Recall from previous lessons that each route has decision points: “macro” at the base of a route, “mini” at stances with protection, and “micro” at stances without protection. At each point, you go through a complete cycle of preparation-to-action, shifting crisply from thinking to doing.

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For redpoint climbing, your macro preparation will include getting on the route, identifying mini and micro decision points, testing fall consequences, and working sequences. Once you have finished thorough preparation, you are ready to take action with a redpoint effort. For on-sights, your macro preparation will involve gathering whatever information you can from the base of the route.

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In preparation, you use the preparation process to create your plan for climbing. If you are making a redpoint effort, on a route you have thoroughly worked, this plan will be quite precise. Your main challenge will be to remain focused on the effort and not let your mind interfere with doing (taking action). In contrast, for on-sight climbing, your plan will be quite incomplete and sometimes simply incorrect.

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In the next two lessons we will address how to apply this process to redpoints and on-sights.

To gather objective information, you need to actively focus attention using your senses. The main sense you use is sight. You “look” into a situation from your current stance. You can also use your sense of touch (feeling) by probing the initial moves.

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In the Warrior’s Way® courses, we use a memory aid called the MAP process to help students organize and remember the tasks to do at rest stances. During coaching, I often will refer to this as “Doing the Lookings.”

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The base of a route, a well-protected stance on the route, or even a more subtle stance with no protection, are decision points—places to stop and prepare. To prepare for the risk, there are only three pieces of information you need to collect: the END, the DAO, and the POLR. First, identify the END, the next stance. Determine when the stress will be over or diminished and where you will have protection again. Second, scan the rock above and below you to understand the falling consequences, the DAO. Determine the distance (D) of the fall, the angle (A) of the rock, and what obstacles (O) there may be. Third, find the POLR—the Path Of Least Resistance—the easiest way through, not around, the stress to the END.

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During this preparation, don’t let your mind use you, or you will tend to skirt the stress. Signs that the mind is using you include beginning to climb before identifying the next END, avoiding looking down at the DAO, and being drawn in by what looks to be the most secure climbing, which may not be the POLR.

We each have a specific tendency toward being intuitive or analytical in our climbing. Let me describe both and see if you can pick your tendency.

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Recently I taught a class at the New River Gorge in West Virginia. One student, Michael, climbed quite quickly. He climbed right past stances where he could have stopped to rest and assess. He seemed driven by an overall anxiousness to get the climbing over with. Another student, Ann, was the opposite. She lingered at rest stances and then climbed slowly between them. She seemed resistant to engage. Mike was rushing, while Ann was stalling. Both climbers were victims of their comfort-seeking minds, but in completely different ways. Mike’s path through the stress was intuitive whereas Ann’s was analytical.

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Intuitive climbers tend to under-think and do poor risk assessment. When they encounter stress, they seek to minimize it and just go. They feel uncomfortable at rest stances and tend to rush into cruxes without resting adequately or collecting the necessary information to create an effective plan. The “pro” for being an intuitive climber is that you tend to climb faster and more continuously, which can improve your flow through cruxes and minimize time spent in strenuous positions. The “con” is that you don’t gather enough information to climb efficiently or avoid inappropriate risks. Climbers of this type often are known for taking scary, out-of-control falls that may stifle their future ability to focus and improve.

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Conversely, analytical climbers tend to over-think. If you are this type, you utilize rest stances and gather information quite well. However, you get stuck in this mode and your over-thinking manifests itself in your climbing as stalling out. You stay at stances too long and then climb slowly once engaged. The “pro” is that you do take time to think through a situation, see your options, and avoid getting in dangerously over your head. The “con” is that you are still thinking when you should be focused on moving, causing second-guessing on challenging moves and hanging out too long in strenuous positions. Analytical climbers all too often find themselves pumping out and yelling, “Take!”

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Rushing and stalling are the downsides of intuitive and analytical tendencies, respectively, and both are manifestations of your mind using you to avoid stress. Intuitive climbers rush because their minds want to get to the next stance where they will be out of the stress and be comfortable again. Analytical climbers stall because their minds resist getting into the stress and linger in the comfort of the current stance. Whether rushing or stalling, your mind distracts your attention by thinking of where you’ll be comfortable.

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Whether you tend toward analytical or intuitive, you need to balance out your habitual mode with its opposite. If you find you are more intuitive and rush yourself, preparation will be particularly challenging for you. You must learn to deliberately stop at rest stances and thoroughly gather information. If you are a more analytical climber and habitually stall out, preparation will come easier. The greater challenge will be taking action, when you will need to adopt a new mode and find ways to engage quicker and stop over-thinking. No matter which type of climber you are, you will use rest stances more effectively by breaking out of habitual behavior and acting from the power base of focused attention.

We’ve learned that the mind avoids stress, seeks comfort, and plays tricks to skirt stress. Knowing these mental tendencies allows us to notice when tricks occur, stop such thought processes, and redirect attention in ways to deal with the stress. Recall that learning is converting something stressful into something that becomes comfortable. This conversion cannot occur if we give into the mind’s tricks to skirt stress.

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In The Journeys of Socrates, Dan Millman describes the learning process that Socrates goes through. Serafim, one of his teachers, teaches Socrates the art of fighting and how expectations can interfere with preparation and action. Serafim’s teachings on expectations are similar to the story of the old master teaching the art of fencing. The master tells the student to do her daily chores and be prepared to respond to attacks whenever and wherever they occur.

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The student might be going around a corner expecting the attack to come from the front so she prepares for it, yet the attack comes from behind. She goes around another corner expecting the attack to come from behind and gets attacked from the front. The student is in a constant state of tension and expectation. This tension and expectation interferes with her ability to prepare for an attack that comes from any direction.

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When the student expects an attack from one direction, her attention is directed only there. Meaning, she can’t be attentive to all directions. When she learns not to expect an attack from any particular direction she is attentive to all directions. Serafim instructs Socrates similarly to “Expect nothing, but be prepared for anything.” This is really a metaphor for being attentive to everything that is important in a given situation without allowing expectations to narrow our focus. By eliminating expectations we can focus attention on preparing for any possible outcome. With expectations we miss important elements in our preparation.

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In climbing we need to prepare well so we can take appropriate risks. We need to expect nothing, yet be prepared for anything. How can we do effective preparation if we don’t expect anything? We can also rephrase this question by asking: How can we do effective preparation if we do expect something? Either question will shed light on the role of expectations on effective preparation. So, what are your thoughts on this?