It’s an old and familiar rock climbing story. “I went to Millstone (a cliff in the UK’s Peak District) and headed straight for Bond Street (a classic HVS/5.8 climb). I was worried that if I didn’t get on the climb straight away I’d weaken out. ” “So how did it go?” I asked curiously. “A horror show,” my friend smiled sadly. “To begin with, I misjudged the size of the crack and tried to fit the wrong pieces for protection. Before I knew it, I was terribly excited.” He made a face. “You can guess the rest. A minute later, I was sitting on the rope. I had just missed the onsight. Game over.”
My friend had fallen prey to one of the greatest enemies of climbers: the dreaded flash bomb. It doesn’t matter if he is running 5.7 or 5.14. A flash bomb will shut you down almost as fast as you can yell “Here!”
What causes any pump in rock climbing? The simple answer is a buildup of lactic acid in the muscles to the point where they no longer function properly. Imagine that someone dumps pig manure into your gas tank. Step on the accelerator and… you stop. It’s demoralizing, that’s for sure.
The term “instant pump” refers to the first time in the climbing day when the muscles engage in strenuous activity. My friend wanted to participate in the project in front of him, Bond Street, before he got excited. Fair enough. But he also thought that he did it fully rested, with maximum physical advantage. Big mistake.
How do you avoid the dreaded flash bomb? It’s simple. You warm up before you climb and again before you climb anything hard. There are many, many ways to warm up (and I’ll discuss them in other articles), but pretty much any warm-up that doesn’t strain your muscles is better than none. Your warm-up should be general (eg, running on the ground) and specific (eg, climbing). I’m one of those climbers that takes a long (long!) time to warm up, so I’ve learned to warm up slowly. It takes me three or four pitches to get into my strike. My best view is after a short break, but I may have gotten stiff (old age!), so another warm-up might be in order. The best time for my sight certainty will not be the first pitch. It can be tone five or six. But experiment, find out what works best for you, and stick with it.
A crucial point to avoid a flash bomb. In your climbing warm-up, it’s tempting to stick with easier routes than your on-sight challenge, on the grounds that you don’t want to tire out. Do not do this. It’s best if your third or fourth route/pitch is close to onsight level. You need to ‘wake up’ your muscles and ‘tune them up’ for the challenge ahead. It is as if they develop a ‘memory’ for the right effort, the right focus.
Anyone, even the best climbers in the world, can succumb to a normal pump. But none of us should be victims of a flash bomb. It’s eminently avoidable, once you know how. And now you know how. So warm up, sensibly and fully.
