On the Dream Experiences of Big Wall Climbers
A Pilot Study by Charles Winstead
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Subject: Dreams on Big Walls From: puntalejos@aol.com (Puntalejos) Date: 23 Apr 1995 23:09:00 -0400 Message-ID: 3nf4oc$aoi@newsbf02.news.aol.com> I'd like to hear if you have had any unique dreams while sleeping overnight on big walls. Basically, what I am interested in is whether the location and circumstances have an effect on the type and content of dreams. Please send a brief report of the dream including: Location (What route, what pitch, etc.) Dream content (What was the dream about ...) Any thing else you may think is significant about the dream and the fact that it occurred while sleeping on a big wall. Thanks, Puntalejos@AOL.com
This request elicited five direct responses,
and a few flames. Flames were ignored as non-responses and the
following five responses were kept for analysis:
From: JB
When I climbed the Triple Direct on El Cap while sleeping @ Camp
6, I had a very strange dream. I had a dream in which I was being
tortured by having my fingers hit with a hammer. My partners were
entertained by my talking in my sleep saying such things as No,
No, Stop. While doing the route my fingernails had been really
worn down, and the pain was incorporated into my dream. A little
aspirin and I was fine.
From: PW
Here's a good one. My first wall was the Nose, I was terrified.
Sleeping on El Cap Tower, 1500' up. It's a very flat ledge, about
3'wide, making a 90 degree corner with the wall. It smells like
urine there.
A restless night, I had my face pointed toward the corner because
I didn't like the idea of rolling off the ledge. I dreamt I was
in jail, but I couldn't remember what I was in jail for. The 90
degree. stone wall and floor, the urine, and the fear all
combined. This lasted for a few seconds after I woke up, then I
thought "Oh shit! I wish I was in jail- I've got two more
days of terror on El Cap before it's over!"
Afterwards I would say that route was the most intense and
rewarding one I've ever done. I've done other walls, but like
sex, you don't forget your first one.
From: GM
I haven't done (been done by??) a wall since the passing of the
"iron age", i.e., when a 60 pin rack weighed 50 lbs. or
so... but in that era, especially one period of time, I was
probably best described as a wall-rat, i.e., over 31 days, 26 or
27 were spent off "the ground". (nose, muir, dihedral,
NW face, south face, gobi wall etc. - all the standards).
But, to dream? who had the energy to do such? what I remember
best of peapod nights were how nice the hammock felt in the
evening, how fast/easy one fell asleep, how deep the sleep was...
and how totally crushed the shoulders felt by morning... and how
long partners bitched the following day about the snoring
"machine" that kept them awake all night... ;-)
I wonder if the change in the character of wall climbing
doesn't/won't have an effect on this [dreaming], i.e., in the
late 60's, early 70's, big wall climbing was more of: reach the
base, bang in the first placement, clip it, step up, and repeat
(for the next n days), while carrying at least one and maybe two
racks - very physical, but brain dead work. Today with clean
climbing, the racks are much lighter, and the focus is on high
standard climbing - much more brain taxing, a la, could this be
more like trying to sleep after a protracted heated discussion,
vs. after a three hour (how about 14 hr) run.
From: HJ
You mean people actually get some sleep on walls? :)
My first wall bivvy was on the North Face of East Quarter Dome in
Yosemite; I'd been climbing 8 months. Chuck Carlson and I were
wrapped up in spare rope and slings trying to keep ourselves on
this piece-of-shit "ledge." Chuck's spot was about 10
times worse than mine and yet he snored loudly all night (I know,
cuz I was awake to hear it).
I still remember lying there for hours staring at the campfires
on the shoulder of Mt. Watkins thinking how much I would give to
trade places with anyone on that side of the canyon.
I think I slept 10 minutes, and the only dream I had was that I
stayed up all night.
From: EB
Well, not a wall, but last weekend we had to bivvy on top of a
climb. We had some warm clothes, but no sleeping bags, etc...
I kept dreaming that I was dreaming about being stuck on a climb.
In the dream in my dream I thought to myself, "Hey, if I
just wake up everything will be ok." At which point I would
wake up and we'd still be there...
Due to the small sample size and the brevity of the protocols, I will not be doing a full phenomenological analysis of these dream reports. Rather, I will discuss each dream separately and conclude with a discussion of their common themes.
In summary, there seems to be three common themes.
These dreams were reported from Yosemite climbing experiences.
These dreams did not show clear boundaries between waking and
sleeping. And these dreams had negative or unpleasant content.
YOSEMITE: Yosemite National Park is a world renown climbing area.
El Capitan has without a doubt the most widely recognized profile
of any other rock face in the world. It is not too surprising
that climbing in this area engenders memorable experiences.
NO CLEAR BOUNDARIES BETWEEN WAKING AND SLEEPING: There are at
least two ways that this theme may be understood. This theme may
reflect the possibility that these climbers were not able to
achieve a very deep sleep while on their respective big walls.
Another possibility may be that the climbing experience has such
an overwhelming sensory impact that it forces itself into the
dream content.
NEGATIVE OR UNPLEASANT CONTENT: I must admit that I was surprised
by this theme. However, there may be several explanations for the
overwhelmingly negative content of the dreams reported. It may be
that such dreams have a greater impact, resulting in a longer
memory retention than pleasant dreams. Another interpretation may
result from reviewing the question that was originally asked. I
asked climbers to report on "unique" dreams, and it may
be that only negative or unpleasant dreams were considered
unique.
I wonder what kind of response I might have gotten if I had
asked climbers to report on "any" dreams they may have
had while sleeping overnight on big walls. It seems likely that
"ordinary" dreams would not have been reported due to
their very ordinariness, and I would still have received reports
of the "unique" dreams.
I would like to end this paper with some suggestions for
future research and a few comments on using computer networks for
phenomenological research.
Future research projects may inquire about the "any"
dreams mentioned above. Other projects may ask climbers to
describe dreams they have had about climbing, but not necessarily
occurring while sleeping on big walls. I, for one, have had
climbing dreams which have some similarity to flying dreams.
Instead of flying in the sky, I am climbing freely and
effortlessly Some projects may attempt to incorporate positive
and creative visualization into the dream in an attempt to
improve climbing performance.
There are several advantages as well as several disadvantages to
doing research on computer networks. Until the final
draft, this has been a paper-less project. This has an
environmental advantage, no trees were cut down for this project.
All research and writing has been done right here, at home, with
a computer and a modem. Via the Internet, I have been in contact
with climbers from around the world. I have saved many dollars
and much time, by avoiding the previous necessity of travel. My
request was available to a large number of people, and my
co-researchers were both self- selected and anonymous. All
participants independently chose to participate so power dynamics
were not an issue. Because anonymity was assured, all
participants could feel free to fully disclose their dream
reports without confidentiality concerns.
This anonymity also creates some disadvantages. I have no
personal contact with my co-researchers, all body language is
invisible, and the warmth of human contact is impossible. Due to
the type of contact involved, most replies were extremely brief
and there was only a limited possibility of follow-up interviews.
I have posted this report back to rec.climbing allowing this
project to realize a full circle from asking the question to
presenting the results. This is more than a paper for a class,
this is my small contribution to a "virtual" community
of climbers whose common ground or town square exists in the
electronic space of rec.climbing
(Internet/Usenet).
Original Page design, Richard Wilkerson