How to get comfortable scrambling over exposure again
A few years ago, I was comfortable and stoked with soloing up to about 5.5 in trail runners. I had a rescue incident, and ever since, I can’t seem to get out of my head on any sort of exposure above 4th class. I’ve been climbing roped a lot recently to try and break through this mental block, but I took my first fall leading a trad route and feel like I’m back at square one in terms of fear. Some of the the things I wrote down today while on a run/scramble:
When I stand up on top of stuff I get a teetering feeling like I can’t balance
I get scared committing to a move when I don’t know where the next hold will be
When I get scared, I freeze up and can’t just power through it
Curious if anyone has dealt with similar issues surrounding exposed scrambling and if so, how they got back on the horse to where they can cruise through exposed low 5th enjoyably again.
Posted Sep 6, 2026, 3:17 AM UTC