Psychoanalyze Your Climbing Dreams

Who's had weird nighttime dreams about climbing?

Last night, I dreamed that I bootied two blue Totems and a green Dragonfly on the same pitch. The strange thing was that they were all placed backwards, with the lobes sticking out of the crack toward the climber. So they weren't stuck at all. I woke up very disappointed.

Also last night, my wife (who doesn't climb) dreamed that she went to our local gym and used a reverse autobelay that dragged her to the top and protected her as she downclimbed. 

I have a recurring nightmare that my cams aren’t stiff enough and just flop over when trying to place….have no idea what this means 

Mark Pilate wrote:

I have a recurring nightmare that my cams aren’t stiff enough and just flop over when trying to place….have no idea what this means 

Your doctor can give you special pills for that 

When stressed for work I sometimes have big walls dreams that are super non-specific but are filled with a gut churning anxiety and the weight of the world crushing down on my inadequacy and the certain knowledge I am not up to the task. It's a scenario, an emotion; not linear events, a microsecond of dream time. I am experiencing it, then BAM! I'm awake.

Is this what you had in mind?

When I used to run a climbing program I would sometimes have a dream that I was TR belaying and the rope was pulled up and out of my hands (not the climber falling, but the device simply coming off my belay loop) and out of reach in front of/above me.

I would wake up sitting up in bed grasping at the air above my head trying to get it back. Clearly just stress about something bad happening on my watch. 

take TAKE wrote:

When I used to run a climbing program I would sometimes have a dream that I was TR belaying and the rope was pulled up and out of my hands (not the climber falling, but the device simply coming off my belay loop) and out of reach in front of/above me.

I would wake up sitting up in bed grasping at the air above my head trying to get it back. Clearly just stress about something bad happening on my watch. 

I can definitely relate to this.

Cherokee, for sure. And as a corollary, when I'm under non-climbing stress, my climbing headgame suffers.

A very common recurring dream theme is that I've suddenly become aware that I'm about to embark on some kind of major trip or expedition, and I'm woefully unprepared. Similarly, there's a regular, recurring dream that I have a class that I'm supposed to teach that starts in about 10 minutes, and nothing is prepared, and everything is in uncontrollable chaos. These are pretty damn common dream themes for lots of people...clearly there are control issues running around the subconscious.

Most of my recurring nightmares have to do with not being prepared for a test in school, pisses me off.
As for climbing, Krakauer wrote this in Eiger Dreams:

“…a recurring dream I’ve been having for years in which I’m fighting for my life in a storm on some endless climb when I come upon a door set into the mountainside. The doorway leads into a warm room with a fireplace and tables of steaming food and a comfortable bed. Usually, in this dream, the door is locked”. 

I was having some scary climbing dreams so I’ve been hitting the Kush a lil harder in the PM. No more dreams :)

My dream typically has major rockfall events I’m in the midst of. The mountain crumbles away, earthquake, it tips over with me on it. Massive boulders tumbling/impacting in my direction while I run away.

These are clearly related to my accident this summer where I was struck by rock, breaking my collar bone. 

I also had a huge tree fall almost take me out / nearly crush my car in Yosemite a little while back too. 

I'm pulling a crux 10 feet above a nasty ledge, and the one piece of effective pro, a small nut, comes loose. Suddenly, hundreds of Millennials start yelling from below, "C'mon bro, you got this!!!"

My hands are sweating, two drones circle my head like horseflies, a dogfight ensues on the ground. Two shirtless dudes, also yelling, simulrap right past me, and manage to slather hair product all over what would have been my footholds. 

I fall, and awaken before I hit the ledge. I light a candle, and thank the Universe that I don't live you-know-where.

Logan Peterson wrote:

 manage to slather hair product all over what would have been my footholds. 

Not to name names, but ...

I had a dream recently where I realized the edge I'd been training on was actually super slopey, and hanging on a flat 20mm edge felt dead easy. In my dreams I have strong fingers ...

I had a dream that the penultimate post of the  Climbing memes 6.0 thread got deleted after someone flagged it due to not understanding the joke. 

I have recuring dreams that I'm leading, clipping normal, yet there is no one on belay...

At first I thought this thread was for analyzing our long term goals/dreams. Like what does it mean about you if your dream is to climb a big wall or a peak or a classic boulder or some choss pile.

Ok, so I've had two climbing dreams this week. One, I was climbing a crimpy v4 with someone "floating" right next to me walking me though it. It was traversing over short scrubby pines, so a bad fall situation. I bailed by down climbing. Second, I was at a gym getting ready to give a lesson on belaying from above and tying off a theraband as an anchor.

Analyze that!

Had a nightmare wife and I sleeping on a ledge and ceiling fan was perched choss block likely to kill us. I remember none of this but when I awoke with my head at the foot of the bed, I expressed confusion about my odd choice, and my wife explained that during the night, I had raised the rockfall hazard, told her to move, and got grouchy when she wouldn’t- proclaiming “fine! But yer gonna die!” or words to that effect.

I had a very specific, vivid dream of climbing the narrows pitch of Steck Salathe and the squeeze felt like soft velvet cushions. I woke up with the goal to climb that route one day. 

Also had recurring "dream" (more nighmare) that some local crag/yose valley/red rocks turned into a full on "climbing resort". Kind of like a ski resort with lifts, bars and restaurants, all commercialized and I had to pay a fee to climb a route. Scary.

Andrew McLaughlin wrote:

 Second, I was at a gym getting ready to give a lesson on belaying from above and tying off a theraband as an anchor.

I've had dreams similar to this with very ludicrous item-substitution!

My climbing in dreams is in buildings, indoor buildering, really, although sometimes there might be holds and/or ropes. I'm never roped, just going from point A to point B, far off the ground and in/over/through odd spaces (windows, grills, vents, beams, etc). Never worried, just traveling, lol! But, I am also able to float around in space, tucked up under ceilings, so there's that, and no one ever seems to notice me up there. Pretty sure antigravity is aid..... probably also voyeurism?

Which leads to....

Fritz, I suspect the cams were how they were supposed to be in your dream, lobes toward you, which means, uh, inserted? Just sayin. You being a newlywed and all. That also makes you rock solid. With placement opportunities....

Should I stop there???

Yes she needs a boyfriend before she is fatally old.

I’ve had falling dreams my entire life. But now, when I’m falling, I’m usually watching my knot untie itself in a slow motion, and trying to grab the rope as it comes undone.