Trying the most dangerous type of climbing: Trad with @WideBoyz

0:00 in this episode my climbing Journey continues as I'll

0:03 be trying out one of the purest forms

0:05 of climbing Trad climbing the aim being to get me on the sharp end for the first

0:10 time on a multi-pitch climb that I've never

0:12 seen before all within my first year of climbing

0:16 this is TR climing it would be truly mental

0:25 to try this sort of thing without a professional

0:27 so I've recruited the world's best Pete Whitaker

0:31 from the YouTube channel white boys is one

0:33 of the most accomplished TR Climbers on the planet

0:36 it's really hard to highlight just how strong p

0:38 is but his list of hard climbs says

0:41 all particularly his first Descent of Crown Royale graded

0:45 9A possibly one of the hardest Trad routes ever

0:48 climbed go check out the wide boys Channel if

0:50 you want to see more of Pete's style

0:52 of crack climbing goodness but before we go any

0:55 further what is Trad climbing Trad is short

0:59 for traditional climbing before people started putting bolts into rocks

1:03 the only way up was free sowing or placing

1:06 some temporary protection on the Rock in case

1:09 you fall the leader will have to place

1:11 these pieces of gear and there's a real skill

1:13 to doing it so that they hold however

1:15 Trad opens up opportunities as to what you can

1:18 climb you're not confined to what someone has

1:21 done before you can climb whatever you like really

1:25 provided you've got the Courage the first thing

1:27 Pete thought to show me was how to play

1:29 gear into the Rock if you're going to fall

1:33 you want to know you won't hit the ground

1:35 and therefore proper placement of gear is essential

1:38 so we're going to look at gear placing cuz

1:40 that's the crucial part of Trad climbing yeah

1:42 this is the bet I'm worried about keep yourself

1:44 safe yeah we have a bunch of friends

1:48 these are called friends they're going to be

1:50 your friend okay have you ever seen them before

1:53 I've seen them like on the like for sale

1:56 in the climbing Mall never seen anyone use them

1:58 never seen them out in the wild never seen

1:59 them in wild Pete showed me how to place

2:01 a camming device into parallel cracks in the wall

2:05 the skill is in finding a good place for the cam using the right size cam

2:10 and doing it smoothly enough so that you don't

2:11 fall off while placing the thing if the placement

2:14 is solid these things can lift a car but if not even a little bit of rope

2:19 drag can walk them out of the wall we found one it's just interesting to think

2:25 that this can hold your weight right cuz it's

2:29 pretty small and this is they get much SM

2:31 they get tiny these CS key chains right uh

2:35 they can do yeah like with the basics explained

2:38 there was no better way to see how it was done than to watch a master so

2:43 Pete led a climb and I followed removing the gear as I went to see what he did

2:48 just a little note here watch Pete climb easy grades here for him this is a walk

2:54 in the park he could probably climb this blindfolded

2:57 with one hand and one foot but he still

2:59 climbed really smoothly with very careful movements just

3:03 as he would with a 9A climb probably because

3:06 I'm Bing him anyway I just thought that was

3:08 interesting yeah feeling good feeling good I mean

3:11 it's always easy on the to say you're

3:13 feeling good on the top rope right top rope

3:16 tough guy top rope tough guy that's what I

3:19 am the route was a really nice mellow slab

3:22 with lots of places for gear as I removed pieces I tried to note where and how

3:27 they were placed nice yeah good yeah that was

3:32 fine yeah yeah that's a piece of cake piece of cake the next job was to climb

3:39 the route again and practice placing the gear

3:41 on the way up did he put a big huge cam in there I think he did just

4:07 want everyone to know that I don't condone

4:15 [Applause] that that's solid Pete then had a look

4:23 at my gear placement to see how I got on so that was a that was a bomit

4:29 that one's good but I'd say we can do better so I think I put a gold

4:35 in here when I was uh leading it I think it was in there so I put

4:42 it I put it in left in the wide section and then slid it into the narrower

4:49 section there I think that is probably slightly better

4:52 that one we can see is like a bit

4:56 flaring um could be better a little bit further back there he was a bit a little

5:03 bit on the edge ah yeah so this was the place where it was like a little

5:10 bit more tricky I mean it's it's pretty

5:15 good that maybe there is a bit slight yeah

5:19 I think slightly to the right is a better

5:21 placement it's just a bit narrower for the cam

5:24 size you can see how the cam lobes on the left hand side are are really good

5:28 but on the right hand side they're really open

5:32 it's kind of like a recipe for a ripping

5:35 cam there's so many other good choices around

5:38 here that we should use the good choices so

5:43 Pete yeah you've had a look at Mike's

5:45 uh Mike's gear placements what are your thoughts U

5:47 my thoughts are well I said uh before that I was like 65% um happy maybe

5:54 a bit more I mean the good placements were

5:56 absolutely really good and it's a route that you

5:59 could do just on those placements um but I would quite like Mike to place a few

6:05 more pieces um and those are the pieces that are in between the good ones uh so

6:10 they're a little bit more marginal yeah it

6:12 just takes a long time to know which flaring

6:15 slot to put the cam in which way up to put it um and where are the best

6:19 spots so I practice placing the gear again

6:27 this time the placement was much better and Pete

6:30 seemed much happier yeah that one is very difficult

6:34 to go wrong with this placement um yeah absolute

6:40 bomber like way way better way better than the first go nice yeah and even found

6:45 a a bit in the middle one in the middle which uh ien found so there you go it's

6:51 a good one with all of that out the way there was nothing left to do

6:59 but to lead the climb for real right Kim

7:01 we good right climbing clip the right hand rope

7:17 here yeah good I was pretty Cal and collected

8:03 here I knew what gear to place where

8:05 and all the placements were really solid however I

8:09 was chilled out because I knew I wouldn't fall the route was very easy and if I

8:14 climbed carefully I'd be [Music] fine piece of kick

8:30 [Music] that was scary however Pete wasn't going

8:37 to let me call this challenge done that easily

8:40 he told me to book a flight to Norway to find out if I'd really learned anything

8:44 from him the final goal would be to climb

8:47 a multi-pitch Trad route and we'd be on sighting

8:50 it too which means neither Pete nor me

8:52 would have climed it before all we'd have is

8:55 the guide book and I'd be leading the first

8:58 and last pitch here the nerves definitely kicked

9:02 in I had no idea what was ahead of me so a fall was plausible here my gear

9:06 placements would have to be solid and I

9:08 have to manage gear so I didn't leave too

9:09 much space between cams or Worse use them all in the first 15 M and have

9:14 to climb to the end of the pitch unprotected

9:16 that would be bad but before we watch me freaking out about that a quick word

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9:24 climbing is when you strike the perfect balance

9:26 of difficulty and fear and you enter the Flow State

9:31 suddenly it's just you and the wall and you're

9:34 completely and utterly focused it's meditative and it

9:38 feels incredible you could get yourself into that state

9:42 anytime you like by meditating I've been using

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9:52 10 minutes a few times a week before bed

9:55 listening to one of the wind down meditations you

9:57 can pick from three to 10 minutes here

10:00 so the trick here is when your mind starts

10:02 to wander from the meditation and it inevitably will

10:06 rather than just throw in the towel and quit

10:08 gently pull your focus back to the meditation

10:12 that's the trick to it after a few times of doing this just a few times a week

10:16 you'll be so good at this skill that you'll

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10:21 when your cam rips out of the rock you can learn to use this control to make

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10:56 it I've got nerves nerves now yeah suddenly I need a poo but my harness is on so

11:06 I'm just going to have to wait do you ever think like what am I doing me

11:13 yeah no when you're claiming no no um

11:16 okay predictions are we going to get wet yes

11:18 or no yes Mike yes I'm already wet smash

11:27 it fuing[ __] the first opportunity to place gear

11:37 was 3 m up and it wasn't exactly a great [Music] placement right at the bottom

11:57 of the Flop yeah y you going in properly

12:04 yep you're I can all good yep with a really

12:14 solid second piece my nerves eased up a little

12:17 bit and I could carry on with the climb

12:27 okay what bad piece in [Music] there nice very good I'm not far off a g

12:45 f like I've been claiming for [Music] hours

13:05 after some cruisy climbing with plenty of gear I

13:08 was at the top of the pitch all right Pete that's me safe you can take me

13:14 off be good job mate we should do

13:18 here is admire Mike's impeccable rope management you see

13:27 green rope perfectly on the left orange rope

13:33 perfectly on the right they haven't crossed a single

13:37 time it's like a pro Pete then LED pitch

13:41 two which I was grateful for as the climbing

13:44 was much harder I've just climbed pitch number

13:48 two and that was actually a little bit more

13:51 tricky I think that could be a tricky second

13:53 for Mike actually I'm be really interested to see

13:56 what he thinks when he comes up to the top of that one [Music] that was hard

14:10 manage all the climbing yes I did yeah

14:12 you did yeah that's a really good effort yeah

14:14 I thought it was I like I thought it

14:16 was climbing well there big layback and a jam

14:18 and a roof and it was a mess and it was great it was brilliant I loved

14:22 it yeah good full on proper multi-pitch style

14:25 we're swinging leads yep you're taking next lead yep

14:28 sharing the load sharing the load so you don't

14:30 get too tired exactly and you're going to blast

14:34 to the top it's going to be epic right climing back on the lead for the final

14:42 pitch my confidence was high until this happened

14:57 I just wrapped straight out is on Pitch number

15:01 three and he has just tested a piece

15:04 of gear and ripped it out it's always a little

15:07 bit unnerving when you put a piece in you

15:10 think it's good and then you obviously tug

15:13 on it and then it just rips straight out which I think is what you may have

15:18 just done I really wasn't keen on going

15:20 into the unknown with that crappy gear placement

15:24 this is not going well okay come on let's

15:27 stay calm here luckily I managed to maintain composure

15:31 enough to find something [Music] better that's bad

15:40 after that Fiasco The Climb became super easy

15:43 with Gorgeous views and The Summit in sight I

15:46 could chill a little [Music] bit good not coming

15:59 this is how to learn to Trad climb

16:02 with a professional looking over your shoulder there's just

16:05 so much more that can go wrong here

16:07 than with sport climbing but with someone who's experienced

16:10 on the job you can safely get a taste

16:13 of what TRD is all about the adventure we're

16:21 alive good job nice one the only thing

16:27 that remains is how do we get back [Music] down