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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Jul 21, 2015 - 02:56pm PT
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Here's a piece I wrote for similar thread so some of you may have read it before:
Several winters ago I was on a road trip in British Columbia with my buddy from Seattle skiing obscure resorts and the backcountry. Nothing but great powder, enjoying each other’s company and the hospitality of the Canadians that would send us on into each evening throwing back beers, eating too much and crashing hard in cheap hotels
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After once such day I drifted into a deep sleep and experienced an intense dream. I was in the alpine of summer high on a ridge wedged into the top of a dihedral watching my friend climbing up solo on the smooth face of the open book toward me. He was moving very delicately on small holds, stopped looked up at me, straight into my eyes. Suddenly he pitched over backwards, I covered my eyes and startled awake before I heard the sound of his impact below. It was a very vivid dream and I laid there thinking wide awake what the hell was that all about?
The morning came and at breakfast I related the dream to my buddy assured him it wasn’t him who fell before we headed off into yet another epic day in BC. Didn’t think of it again until days end in a bar when I asked myself that same question, what the hell? Sobered up lying in bed later, reading and thinking about family back home it hit me like a brick, holy sh*t my oldest son is climbing in Patagonia! I immediately sprang up and called home to hear this, “there’s been an accident, Bobby is OK”.
Making a long story short he was climbing with two others, topped out along a ridge high in the alpine. Bobby went looking for a rap point and came back just in time to watch his buddies anchors fail as his friend rapped off the ridge. Luckily nothing more than a broken pelvis, ouch! Pretty weird, I watched my friend fall off and so did my son, approximately at the same time. I’m very close to my two boys, I can’t help but think some invisible energy on some level made me aware of what was happening.
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Jul 21, 2015 - 03:09pm PT
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Very cool story, Charlie D.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Jul 21, 2015 - 03:13pm PT
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not me.
never.
fuukin ever.
really.
i don't.
climbing is on the wrong side
of the mystery, for me.
it is very tangible.
and absolute.
usually i just dream
of yellow.
like the f*#king cuunt gone wrong.
that is my nocturnal destiny.
sour c#&%.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Jul 22, 2015 - 05:30am PT
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I don't dream of climbing, I have nightmares of falling
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jmacrosoft
Sport climber
Atlanta, GA
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Jul 22, 2015 - 11:07am PT
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About a month ago, I had the same dream 4 nights in a row. I was in the meadow in front of el cap. Each dream I got closer and closer until I finally touched it. Woke up that AM, booked my flight and my first trip to Yosemite. Talk about a calling!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jul 22, 2015 - 12:25pm PT
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Had a dream about returning to Valhalla and climbing on Angel Wings. Supposed to go back tomorrow! Hope my hamstring does not hold me back...
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 22, 2015 - 09:02pm PT
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It sure is ^^^^^^^^^^^
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Jan 16, 2017 - 08:10pm PT
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I am de-planeing at a small airport somewhere. I am with my partners Chris, Jack and Chan. My sleeping self is surprised to see Chan, as in awake life I have not climbed with him in, like, forever.
There are 3 climbing areas that we can get to from this airport. The two I favor are a little farther away, and I favor these because I have been to them before and I have the guidebooks. It’s a short trip, and I want to maximize the time we are actually climbing, rather than wandering around. Although these areas are farther away, I think that knowing the terrain will result in more climbing.
But the crew opts for the closest option. I don’t argue. In reality, it is more important for me just to be spending time climbing with my good friends.
We have a printed-out set of sketchy topos. We find the unimpressive cliffs, made of some kind of dark rock, spread out in a series of branching narrow canyons. I have that impatient, antsy feeling you have when you just really need to climb. I am trying to rack up but for some reason, I cannot see my gear very well. My dream self is surprised and annoyed to see that the large rocks and small brass nuts are on the same biner. How the hell did that happen? My sleeping self understands that this would only happen in a dream.
Jim Donini is sitting on the nearby cliff and makes fun of me a little bit for taking so much time to rack up. My sleeping self knows that Jim is not this way but my dream self rolls her eyes and walks to the base of the route.
It’s a half crack climb, half face climb in a dihedral. The line goes through a bulge about 30 feet up and I can’t see anything beyond that. It's rated 5.9 so I don't feel any fear. The route goes quickly. There are no anchors at the top so I set up a three piece anchor and top-rope so the others can do the route. Somehow we have been joined by a group of novice climbers and I know that they are all going to use my rope.
I wander off down the the stream bed and around the corner, looking for another cliff. I come to an old Victorian house. My sleeping self sees no issue with the fact that I have to pass through this house to get to the next cliff. But when I pass through to the back yard, there is nothing there in the distance except a large city. I go back through the house but when I exit the front door, the stream bed has disappeared and I don’t know where I am. I feel panicky and wake up.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2018 - 09:11pm PT
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It's amazing how often I dream about climbing - no doubt the result of not getting enough of the real thing. I sail a bit and don't really dream about that much. One sailing dream I do remember is falling asleep and ending up on the far side of a bay!
I dreamed about Mt. Everest the other night and had a day and a half window to get in there and do it. I should have gone for it. I saw one group that had come down and it looked like they were returning from a costume party! Everest can be fun.
Today though, I was wondering something about Alex Honnold and something about his dreams. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? I wish I could remember the train of thought - that in itself was like a dream - later today I remembered having the thoughts but couldn't, and still can't, remember the meat of it, like something forgotten after being stoned, but I wasn't stoned except for coffee! Is there anything we do that isn't guided by our dreaming, whether conscious or unconscious? It seems like those thoughts could intersect with whether or not we have free will! Oh no, not that! Anyway.....BUMP!
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john hansen
climber
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Nov 11, 2018 - 09:34pm PT
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I have never died in a dream, but one time I was climbing a a rock tower and it kept getting harder and harder until I could go no farther,,
That's when I realized it was a dream and created holds out to the right and scrambled up to top. Dreams are really fun.
What age are you in your dreams? I feel like I am in my 20's but I am pushing 60. That's why I like dreaming.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 11, 2018 - 09:51pm PT
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All the time! Frequently I’m bivying on a ledge about a foot wide, in the snow, without anchors.
I start sliding off only to awake and find La Femme has muscled me to the edge of the bed.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2018 - 10:20pm PT
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^^^^^^^^^I woke up after rolling around in bed when I was about 10 - I had been in a rowboat with Mickey Mouse that was tipping side to side.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
That's not dreamin.....
It's LSD trippin!
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Nov 11, 2018 - 11:21pm PT
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Falling is typical for me and its always a sketchy situation and I wake up sweating. I started paragliding and after a good day of flying which is always a little sketchy being a noob, my wife wakes me up because I have the imaginary "toggles" in my hands, arms up, and I'm flying in my dreams, waking her up.
I can't say much more other than both experiences require a lot of focus and personal reality of your position and I think that your brain needs to compartmentalize and you haven't yet. Yet I don't know. But you are not alone.
I once started dreaming in French when I was at College level French 4.....
S....
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Nov 12, 2018 - 06:33am PT
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I have had a recurring dream where the last third of an El Cap route became vertical vinyl school bus seats. Extremely monotonous repetition.
In other dreams there is a hotel on top of El Capitan, all routes right of the nose are bolt ladders with varying spaces of hook moves between gaps in the bolt ladders. The hotel at one time had an elevator that gave access to alcoves in the area between the King Swing and Camp 4, now abandoned with a weird assortment of stuff left behind.
Across the Valley to/or on the the right of Middle Cathedral, a hard free route(5.10dish with occasional pro, no bolts) ends with a similar abandoned Ahwahnee/lodge buildings. I have climbed this route a few times in my dreams, with different endings.
Some of my dreams are relativity realistic climbing, but many turned into weird fantasies.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 12, 2018 - 07:25am PT
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I very rarely have climbing dreams....given the amount of alpine I’ve done that’s probably a good thing.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Nov 12, 2018 - 07:45am PT
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When do I ever
not dream of climbing?
I dream of climbing buildings
Poles & stacks
Antenna graves, mausoleums
and keeps
right out of them
whenever passing anything steep
all the time,
All day
and
All night
awake asleep
All the time
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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Nov 12, 2018 - 01:04pm PT
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I've NEVER had a dream about climbing. I taught high school for 35 years, and often have dreams related to that. Had one last night.
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