Why does your brain take over during lead climbing, and what can you do about it? We spoke with two experts who shed light on the topic from different perspectives.
On January 25, 2026, Alex Honnold free soloed the Taipei 101. 508 meters of glass facade, no rope, no partner, live on Netflix. While millions worldwide held their breath, Honnold moved seemingly effortlessly upwards.
On the other hand, countless climbers struggle to confidently climb beyond the last bolt, whether on rock or in a climbing gym. For more than half of all climbers, the fear of falling is the decisive factor limiting their performance. So what happens in the brain when fear strikes? And above all: Is it something that can be worked on?
We spoke with Prof. Dr. Oliver Schultheiss from the Chair of General Psychology at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Prof. Dr. Katharina Luttenberger from the Psychiatric and Psychotherapeutic Clinic of the University Hospital Erlangen.
Why your brain takes control during lead climbing and what you can do about it
Lacrux: What happens to us when we feel fear – what happens in the body and brain?
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: There are stimuli that we've been given through evolution because our ancestors repeatedly had similar experiences. Those who weren't afraid of danger quickly died out. What remained were us, with an arsenal of fear responses. One of these is the fear of heights.
Areas in the brain responsible for these signals react very, very quickly. It's a kind of rough pattern recognition. First, there's the thalamus, deep within the brain, which relays information to the amygdala. The amygdala can trigger a fear or anxiety response even before we consciously notice it. It actually takes 20 to 30 milliseconds—not seconds, but milliseconds. Then, autonomic systems come into play: blood pressure, respiration, skin moisture, dilating pupils. The body is saying: Drop everything; this is the most important thing right now.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: When it comes to fear of falling, we always have to distinguish between the different situations we're in. There's the real fear – I'm standing on the slab, three meters above the bolt, it starts to rain, I'm about to slip and hurt myself. That's an objectively dangerous situation, and no amount of fall training in the world will help to eliminate that fear. And then there's the irrational fear: I know the anchor will hold, it's a good place to fall, and yet I'm still afraid. We always have to keep these two components separate. We want to reduce one of them therapeutically. We don't really want to reduce the other, because otherwise we become dangerously reckless.
An overview of brain regions
thalamus
A kind of distribution center deep in the brain. All sensory impressions – what we see, hear, feel – converge here and are relayed.
amygdala
It is located in the temporal lobe and is the brain's actual alarm center. The amygdala assesses incoming stimuli for their threat level within milliseconds and triggers the fear response long before we consciously feel fear.
Central Cave Grey (PAG)
It coordinates the classic survival reactions: fight, flight, freeze. When the amygdala sounds the alarm, the central gray matter takes over and shuts down higher brain functions.
Prefrontal cortex
Responsible for rational assessment, impulse control, and conscious decisions. He knows the safety mechanism will hold, but under severe stress, he is simply overruled by his brainstem.
hippocampus
It links experiences with their context. Positive experiences of falling create new entries here. Negative ones do too. The brain doesn't erase the old patterns, it only overlays them.
Why do some people naturally have a higher threshold for fear responses – is this genetically determined, learned, or both?
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: It's always a mix of both. There's nothing that's 100% genetically determined, and nothing that can be 100% learned. If my parents are afraid of heights, they'll pass those genes on to me, and they probably won't take me to the climbing gym either. So I have both: the genes and the learned experience.
I don't know if Alex Honnold is a fearless person. He certainly doesn't have a fear of heights and very little fear of falling – but perhaps he's afraid of spiders or arguments. You can be a person with low anxiety as a general trait and still react strongly with fear in certain situations.
What I can say is that he has certainly undergone extensive exposure training. The small remnants of his evolutionarily present fear of heights have probably been so overlearned through his experiences that they no longer play a role. He has practiced the route, he knows every move, he mentally rehearses it beforehand. It's not as if he jumps in there unprepared.
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: No matter where we start genetically, we can move a great deal in both directions through learning. I only need to have one bad experience in life, and I can massively raise my fear threshold. But I can also go in the other direction. And it's not just about reducing fear—reward processes also play a role. If I realize: I always end up in a safe place, I can let myself fall onto the rope and nothing happens, then something that was threatening becomes something that was rewarding. That changes the whole dynamic.
When a climber panics while lead climbing, what happens in their brain at that moment??
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: Our brain has a hierarchy of processing. When you enter a panic situation, the central gray matter in the brainstem tells you: "Now the worst-case scenario has occurred." And then our higher cognitive abilities are essentially strangled from below. The cortex is deactivated at that moment. We revert to relatively primitive behavioral reactions, which is why it's so incredibly difficult to reason with someone during an acute panic attack. It's like trying to grill a snowball.
We revert to relatively primitive behavioral reactions – which is why it's so incredibly difficult to reason with someone during an acute panic attack. It's like trying to grill a snowball.
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: A true panic attack is thankfully rare when lead climbing. I think there's a part that prevents it; you don't become completely incapacitated. What does happen is intense fear. And then it helps if someone can talk to you from below, or if I, as a coach, can go up and speak to the person at eye level. You try to belay them so they can let go. And then you wait.
Why does fear so often win out over reason, even though we rationally know that we are safe?
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: Because it makes sense. Because it has made sense in almost all evolutionary situations. We saw the saber-toothed tiger, ran away, and thought about it afterward. Better to act too early and unnecessarily than too late. Our environment has evolved far from the saber-toothed tiger, but we can't know that yet because we've only been living in these environments for a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms.
The best thing I can do in that moment is tell myself: Yes, that's okay. You're scared right now, that's normal, you're not stupid about it. You know it will pass. And the more often I've experienced this, the more I know: It will pass on its own and it won't kill me.
As soon as I start saying, 'Oh, why am I so scared now? I should know I don't need to be afraid' – then this self-deprecation only intensifies the fear. My sense of self-efficacy decreases, and I become even more afraid.
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: I would like to distinguish between awareness in the sense of 'I am aware of my feeling of anxiety' and conscious regulation, meaning 'I decide what I do with it'. These are two different things. I can certainly be aware of my anxiety and still effectively regulate it by saying: Yes, it's okay to be there for now, it will pass, that's just how it is.
What really happens during fall training, and why isn't it enough to simply fall often enough?
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: In psychotherapy, we usually treat anxiety with exposure training. In true exposure training, I stay in the situation until the anxiety subsides on its own, without the situation changing. Fall training is something completely different – in fall training, I change the situation because the person jumps and then they're back on the ground. These are two different mechanisms. I can't imagine a situation where I would set up a classic exposure exercise while lead climbing.
If someone hangs for 20 minutes and eventually lets go due to exhaustion, they experience a sense of uncontrollability. That's the opposite of what we want to achieve.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger
If someone hangs for 20 minutes and eventually lets go due to exhaustion, they experience a sense of being uncontrollable. And fear always has a strong element of: 'I'm in a situation I can't control.' That's why we structure fall training so that the person can decide at any given moment whether or not to fall – and also from what height. You can start on the ground, try top rope training, gradually increasing the fall distance. Step by step, always with a challenge, but never an overwhelming one.
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: What Professor Dr. Luttenberger describes, I would call mastery learning. You build something positive, something rewarding. And then something that was initially perceived as threatening becomes something rewarding. The grin on the face of those who dared to take this step could never be bigger. This isn't passive endurance, but rather the active development of competence.
If I realize that I can always reach a safe place, that I can let myself fall onto the rope and nothing happens – then something that was threatening becomes something rewarding. That changes the whole game.
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss
Properly structure fall training
Fall training only works if the climber maintains control at all times. Based on the recommendations of the German Alpine Club (DAV), Ms. Luttenberger suggests the following procedure:
Step 1 — Start on the ground: Falling backward while someone holds the rope. We're practicing the feeling of letting go.
Step 2 — Top Rope: Small falls with minimal rope sag. Determine the fall distance yourself.
Step 3 — Lead climbing close above or at the quickdraw: Fall from a safe position, hook spacing minimal.
Step 4 — Increase gradually: Gradually increase the drop distance and height, always ensuring that a sense of success is possible.
Important: Those who let go out of exhaustion, instead of making their own decisions, experience a sense of uncontrollability. This intensifies the anxiety instead of reducing it.
Why does fear often return after a long break from climbing?
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: Our brains remember everything that was once relevant with brute-force efficiency. Extinction isn't unlearning; it's active inhibition. The brain doesn't discard the reaction; it keeps it in the background and actively inhibits it. This inhibition weakens over time if I don't maintain the training. Then, when I return after a longer break, that fear is back—it was never gone, it was just masked.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: We act as if fear is independent of the situation. But it isn't. If I haven't climbed for two months, I'll have less strength. We tend to refuse to acknowledge this and jump right back in at the level where we left off. Then we realize: 'Aha, I thought it wasn't dangerous – but now I'm scared again. So it's probably much more dangerous than I thought.' And just like that, we've relearned fear. My advice: after a break, climb at a lower difficulty than before. Why not? A grade 4 climb where I'm not afraid gives me more than a grade 6 climb where I suffer terribly.
What role does sleep play in processing experiences of fear?
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: Sleep is crucial for consolidating learning processes – this also applies to what we learned during fall training. Memory processes initiated during the day are reinforced during sleep. This means that a good training session with positive fall experiences also requires sleep afterward so that what has been learned is truly consolidated. Those who sleep poorly and are exhausted give their brains less time to anchor new patterns.
Many climbers are familiar with this pattern: They know they could fall, but still don't dare. What's behind it?
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: Fear of falling always has multiple layers. It can be a lack of trust in the equipment, in the belayer, in one's own technique, or simply the fear of losing control. It's essential to identify the dominant cause, as this will change the approach.
What almost always becomes apparent is this: the more I try to suppress or eliminate fear, the more I convince myself that fear is something dangerous. And that's how the fear of fear itself arises. That's the difference between the goal of 'climbing without fear' and the goal of 'being able to manage fear'. The latter is realistic and achievable. The former usually leads in the wrong direction.
That's the difference between the goal of 'climbing without fear' and the goal of 'being able to deal with fear'. The latter is realistic and achievable. The former usually leads in the wrong direction.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger
Can breathing be used deliberately as a tool?
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: Absolutely. Fear changes breathing: With fear, the emphasis is on inhaling, on forced, held breaths. The opposite of this – slow, deep exhalation – is its direct counterpart. The slower and deeper I breathe, the more I signal to my body: You're not actually afraid – because you're not behaving like someone who is.
Body and emotions are not separate entities. This means: I can calm anxiety on a physical level, and I can calm it on a mental level. Both work.
You can take this a step further and consciously associate a specific posture with a feeling of security. For example, heels down, arms extended, a quick shake. Over time, this posture will automatically evoke that feeling.
What is your most important piece of advice for climbers who want to work on their fear of falling?
Prof. Dr. Schultheiss: There's no shortcut. There's no neurobiological pill. What helps is the principle of the zone of proximal development—a term coined by the psychologist Vygotsky. What can I already do? That's a piece of cake for me. And back there, where it's really difficult—I can't manage that. But the zone in between: that's where I find the next step. Not underchallenging, not overchallenging. Learning to repeatedly find precisely the point where I can push myself a little further forward. Then, someday, I too can climb that Taipei Tower—because Honnold didn't do it any differently.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger: Build it up gradually. The goal isn't to get through the situation without fear. It's about mastering the situation, recognizing where I'm afraid, and reacting appropriately. Then I won't even let the fear of fear arise in the first place. And if you enjoy it yourself, you don't care so much what others think.
Key facts at a glance
Fear is not failure – it is an evolutionarily sensible reaction that is simply miscalibrated in the context of a secured climbing hall.
Fall training only works in small steps. The brain measurably absorbs small successes better than maximum confrontation. Giving up out of exhaustion gains nothing.
Control is crucial – Anyone who feels compelled to fall experiences a feeling of helplessness. The opposite of what helps.
After a break, start with a lower grade. A four-pointer with a sense of accomplishment is more valuable than a six-pointer with panic. Give your brain time to readjust to the situation.
Use breathing Slow, deep exhalation provides direct access to the nervous system. Singing also works.
Prof. Dr. Luttenberger and Prof. Dr. Schultheiss
That might interest you
- Alex Honnold's free solo at Taipei 101 – the date is set.
- Alex Honnold and Magnus Midtbo again on Free Solo Mission
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From my perspective, perhaps a step is missing: consciously exposing oneself to problems that one almost certainly won't solve on the first attempt, between two quickdraws. Learning to climb into situations with a safe fall zone where there's a high chance of falling, or where one is supposed to fall?