She had encountered something that other activities lack: uncertainty. She then faced the reality that if she wanted to progress, she had to learn how to fall. On 27 and 28 April, she is offering the course ‘How to manage fear in climbing’ with Sputnik Formación, to learn how to fall and fully enjoy climbing. We spoke with her about her process of getting to know herself as a climber, facing her fear and, yes, learning to enjoy falling.
Daila has been climbing professionally for 15 years and climbing for 25. She has lived in Catalonia, one of the world’s epicentres of sport climbing, and although she mainly climbs on rock, she has also competed on the national circuit. In 2010, she completed Fish Eye, her first 8c, an achievement she reached thanks to a process of learning to face her fears, which allowed her to progress in climbing. She has now compiled all this experience to make it available to others and share what has helped her improve: learning to fall so she can enjoy climbing more.
How has your relationship with fear been over the last 25 years?
When I started climbing, I was already doing other sports. I had been surfing, catching waves in the Canary Islands and skateboarding, I was on a football team, I did athletics… all kinds of sports. And physically, my progress was always good. I was improving in sports and I was generally good at them.
But with climbing, it was like I loved the idea of climbing, but when I climbed, I didn’t enjoy it, I was afraid. I could see that I was strong, but I wasn’t progressing, and I realised that something wasn’t working, right? It was when I talked to friends who had more experience that they told me, ‘You know what? What you have is like a block, a psychological limitation.’ Something that had never happened to me with other sports because you don’t have to make certain kinds of decisions. The degree of uncertainty is different because there’s also the factor of falling, and that always limits you a bit.
