Approaching Highballs
Approaching Highballs By: Jake Tiger Have you ever found yourself wanting to climb a boulder outdoors but been intimidated by the landing? Have you been inspired to climb a highball but worry about how you may fall or if you’ll injure yourself? Your safety and success on the higher boulders will come from your confidence, built from an awareness of your surroundings, as well as from the preparation of your mind and body to have instinctive reflexes during a fall and the mobility required to take such impacts. My personal favorite thing about climbing is having uninterrupted, continual upwards movement on the rock. That means no gear placement, no clipping—just having the freedom to climb, move after move. This feeling for me has only really been found in deep water soloing (DWS), free soloing, and highball bouldering. The lines are often blurred between soloing and highballing because sometimes on a highball, we pass that point of no return where a fall co...