Backing Down

-Day 10 of 31-

Time for another post that's more climbing related.

Backing down/off or "downclimbing" is a technique that every climber should have in their bag of tricks.  It's something that should be practiced again and again in the gym, both while bouldering, top-roping and occasionally on lead.  Sometimes it's the only way out of a situation that's dangerous or harder than you expected.  Moving back to a position of safety can give you time to relax again, get some strength back, process the information you learned, re-commit to moving up, and finally entering the fray once more.  It may also give you time to assess other options, such as backing down from the route entirely or building an anchor and allowing your partner to finish it if they're up for it.


Backing down while on lead requires you to know yourself quite well and to know exactly what mental and physical state you are in at the moment.  It's a fine line to walk between wanting to push through a hard crux and knowing that you just don't have it that day.  Backing down requires a cool head and confidence that only comes with lots of practice and experience.  The experience required is both mental and physical.  A good way to build the physical experience aspects of backing down is by downclimbing nearly all of your bouldering routes in a session.  Overhanging routes are very difficult to downclimb and I don't recommend doing this often.  But downclimbing vertical or slabby routes should be automatic every time you go up.  Thinking about reversing the moves you just did going up will cause you to focus on your weight shifts, your balance, and especially your footwork since the feet will be essentially "leading" on the way back down.  By doing this you will see improvements in your overall climbing abilities, especially in contact strength.  Try it for a month in your bouldering sessions and see what happens.

The mental aspects of backing down come with time and experience climbing a variety of routes and everyone will develop this differently.  There is no standard set path to gaining this skill.  You just have to go rock climbing and get into situations that make you work hard.  Back off now and then.  It's much easier to practice this on climbs you know you can do instead of arriving at that 5.10 crux, finding that it's too hard, the gear placements are crap, and you need to back off but don't know how.

And finally, I find it interesting how once again climbing reflects life.  There are many times when we find ourselves confronted with a situation and a choice.  Tom Petty says, "I Won't Back Down".  And sometimes you do have to stand your ground on your principles.  But we need not always continue on blindly, pushing ahead like a bull in a China shop.  Oftentimes we can instead slow down and think.  Breathe.  Back away from a situation a bit, then reassess and prepare to work through it once more.  Sometimes taking a step back allows us to see the challenges ahead more clearly.  And then, knowing better what will be demanded of us, we can commit ourselves fully to the road ahead...always remembering to breathe, relax, and smile...because this is life and it should be fun.