003, 10:53 PM
Post #71 of 165
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Registered: Oct 30, 2001
Posts: 18283
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I was about 2 when I did my first Free Solo climb out of my crib... Does that count??
Roped trad? 28-ish. About the same time I learned to climb in general.
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crank
Nov 12, 2003, 12:31 AM
Post #72 of 165
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Registered: Oct 7, 2003
Posts: 1
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I was 37. Eight years later I was doing 11c-11d trad at New River. It's never too late to start.
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trillium
Nov 12, 2003, 12:41 AM
Post #73 of 165
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Registered: Aug 13, 2001
Posts: 172
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I tried my first trad lead at 45. My biggest regret is that I didn't start climibing 30 years earlier.
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mrkatzen
Nov 12, 2003, 12:54 AM
Post #74 of 165
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Registered: Oct 8, 2003
Posts: 11
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20, sending off from the base of Washington Column, Yosemite. Subconsious death wish, I think. Good days.
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rockmx
Nov 12, 2003, 12:55 AM
Post #75 of 165
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Registered: Jan 15, 2003
Posts: 201
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28
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