Finding the positive: the psychology of climbing

As part of our series looking at mental health and climbing we are delighted to host an exclusive Q&A session with Black Diamond athlete Hazel Findlay.

Watch the Q&A

On Thu 18 February, pro climber and mental training coach Hazel Findlay kindly spent an hour of her time responding to our climbers’ questions about mindset. 211 people attended our live event, but you can watch or rewatch the full event, which is 1 hour long, below. Captions are available.

About the event

Finding the positive: The psychology of climbing

Whether you are a complete novice or an experienced climber, head games can affect us all. Imposter syndrome may make you feel like you shouldn’t be at the wall, maybe you have a fear of falling or maybe you keeping letting your inner demons affect your ability to progress to the next grade.

Black Diamond athlete Hazel Findlay is not just a highly experienced pro-climber, but she regularly runs workshops on headgames. She kindly agreed to talk to TCA climbers about the psychology of climbing.

Get up close and personal with Hazel as she shares advice for tackling the psychological challenges that affect climbers.

The speaker

ABOUT HAZEL FINDLAY

Hazel Findlay has been climbing for 25 of her 31 years, and started out trad climbing on the limestone sea cliffs of Pembrokeshire. In her youth she enjoyed competition climbing – she was the British junior champion six times – but at 16 decided to give it up to focus on climbing on rock, especially trad climbing which is her main passion. Hazel has been a full-time climber for the last eight years, which has allowed her to travel all over the world climbing interesting pieces of rock.

Hazel was the first British woman to climb a trad route at E9, and free El Capitan in Yosemite, which she has now done three times. Hazel has also redpointed 8c (5.14b) sport and 8c+ trad and onsighted many 8as, loves all types of climbing from bouldering to alpine climbing and is especially interested in the mental challenge that climbing evokes.

This interest in psychology lead her to train as a coach so she could help others with their mindset and mental-management. Hazel specialises in helping people overcome fears and limitations so they can focus on the task at hand, perform at their best and enjoy climbing more than ever. Hazel has worked with people from all walks of life including: competitive athletes, new climbers, business clients, musicians and artists.

Sign up to the mailing list on Hazel’s website.
Listen to the Curious Climber podcast.
Follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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