Climbing is the activity of using one’s hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep object. It is done for locomotion, recreation and competition, in trades that rely on it, and in emergency rescue and military operations. It is done indoors and out, on natural and man-made structures.
Climbing is a mode of transport that today is mainly operated as a sport and leisure activity on the rock or in the hall in different variants. In most cases, certain climbing routes are climbed through. Usually the climber is secured by his climbing partner with a rope against falling.
Variants of climbing
The transitions between the different variants of climbing are fluid, often they can not be clearly separated. A distinction must be made between the sporty oriented climbing of climbing species, which only serve to reach inaccessible places as well as professional activities.
Alpine climbing
When Alpinklettern usually need several pitches high rock walls or pillars to be overcome. Since the climbers are completely or partially on their own depending on the accessibility and extent of the wall, careful route planning and selection as well as knowledge of stand construction, abseiling and recovery techniques are required. Even if the alpine climbing is classified as free climbing, it may be necessary to use technical climbing to avoid wasting time in places where the climber can not find a free climbing solution and thus endanger the rope team.
Due to the ever better equipment and the increased level of performance of the climbers, the idea of sports is now also being used in alpine climbing, which is expressed in the form of the so-called alpine sport climbing. Here, an attempt is made to move the performance limit upwards, even in alpine multi-pitch routes.
Technical climbing
In technical climbing, the rope and a variety of tools – up to ladders and climbing clamps – are used for locomotion. This type of climbing started in the years after the First World War, peaked in the 1960s and remained very popular until the 1970s and 1980s. Today, technical climbing is used only sporadically, usually in free climbing attempts to overcome otherwise not climbable places.
Bigwall Climbing
The big wall climbing is the Beklettern very high rock walls such. Such as those in the Yosemite Valley in the US, in the Paklenica National Park in Croatia, in Norway or in Pakistan. As a rule, bigwalls are mostly carried out technically. Although the increased performance of the top climbers has meant that some of the former techno lines in the Yosemite have now been climbed free, so is due to the compactness of the rock – mostly granite- the free ascent for most aspirants a utopia. Since technical climbing is much more time-consuming than a free walk and also requires a huge amount of material, it may be necessary to bring food and bedding to sleep in the wall.
Free-climbing
When free climbing may be used to move only the rock and your own body. Rope and technical aids serve only to protect against crashes, but not the locomotion (the term thus does not describe, as is often assumed, climbing without safety, which in this context is called free solo). The climbing routes are usually equipped with rock hooks or must be secured with hooks, wedges, Friends or belt loops.
This type of climbing has been around since the late 19th century u. a. practiced in Saxon Switzerland and also in the Eastern Alps. Outstanding representatives here were Paul Preuß and Rudolf Fehrmann. The latter defined for the Elbsandsteingebirge for the first time firmly defined rules. In Europe, free climbing fell behind especially in the Alpine region with the advent of technical climbing, and was only rediscovered in the 1970s and 1980s by the Western European climbers who had copied it in the Saxon Switzerland and the United States. It is the most popular form of climbing today.
In free climbing different variants can be distinguished:
Sport climbing
Sport climbing is a variant of free climbing, in which the sporting aspect is in the foreground. Sports climbing routes are usually secured with numerous fixed safety points to minimize the risk of a fall. Sport climbing is operated on artificial structures (climbing gyms) as well as on natural rocks, in so-called climbing gardens. The athletes can compete in regional, national and international competitions, which are usually carried out on art walls.
Indoor climbing
With the proliferation of climbing gyms in commercial or club-operated hands (by DAV), indoor climbing has become established as a sporting activity for many climbers. An increasing number of climbers see climbing in the hall as a pure balancing sport. Indoor climbing is weather-independent and provides easy access to climbing. In particular, many educational institutions use climbing gyms to provide a varied and safe physical education. The indoor climbing permits climbing species bouldering, top roping and lead climbing, Due to indoor climbing, performance levels in climbing competitions have increased significantly in recent years. Due to intensive youth work and age-appropriate training, peak performance in climbing can be achieved at a very young age. Climbing has opened up new areas for climbing.
Bouldering
Bouldering is the climbing of boulders at bounce height. In bouldering, the emphasis is usually on shorter (not so high), just a few moves long so-called “(boulder) problems” that sometimes difficult, even in climbing unusual movements require. A safety rope is not necessary for this purpose, for damping of falls Crashpad called mats are used. In addition to crash pads, the assistance of one or more backup partners, called a spotter, may be necessary. The spotter should not be the climberJust make sure it lands safely on the crashpad and does not get injured on rocky terrain. For overhanging boulders, the spotter ensures that the climber lands on the crashpad with his feet first in case of a fall. It can be bouldered on both natural rocks and art walls, and bouldering is a discipline of competition climbing.
Building Climbing
From the sport climbing, in particular from the bouldering, meanwhile developed a new subspecies, the building climbing. It takes place – not infrequently illegally – on facades and architectural monuments. The most well-known representative of this kind to climb is the Frenchman Alain Robert, who also usually climbs Free Solo.
Another type of buildering is the legal, secured climbing on buildings converted to climbing facilities, as practiced, for example, on a former air raid shelter in Berlin.
Speedclimbing
Speed climbing is about climbing a route in as short a time as possible. This is done both on the rock (in free or technical climbing) as well as on artificial walls (usually in the form of competitions).
Free Solo
In the Free Solo is dispensed to all forms of auxiliary and security funds. A single mistake usually causes a crash, which is why this type of climbing is often considered the most dangerous and spectacular.
Deep Water Soloing
Deep Water Soloing (DWS), also called Psicobloc, is unsecured climbing over deep water. In case of a fall, the climber is caught by the water.
Climbing in special terrain
Via Ferrata Walking
Via ferratas are secured ascents or climbing routes with fixed securing devices such as ladders and steel cables. The climber is connected by a safety device – the via ferrata set – to the steel cable or the ladder. Depending on the level of difficulty, the contact with the rock is often replaced by artificial steps and ladders. So there are used technical aids for locomotion.
Ice climbing and mixed climbing
Ice climbing is the climbing of ice formations such as frozen waterfalls and icicles. The climbers use crampons and ice tools (special ice picks) to climb the ice and attach intermediate fenders in the form of ice screws. As unrestricted (rock) spots can occur in the approach or in the course of a route, mixed climbing developed as a special form of ice climbing.
Cave climbing
The term cave climbing is colloquially used for locomotion in a cave and is not a defined climbing style. It can just be about going and slipping. In the same way simple places can be climbed freely or knitting and aluminum ladders are used. For driving on shafts, the rope technique is used.
Rescue climbing
A special form of technical climbing is the mountain rescue trained climbing, which requires a highly equipped repertoire of additional technology in order to be able to carry out salvage operations as well as self-defense. Today, the combination of climbing access to the accident site and helicopter support is common practice, which requires further specialization in engineering.
Under this theme also alpinist basic knowledge such as the comrades rescue at Verstieg in the exposed terrain, self-rescue from the crevasse by means of Prusiktechnik or basic security measures for the emergency descent, as taught in alpine courses.
Climbing as a professional activity
To reach places not otherwise accessible, the use of climbing techniques is necessary in some occupational fields (workplace positioning). This developed from the technical climbing, but especially from the single rope technique of caving, but now have an independent repertoire of techniques, methods and materials as well as its own legal basis in terms of security.
For example, rope – assisted access techniques are used for cleaning, maintenance and installation work in inaccessible areas such as skyscraper facades.
In forestry and tree care, rope-assisted tree-climbing techniques are used to care for or fell trees.
In addition, the “Rescue climbing” has evolved to a running in this civilizational environment variant, special groups for rescue operations on buildings, there are now also in rescue services such as the fire department and other rescue services. For the rescue warranty in the commercial sector, there are also commercial providers of height rescue.
T5 climbing
A variant of the GPS-based geocaching scavenger hunt is the T5 climbing cache. The T5 stands for the terrain rating (Terrain 5 of 5). A logbook, similar to a summit book, is deposited in a small container (the so-called cache) in an inaccessible without aids. This position has to be climbed to be able to register. Since there may be a cache in a variety of places, such as mountain peaks, buildings, old electricity pylons, trees, tunnels, etc., a variety of different climbing techniques can be used, some of which must be combined and adapted to the respective requirements. An example of this would be the construction of a cable car to reach a point where you would not otherwise be able to secure yourself.
Committing routes
When going on a route is often not only important if a route has been climbed, but also how. The possibilities to climb a route are differentiated, namely for safety-related (leading, following, toprope) and sporting (onsight, flash, red dot) aspects.
Advance
When climbing, the climber is secured by the belayer from the point where he started climbing up or sideways. Thus, it is secured from below or from the side. At certain intervals, the climber hangs the rope in intermediate safety devices. Intermediate fuses can either already be present (rings, hooks) or must be attached by the precursor himself (clamping wedges, Friends, knot loops). In the event of a fall, he then falls under the last interim protection until the rope is tightened.
Lintel depth = rope elongation + slack rope + 2 × (distance from the last intermediate safety device to the fall site).
The most dangerous situation is thus given in principle, if no interim protection is mounted. This can lead to falls with contact with the ground or, in the case of multi-pitch routes, the maximum fall factor 2 if the climber falls past the belayer. The “correct falls” can be trained through practice, ie deliberate falls in safe terrain best under professional guidance. The resulting body control significantly reduces the risk of injuring yourself during a fall.
The most harmless are falls in the lead with hinged tether in heavily overhanging terrain, since there the risk of injuring itself by wall contact, is significantly reduced. But also here the fall must be learned, since the falling end can be irritated by the seemingly small injury danger often and thereby unzentrierter climbs / crashes. In very simple, terraced terrain should not be overthrown if possible, because the climber gets wall or floor contact before the rope is tightened.
A fall of the climber results in a very high energy, which is reduced by the rope elongation in the rope and the belayer. Therefore, according to the German Alpine Association (DAV), the climber should have a maximum of 1.3 times the weight of the belayer, otherwise the belayer in a fall of the climber experiences too strong acceleration and lose control of the rope. The acceleration is caused by the tensile force of the rope. It can lead to a fall of the climber. If the weight factor (weight difference of climbing partners) is greater, additional measures should be taken to minimize the risk of injury.
Follow Up
If you climb in multi- pitch routes for two (in “Zweier Seilschaft “) or in three (“Dreierseilschaft”), the first climber steps up. As soon as he has reached and set up a stand, in other words a suitable place in the rock, the other climbers can climb. The ascending climber is spatially under the backup partner and climbs up to him. In order to save time and a change of stand, it is common for the climber to climb further in the lead and one pitch above the backup partner to set up the next stand.
During the ascent, the rope comes from above as in toprope climbing. Nevertheless, falls do not always run as harmless as in toprope climbing, as in alpine terrain often stepped terrain or traverses with pendulum fall danger can be found.
Climbing in climbing gyms or ropes courses is unusual, because it rarely climbs over several pitches and it requires no special training. However, setting up a stand here can be technically well practiced for everyone.
Toprope
In toprope climbing the safety rope runs from the belayer up, there by a diversion and back down to the climber. The safety rope thus comes from above; hence comes the English name. If the climber falls during toprope climbing, he does not fall deeply and is gently caught due to the rope stretch. The fall height is mainly dependent on the length and elasticity of the rope and the sag of the rope, called Schlappseil.
After the climber reaches the end of the route (or desire, time or force more has), he sits down “the ropes” and the belayer drained.
For the first time, toprope climbing is usually practiced just above the ground as you sit in the rope. It often takes a little overcoming for beginners to let go of the grips with their hands and confide their weight to the rope. It is easier for some to hold onto the rope with one hand and then release the handles.
Toprope is often used as a form of safety in climbing gyms or climbing gardens, the risk is considered to be low compared to climbing on the top. Almost all climbers make their first climbing experiences with Toprope security. In addition, it is common to boulder difficult routes to Toprope (that is, try out the individual climbing trains before climbing the whole route).
Skill
Above all, in free climbing, in addition to the pure difficulty of a route, it is important to specify the type of approach in which the route was taken. Accredited services are only those inspections that have been carried out in the red dot or a higher quality style, ie in the lead and in free climbing.
Rating of routes
Difficulties of different climbing routes are comparable to difficulty scales on which the difficulty of the route is assessed. There are different scales of difficulty worldwide, some of which have developed independently of each other and set different priorities in the evaluation. Therefore, it is often very difficult to compare the individual scales.
International free climbing is based on the French difficulty scale. The open-top scale currently has difficulty levels from 1 to 9b +. From the second to the third degree, the levels are divided into a, b and c and can be marked by an additional “+” for a higher difficulty. In Germany, the upward open UIAA scale is common for the evaluation of free climbing routes, which currently ranges from I (easy) to XI + / XII (degree achieved by a few professionals). The individual grades can still be divided into plus (heavier) and minus (lighter). In eastern Germany, especially in Saxon Switzerland and the Zittau Mountains, the Roman numeralswritten Saxon scale, which is currently until the XII. Degree is enough. In this case, a differentiation is made from the VII degree into a, b and c. In addition to the mentioned scales, there are many more. Among other things, the American, Australian and British scales are currently being used more frequently, with the British scale including, in addition to the sheer difficulty, a rating for the seriousness, ie the danger occurring in the event of a fall.
As with free climbing, there are difficulty scales for most other forms of climbing. For example, boulder problems are marked with the Fontainebleau scale, among other things. Ice climbing is mainly the Water-Ice-scale use, reflecting in particular the slope of the ice.
Climbing techniques
In general, the physical effort made in the climbs is of a discontinuous type and requires a good maximum strength and resistance to effort.
Climbing techniques are many and quite varied; they may be different by virtue of each person’s unique characteristics such as, for example, individual style, knowledge received from more experienced “masters” or climbers, physical conformation and psychomotor coordination.
The intrinsic danger associated with this sport requires that their learning always takes place under the custody of a titled person. In this sense, it is worth pointing out that the Italian Law reserves the prerogative of the outdoor teaching of climbing techniques to alpine guides, on a professional level, and to the CAI Schools on a non-professional level.
Tools used
Apart from the aforementioned climbing shoes, the tools used can be both insurance and specific tools for artificial climbing. Eg:
Harness or harness (but also harness or harness);
Brake: the instrument for the insurance of the partner;
Descender: used for rope descent maneuvers;
Carabiner
Reference: system of two karabiners connected by a nylon or dyneema webbing to hook the rope to an anchor point limiting the friction;
Rock nails: usually in steel, there are various shapes and sizes, depending on the type of rock and the crack in which you want to place it;
Nut (or nut): small blocks of metal (usually steel) used interlocking, in the cracks of the rock, to act as a point of insurance;
Friend: small tools with variable geometry cams that, embedded in rock cracks, act as an insurance point;
Lanyards: nylon, kevlar or dyneema;
slings
Rurp: particular type of rock nail, mainly used in artificial climbing;
Brackets
Cliffhanger (called, more or less properly, also with many other names: cliffs, treble hooks, sky-hooks, hooks, etc.)
Copperhead: particular type of nut, for extreme artificial climbing.
The Caruso method
One of the climbing techniques is based on the so-called ” Caruso ” method, developed by the alpinist and mountain guide Paolo Caruso. This method is useful in setting up the students, in fact it rationalizes and schematizes the various movements in the approach to rock climbing.
To achieve this goal, Caruso has identified some positions and some “fundamental” progressions. Among these, the so-called “triangle”, in which the position of the center of gravity of the body is always within an imaginary triangle, in fact, consisting of at least three points of contact with the rock wall (two feet and one hand or vice versa). You can therefore hold on with your hands and place only one foot, which is at the top of an inverted triangle, or you can hold one hand and support both feet, always forming a triangle.
Learn how to climb
Various organizations (eg Alpine clubs or regional IG climbing) as well as commercial climbing schools offer courses for almost all types of climbing. Nowadays, there are climbing gyms covering all areas where sport climbing and bouldering can be learned and trained. Climbing walls are also installed in some schools, and climbing is often integrated into lessons there.
Organization
Climbing is a sport that is largely self-organized and in principle manages without governing associations. Thus, joining an association for the practice of climbing is not necessary. (New) sporting or ethical developments (for example, the free climbing or the outlawing of rock manipulations) are propagated primarily by the climbers themselves.
The development of new routes is mostly done by local resident climbers. Until successful passage through a neuroute, this is called a project. It is customary to mark a project as such. After a successful ascent, the first climber of the route gives a name and assesses the difficulty to give the repeaters an indication of the nature of the route. The final level of difficulty then usually crystallizes after several visits by other climbers, who check the evaluation suggestion of the first visit. Neurouta are often published today in journals or on Internet climbing sites.
Climbing guides are available to the climber for orientation on the rock, which usually include access sketches, directions, possible climbing restrictions and topos, ie sketches of the routes on a rock.
Degree of difficulty
Climbing and mountaineering assigns a degree of difficulty to climbing routes on rock, ice and mountaineering routes. The operation of assigning a grade to a street is called quoting or grading and is carried out by the openers and the first repeaters of the street.
The various disciplines of climbing and mountaineering use different scales of difficulty and moreover depending on the countries (Europe, United States) there can be different scales:
free climbing: the most used difficulty scale is the French one, expressed by a number (3 – 9) followed by a letter (a – c). The “+” symbol for intermediate degrees is also used. There are also other scales such as the UIAA, the United States, England or Australia.
artificial climbing: a scale of six grades increasing from A0 to A5 (plus a seventh one) is used based on the difficulty and quantity of artificial instruments used.
mountaineering difficulty: even in mountaineering, a scale of difficulty of French origin is mainly used, describing altogether the values of length, difficulty and exposure of the route. The degree is expressed by the letters F, PD, AD, D, TD, ED, and ABO.
ice climbing: we use a difficulty scale called WI, Water Ice, which goes from WI1 to WI7.
Mixed climbing: using a difficulty scale called M, Mixed which goes from the M1 to the M13.
Climbing and risk
Climbing is perceived by many as a particularly dangerous occupation, with occasional reports of deaths in the media. The presentation of particularly spectacular and risky climbing actions in the media could have contributed to this assessment. Climbers on the other hand argue that their sport can be practiced very safely by the correct application and improvement of the safety technology.
In fact, the number of serious accidents compared to the number of climbers is low. This is especially true for sport climbing, which is usually operated on well protected routes. In contrast to rock climbing, which has limited statistical data available, there are several meaningful accident risk statistics for indoor climbing, which all show a low accident risk (0.6% accident risk per athlete per year, or 0.016% per climbing day for injuries all severities). The main accident source of rare severe accidents is human error, rope tears occur under normal conditions in the climbing garden and proper use since the introduction of modern kernmantel ropesvirtually no longer in the 1960s. Even in the most risky form of climbing, the free solo climbing, in which a single error usually leads to the fatal crash, it rarely comes to accidents because normally only climbers who the great psychological and climbing technical burdens have really grown, take these risks. In addition, the statistics show that most serious accidents do not happen while climbing the rock, but when entering the rock or at the foot of the mountain / rock, for example by rockfall, Nevertheless, climbing, especially climbing in an alpine environment like all mountain sports, remains a sport with certain risks. Dangers to life and limb can be reduced, but not ruled out.
In order to minimize the risk of an accident, it is advised to carefully learn the safety technology and to observe the recognized safety rules. Information on this can be obtained from the sections of the various Alpine associations (Deutscher Alpenverein, Österreichischer Alpenverein, Alpenverein Südtirol, Schweizer Alpen-Club). In addition, since the beginning of 2005, the Austrian Alpine Club and the German Alpine Club have offered the opportunity to have their skills in securing and climbing confirmed by a test. Who passes the exam, receives the so-called climbing certificate.
Injuries
A British study looked at the incidence of climbing injuries:
40 percent finger injuries
16 percent shoulder injuries
12 percent elbow injuries
5 percent knee injuries
5 percent back injuries
4 percent wrist injuries
Calluses, dry skin
Dry and stressed hands are a very uncomfortable problem for climbers. From regular contact with rock and rope climbers often develop calluses on the hands, which can be torn and very painful. This type of injury is also known as a flapper.
In addition, the used Magnesia dries hands.
There is a selection of products for climbers that keep calluses elastic, moisturize the hands and shorten the recovery time.
Conservation
Since climbing is traditionally practiced in the wild, and rocks often harbor sensitive ecosystems, the sport’s popularity has led to conflicts between climbers’ needs and environmental concerns. Representatives of nature protection point out that the rocks often sensitive habitats form and home to rare plants and animals (especially birds) were. The environmental aspect should be given priority and the recreational interest of the climber must resign behind it in case of doubt. In extreme cases, the opinion is voiced that climbing should only be done on artificial plants in order to preserve nature as much as possible.
Climbing athletes are particularly troubled by rock-breeding bird species such as eagle owl and peregrine falcon. In the breeding season undisturbed rocks or quarries are vital for these species, which can reach to the independence of the boys from February to August. How difficult the consequences of unregulated climbing sports in Uhulebensräume can be in extreme cases are shown by many years of observations by the Society for the Conservation of Owls in the Eifel. In order to solve this problem, numerous temporary closures were agreed by IG Climbing and other associations during the breeding season of rare birds. In 2011, the biologists Christoph Reisch and Frank Vogler from Regensburg came to the conclusion that climbing had a negative effect on the seed dispersal of rare plants such as the yellow starfowl (Draba aozides) and that the genetic variability of the hunger flower on climbing rocks was limited, It was questioned by the IG Klettern Basel, as smooth, low-vegetation zones, which have fewer habitat possibilities, are better suited for climbing than brittle, overgrown areas.
In order to prevent the negative effects of climbing sport on nature, climbing concepts have been developed by the IG Klettern and other associations for most areas, which mostly restrict climbing on a small scale based on voluntary regulations in such a way that consideration is given to plant and animal welfare. Many therefore argue that environmental protection and climbing are compatible with relatively small restrictions for climbers. It is precisely the exercise of sport in the wild that promotes a bond with nature and the interest in preserving it. When introducing environmental protection measures, one should therefore take into account the interests of the climbers. All in all, climbing should be regulated as little as possible and necessary restrictions (such as the blocking of rocks) should be minimized. In Bayern is a corresponding procedure for the creation of climbing strategies between IG climbing, DAV and government regulated by contract.
The situation in the Federal Republic is currently uneven. In many areas, the advocacy groups of climbers, such as the IG Klettern and the German Alpine Club (DAV), develop compromise solutions that take into account the preservation of climbing opportunities as well as environmental protection. While in some climbing areas almost all rocks were completely blocked – for example, in North Rhine-Westphalia – Climbing is possible in other regions unhindered. Elsewhere, compromise solutions were found, limited temporally and spatially climbing bans or voluntary waiver, such as in the Saxon Switzerland, where were developed together with the local National Park Administration climbing strategies for all sub-areas and actively to climbers participate in protective measures – for example through the surveillance of breeding peregrine falcons at temporarily blocked climbing peaks.
In Austria and South Tyrol, climbing is also promoted by the public sector. Leading is about Tyrol, here there is with the rest area a separate category to protect against tourist overuse. In Austria and South Tyrol, the focus is primarily on climbing area management as a local and regional compromise between owners, protection authorities and tourism and climbing associations, as OeAV, AVS and the other mountain sports clubs traditionally have active institutions in both alpine sports and environmental protection.
In the extra-Alpine space of Austria, climbing areas have also developed at a younger age, which may conflict with the environmental idea in scenic protection zones (for example in the Wachau).
Source from Wikipedia