Nick Bullock on The Bell the Bells. Copyright Jude Spancken

From reading your blog, it sounds like you feel that British climbing is missing the spirit of adventure it once was. What do you feel is missing?

I possibly need to clear things up, the piece of writing on my blog you refer was a little tongue in cheek, a piece written, like much of my writing, to make readers think, to stir their imagination, wake them up, play the devil’s advocate. Climbing needs attitude and in some ways I do feel it has become main-stream and tame. Climbing appears to be missing much of the anarchy and free thinking it once had the reputation for. How many people want information of conditions and individual moves and gear placements before actually getting on routes and giving them a go? Many people appear to climb for just the physical and not the whole package. I may be wrong but climbing does appear to be missing a little of the soul it once had.

Is it that spirit of adventure that drives you to travel to climbs all over the world, as well as find yourself on the sharp end on routes on the likes of Gogarths’ North Stack?

Yes, for me it’s the whole package, it’s the adventure of the day or the whole expedition that trumps individual moves and grades. Climbing for me will always be about the people I climb with, travelling to the crag, the banter, the wildlife, the countryside, the psychological elements and preparation and finally the physical aspects of the climb and when the climb is over it’s about the bullshit and the banter with mates. Some climbers today appear fixed on grades and numbers, it’s purely about pulling extremely difficult moves and everything else appears lower on the scale of importance, maybe it’s the fault of sponsorship, maybe it’s the fault of the climbers themselves, maybe it’s just my problem and it isn’t a problem at all!

You have climbed most of the E7’s on Gogarth’s North stack, including an on-sight ascent of the ‘Clown’. What mental preparation do you do before setting off on these routes?

Ok, before I get called a fraud, I didn’t actually on-sight the Clown, I did on-sight what is classed as the crux of the Clown, but I fell from the initial overhang six times with each fall getting closer to hitting the boulders. I broke the peg and the final three falls were onto a single cam. I was about to leave for a big expensive expedition in India so I thought enough is enough and climbed the overhang twice on a top-rope climbing out on The Hollow Man clean. I returned a few days later and lead The Hollow Man after top roping it three times altogether. I climbed the Clown the following year on my only visit to North Stack without re-working the overhang or looking at the crux section. It’s a great route. I have climbed Stroke of the Fiend on-sight which was my second E7 on North Stack and attempted The Bells the bells! on-sight as my third.

I find the best mental preparation for attempting this type of climb is to be climbing confidently and well. I will have climbed many hard routes by the time I attempt a route like The Clown or Surgical Lust, or The Bells in good style and I will have used several types of style of ascent, top-rope, ground-up, dogged or I will repeat routes I have climbed before. Confidence in my own abilities is the most important weapon in my armoury; stamina and a friend belaying are the others.

Given the amount of time you spend on these routes, the dubious nature of some of the rock and lack of protection you have plenty of time for your mind to wander and have things to worry about! How do you maintain control during these ascents? Are there any specific techniques you use?

When climbing routes like the ones on North Stack your mind does not wander at all. I would suggest anyone who has climbed an E7 on North Stack is so focused and ready for what they are about to enter the last thing that will happen is their minds wander.

Following on from your early ascents was the onsight attempt on The Bells The Bells a natural progression?

James McHaffie on The Demons of Bosche. Copyright Nick Bullock

The plan since my first E7 on North Stack, which was Wreath of Deadly Nightshade, was always to attempt The Bells on-sight. The reasoning behind this was on-sighting is in my mind the ultimate form of expression and personal belief and personal challenge, both mental and physical. Rock climbing for me will always be about battling with the voices and knowing, as long as preparation has been correct, I have the ability. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. On-sighting Stroke of the Fiend was a stepping stone to The Bells and the day after I attempted The Bells but fell when a foothold snapped. Fortunately the peg, eighteen years old at the time, held.

Is there a route on Gogarth that took something special from yourself to pull out of the bag?

The one route on North Stack that was always with me, in the rowdy times, the quiet times and dark times, was The Bells the Bells! Even before I climbed anywhere near the grade of the Bells, the climb, its history and its first ascentionist intrigued and engaged. What possesses a person to put themselves into a position that could end in death? What goes through their minds? Redheads writing enhanced the whole climb and from the moment I learnt about the route I knew one day I would attempt to climb it. From this moment my whole climbing life appeared to be on a road travelling toward this one climb and when I eventually was good enough to attempt it I wanted to do it as John Redhead said it should be done, without high runners in The Cad and on-sight, or at least ground-up as I had looked at the section around the peg when replacing the tat.

When I did eventually attempt the climb and a foothold broke just above the peg Tim Neill, belaying payed out massive amounts of rope to give a dynamic belay, its fair to say that Tim saved my life by doing this, the peg held and I’m still here.

I climbed The Bells clean in 2005 with inspection and practice and high runners in the Cad and the experience was tainted because of this. I have tried to climb other routes, important to me, in better style ever since, in penance!

The Hollow Man in particular has the reputation as the hardest and most serious climb on the North Stack. How did you prepare for this route and the deal with the guidebook write up that a ‘blatant disregard for life is useful’?!

As mentioned above I top-roped The Hollow Man three times before leading it. I had also climbed The Bells that summer which shares a large percentage of the same ground, so it was fresh in my mind and I felt certain I could physically complete the moves. It’s quite strange, The Hollow Man is very very serious but I must have filled my self-belief bottle that summer at just the right time, I think I climbed it without much fuss or ceremony. And as for a blatant disregard for life, no-one starts one of the E7′s on North Stack with doubt or a feeling of failure, to do this would be suicidal, but guide book remarks like this appear to draw me and pique my interest.

What would you consider the most memorable of the North Stack routes you have climbed?

Jon Redhead’s Birth Trauma was a wild outing. Birth Trauma follows the usual line of the abseil near Parliament House Cave but I was so intent to try and on-sight the climb we abseiled another line. The rock is about as unreliable as you can get. One minute the holds feel solid and the next they are flying with you closely following. Birth Trauma is a poorly protected E6 which is quite steep so you have to pull. Jules Cartwright was belaying me and on the third attempt, after falling twice when holds ripped, I was really high and a whole ledge I had just mantled onto collapsed. After shouting to see if Jules was still alive (he was), I managed to top out.

Nick Bullock on The Bell the Bells. Copyright Jude Spancken

Have you had moments, where you have lost it completely on a serious climb? How were you able to regain control of the situation?

No, never. In general my mind is the strongest part of my climbing and I find pushing through or at least attempting to get through a hard section of climbing is better than backing off. I very rarely back off once I begin and if I do it’s because I know the climb is too hard for me and I should not be there. On occasion I find myself on a climb which is harder than the grade suggests or there is another factor like wet or loose rock making it unexpectedly more difficult, then I normally fall off but fortunately something holds or I fall a long way and get away with it.

From a conversation you had with Steve McClure you felt that hard training wouldn’t feed your soul! Do you ever do any training for climbing or expeditions or do all your trips keep you at a high level of fitness?

I have actually trained for a large percentage of my life as I was a physical education instructor, running, circuit training, cycling, weights, aerobics. I climb indoors a lot as well, but I have never trained specifically like campus board stuff, ladders, boulder circuits, my elbows would explode and I would rather be outside climbing at a lower level than spending hours and hours in a gym, I’ve done too much of that in my life already. I do train for winter by dry tooling but I enjoy that as its outside and good fun and good banter with mates.

Nick Bullock on Hysterysis Wall. Copyright Tim Neill

What plans do you have for 2012?

2012 is going to be a busy year. I have just returned from a great trip with Rob Greenwood in Canada climbing a load of big mixed routes and ice. I’m about to give six lectures for the BMC alpine Lecture series around Britain with my mate Tim Neill and run through the final stage of my book with Ed Douglas and Vertebrate the publishers before leaving for Alaska in late May. In Alaska Andy Houseman and I are hoping to climb the first British ascent and the sixth overall ascent of what was known as the Czech Direct on Denali, a two mile high, fifty-eight pitch route of consistently difficult climbing. Again with Andy Houseman we are returning to Nepal in October and November to attempt the unclimbed North Face of Chamlang 7300m in the Hongu Valley for which we have received grants from the Chris Walker Memorial Grant, The MEF, The Welsh Sports Council and The BMC. Finally my book will be published in September by Vertebrate and I will no-doubt give some lectures in December on my return from Nepal. This is not going to be a good rock climbing year.

The pictures of Nick on ‘The Bells The Bells’ were taken by Judith Spancken. For more details on her photography visit her website.

Our thanks go to Nick and Boreal for this excellent interview. Nick has a series of BMC lectures in April, to find your nearest one go to the BMC website. If you enjoy Nicks writing keep an eye out on his blog for details of his forthcoming book release.

Nick is sponsored by:

Nick Bullock on Gogarth North Stack is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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In this post I’m going to focus on the mental aspects of rock climbing. I’m going to split those into 2 distinct areas:

• Managing stress / fear
• Motivation & focus for performance

Managing stress

Does fear ever get the better of you when you’re climbing? For most of us, at some time or other, fear has affected our performance when rock climbing.

Fear is a perfectly normal and necessary emotion. It exists to prevent you from becoming a victim of misadventure through being reckless. Fear only becomes a problem when you allow it to impede your performance.

When climbing, if you allow the yellow monster to get the better of you, it can prevent you from being able to see your next move. Your focus will zoom down to a tiny area of rock right in front of your face, and the only thing you will be able to think about is falling off. Thankfully there are strategies which you can adopt to help you to deal with this fear.

1. Controlled falls
For many people, the fear of falling off is paralyzing and prevents them from climbing anywhere near their potential. One technique that is often recommended is to take controlled falls. This should only be practiced on sport climbs where there is zero chance of protection failure. The concept of controlled falls is that you gradually expose yourself to bigger and bigger falls, training your mind to believe that you are actually not going to die if you fall a few metres on a sport route. Kerbing this fear enables you to be able to focus on your climbing.

To practice this technique, make sure that you maintain a safe distance from the ground. Be sure to factor in rope stretch.

Clip your rope into a quick draw and climb until the quick draw is level with your knees, then allow yourself to fall off, your belayer will arrest your fall. Repeat this process, each time climbing a little further past your protection before letting go. Make sure you don’t go so far that when you fall you reach the ground!

Personally I don’t believe in this technique. Relief from exposure of this kind doesn’t tend to last very long. You will probably feel better during the session but by the next time you climb the anxiety will probably have come back. It’s also pretty hard on your rope, and let’s face it they don’t come cheap!

2. Deep breathing
It sounds like a cliche, but deep breathing is a great technique for dealing with fear. When stressed, your body’s reaction is to take short shallow breaths. This leads to an increased heart rate which further elevates the feeling of panic. Slowing everything down and taking deep, controlled breaths reduces your heart rate making you more relaxed. It also increases the oxygen supply to your brain, helping you to spot that hold that has eluded you while in your panicked state. I find that if you can see that a climb is going to challenge you mentally, it’s best to start out taking really deep breaths and moving slowly and deliberately throughout the entire climb. Concentrate on placing your hands and feet really accurately. When you pull the rope through to clip, do it slowly and deliberately. This will help you and your belayer to relax.

3. Focusing on technique
If you really focus on your technique you will prevent anxiety from creeping in. Enjoying each and every move and position will make those gaps between protection points feel smaller. If you focus heavily on your next piece of protection all the time, it will always seem a long way away and your technique will be poor, as you won’t be thinking about the moves.

The indoor wall where I train has some routes that are pretty much vertical until about the last 5th of the climb where they have a really overhanging part followed by a not quite as steep overhang to top out. I have made a complete mess of these routes in the past because I spent the first 4/5ths of the climb thinking about the overhang to come. I didn’t climb the first part well and found myself in a state by the time I reached the really challenging part of the climb. Concentrate throughout and try to enjoy (and style) every single move – you will have loads more fun and your climbing will almost certainly improve.

Motivation / focus

1. Have fun
Remember the buzz you felt when you first started climbing? When you first begin any sport your personal expectations are low, and progress rapidly. As you get better that progress slows down and your expectations in your ability increase. If you fail to meet your elevated expectations you can quickly become frustrated.

I have been the world’s worst offender for punishing myself when I felt my performance to be under par. This has inevitably lead to having a completely duff session as my mood has spiraled downwards. Focussing on failures is really destructive and can ruin your confidence. I now always try to remain positive whether I climb well or not.

Mentally reward yourself for each climb you perform well and shake off the climbs where you don’t. If you’re having an off day/night, try something different to your usual routine. If you lead trad / sport routes, spend an hour doing some bouldering. If you boulder, try some sport or trad routes. Persevere and you will find enjoyment. You will finish on a high and look forward to climbing again. Always remind yourself that you’re climbing for fun.

2. Visualisation
This is a really powerful technique, and is used by many of the world’s best competitive climbers (and athletes). Before you start to climb a route, visualise yourself climbing it. Visualise your route, and your body positions before you touch the rock. This applies to being the second on a route as much as it applies to leading a route. It’s really easy to underestimate a route because you don’t have the pressure of leading it. The climb is exactly the same so why treat it differently?

The key message here is never to underestimate the power that your mind can have on your rock climbing performance. I would say at least as important as technique and strength.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any tips or advice that you would like to share, drop me a comment.

Climbing techniques – a plan to raise your game: Week 10 – Improving your mental strength is a post from: Rock Climbing UK, an online UK climbing magazine, written BY UK climbers FOR UK climbers.

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