Literally Dreaming of Climbing

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McHale's Navy

Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 10:53pm PT
I Dreamed of bouldering last night - maybe because I wanted to go to SeattleBP the next morning. The rock was red like at the Alabama Hills. At one point I was prone and very close to the ground and my back touched a rock on the ground and I wondered if it would be called as cheating!
climbski2

Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
Feb 15, 2013 - 10:59pm PT
I've had some weird ones. At least the ones I remember.. Had a recurring one about ATMs on El-cap and tunnels and shops. Driving a yellow school bus off the top... Still have dream skiing Denali,
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2013 - 11:33pm PT
That reminds me of an old EL Cap dream where there were open portals on the face of El Cap and I guess tunnels running behind connecting them. When you mention shops.....that's what triggered the memory. It's been awhile since THAT dream. Maybe we were in the same dream on that one.

I have climbed Everest in a dream. It was a Scott Fischer Expedition but didn't cost anything since I dreamed it all up! Even though it was just a dream it was particularly satisfying. It did not resemble the real thing but it was what it was in the dream - the dream of a big deal. Some people would have been disappointed but I felt like I got my moneys worth!
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 20, 2014 - 01:45pm PT
I was up on El Cap last night. Me and 2 other guys ( can't place who they might have been ) were up on a pedestal like the famous one on the Salathe but not up so high. At one point there was some kind of rock fall or rock shift up and to the right about a pitch up. It was loud and I got ready for the inevitable but there was no fallout and nothing happened but a little terror. We must have bivied because at one point I lost track of my boots, was worried I'd dropped them, but then found them. I even had thoughts of having to rap without them! We rapped off, leaving what seemed like about 3 fixed pitches. At the bottom I realized I left my jumars up there and the next parts of the dream had to do with acquiring jumars. I was thinking we may as well go buy some as we only had one set anyway, but near the end of the dream somebody that reminded me of Bridwell came over and sat next to us. I hit him up for jumars. The best part of the dream was walking away from El Cap and looking back and thinking how laid back it looked and that our trip was in the bag. I know, I know, a pretty mundane dream! The image at the end though, where it looked like a giant slab - that was the best part because it all but insured success.

phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Apr 20, 2014 - 02:00pm PT
Actually, I enjoyed reading your dream. I find dreams tremendously entertaining.
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Apr 20, 2014 - 02:04pm PT
When I dream of climbing, I'm usually free-soloing way off the deck and I'm losing my strength and grip.

I wake up when I fall, and find myself in a pool of sweat.


For whatever the reason(s) I no longer remember my dreams upon waking...

Try reminding yourself to remember your dreams before you go to sleep. It helps.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 20, 2014 - 02:05pm PT
I completely get the rockfall part. It is probably my only real big fear in climbing. ;>) I can hardly look at a cliff anymore without wondering what part of it will fall down next....but then, I also wonder why airliners don't fall out of the sky more often......and I'm very glad my expectations don't affect reality!
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Apr 20, 2014 - 05:16pm PT
I never dream about climbing, probably a defense mechanisim given the number pickles I've gotten myself in.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2014 - 02:10pm PT
Sounds like your life is a dream Jim.....the real thing, as in living the dream. So, don't tell us you don't dream. ;>) I hear you on those pickles though. I liked your 'modern climber' dream. Maybe when we read the climbing stories of others, it goes into our own dreamland database, our mind can't know the real thing like the person telling the story. At that point we're dreaming a dream, and at that point we really need to get out! Just to keep rambling on, what I appear to be saying, is that just reading about another's climb automatically counts as dreaming. Put that in your hat! Does reading count as day-dreaming?

kaholatingtong

Trad climber
Nevada City
Apr 22, 2014 - 12:07am PT
i don't normally that much. after my bad car accident, however, when i was unable to climb for a long period, i was laid up, totally bonked on painkillers, but unable to toke the herb, i began to regularly have the most vivid and sustained climbing dreams i have ever had. it was quite pleasant, at the time. i always figured it was my subconcious' way of dealing with the withdrawal, or something.
phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Apr 22, 2014 - 12:30am PT
OK here's a weird one I had last night. I was at a climbing gym, with walls but no roof. All the walls were really short like 10 feet tall. And it was required that you lead the routes. The first bolt was at waist level, before you left the ground, the second bolt was at the height of my outstretched arm from the ground (6.5 feet), and the third bolt was about 2 feet above that. Then you made one more move but there was no top anchor so you were supposed to downclimb the route. The whole thing made no sense whatsoever.
perswig

climber
Apr 22, 2014 - 07:18am PT
^^
Phylp, that's your way of processing this thread:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2384563/Rancher-Militia-vs-BLM-trouble-on-the-range-OT

It also makes no sense whatsoever. Sorry it has invaded your sleep...
Dale


edit: Couchmaster, I really liked the line

I was counting the breaths until I could get back
anita514

Gym climber
Great White North
Apr 22, 2014 - 07:38am PT
I've been dreaming about climbing lately
not every night, but a couple times a week. can't remember details, but I think most recent one was in joshua tree.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2014 - 02:25pm PT
If it wasn't for that rockfall in my last dream above, I don't think I would have realized I was dreaming. That was when I started watching the dream it seems. There had to be more to the dream than that. There's a big difference in remembering dreams later and being aware of the dream while it's going on. The latter is by far superior but more rare. I should pick up one of those books on how to dream, or take some lessons! Anyone had luck with the books?

I suppose it is more than possible that in that dream I changed the reality of the outcome of that rockfall - a reality and outcome that did not kill me. It did seem a little odd that this powerful thing was happening and then it just kind of went away.......sorry, I don't need a rockfall right now!

I saw a fun movie on Netflix recently where this old dude dreams out some of the other paths his life could have taken, at least relationshipwise. That was Mr. Nobody. It was like a Kurt Vonnegut story. It was pretty good.
Ksolem

Trad climber
Monrovia, California
Apr 22, 2014 - 02:38pm PT
Dan, How's that ankle? My central control unit should be good in about two months. I'll meet you in Bishop..
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2014 - 02:57pm PT
You must be dreaming! I been meaning to call but can't find any phone booths. Ankle is so so. Been pushing it just a little at the same time I'm taking it easy. I solo sailed around Blake Island last Monday and ended up in a small craft advisory - kind of like a bad dream but it went well. I had to pull into the harbor at Blake and had a beautiful sail back next morning. Ankle is starting to feel better a week later!
kaholatingtong

Trad climber
Nevada City
Apr 22, 2014 - 03:14pm PT
The latter is by far superior but more rare.
I believe this is called lucid dreaming. At least, that was how i was able to lucid dream when i was younger ( becoming aware in the dream that it is a dream ) tough stuff to accomplish. when I was younger I had several years where I could lucid dream, and i sorta just started doing it by accident. unfortunately, I haven't been able to dream like that in a long while. I wasn't climbing yet when i was lucid dreaming, so no lucid climbing dreams ( damn that would be cool ). i did however take my very first trip to yosemite during this time and i still recall very clearly knowing i was dreaming and purposely jumping off half dome and then getting the most incredible bounce ever when i hit the ground and didn't wake up.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2014 - 03:32pm PT
Wow. That would be a great bounce. From what I have heard, people have fewer Deja Vu experiences as they get older also. Day-dreaming is an important part of creating Deja Vu, so as people get older and more in the now, it fades. Maybe anxiety and the day to day of adulthood is hard on lucid dreaming.

Lately, I've come to believe there is even a lucidity to the waking state that is difficult to notice. There is an extra layer to reality that we lose when we are too tense and it is elusive. Carlos Casteneda comes to mind! I have had a few experiences lately where I have fallen back to a former state where things seem very flat and unconnected, almost like I'm looking at a photo instead of being immersed in reality. Those feelings have been scary, like I've thought they have to do with aging but it's just a new awareness I hope, of when I'm in and when I'm out.

Perhaps to lucid dream a person needs to feel the lucidity of reality. It can be very lucid. That has to be why we climb and do crazy things - to force the connection - otherwise we are cowering inside our skulls.
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 21, 2015 - 01:53pm PT
I had a climbing dream last night. I was at a bulging but low angle area of the rock I had to get around, and the only hand hold was a lie-back type hold that was no good until I got past it. I could pinch it, but it was pretty smooth, and that was when I realized I had no chalk. It was one of those moves that could be done without too much effort if the consequences were not dire. I could almost see beyond the bulge. There was even the voice of a young boy I could not see around the corner telling me I could do it. That may have been the point when I realized I had no rope on. At some point I realized I had bulky stiff mountain boots on instead of climbing shoes that I needed. At some point I looked down only to see that my landing would be on some rock islands jutting out of the water over 100 feet below. I tried to reach deeper into the small alcove where the lie-back hold was, only to find a loose rock. God, I stood there forever trying to get myself to make the move, but knew that if there were harder moves beyond, I could probably not reverse the slimy move without chalk. I finally got fed up with it and got the hell out of bed!!! Strangely enough I don't think I ever thought of just abandoning the climb and backing off while dreaming it. Wolves must have been after me.

A person could say, " How did I get here! "
McHale's Navy

Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 21, 2015 - 02:04pm PT
I miss the floating dreams, although I think I have only had them while traveling along sidewalks! When I had those I always thought I could hang onto 'how to do it' after waking.......Not! That feeling was like the feeling of something making sense while stoned. I have not had one of those dreams for awhile.....consequence of aging? Need to get stoned more!

Searching for awesome boulders sounds like a good dream theme though. Mind, get to it!
Messages 21 - 40 of total 57 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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