Some Basic Climbing Terminology

For those of you who are not familiar with climbing terminology I'll give you a quick explanation of some of the basics. This is a feeble attempt so if you need more you can find additional information at this link on Wikipedia. 

Most people climb with a partner. If you've climbed in a climbing gym you know that there is a climber and a belayer. The climber ties one end of the rope to their harness while the belayer feeds the rope through a belay device that is attached to their climbing harness. As the climber ascends the wall the belayer feeds out or takes in rope in order to be prepared to catch the climber if the climber falls.

Megan belaying

Top roping

In the photo shown below, the belayer takes in rope as the climber ascends the route because the rope has been fed through anchors at the top of the climb. This is called top roping. This type of climbing is great for beginners or when working out the moves on a hard climb. If you fall you're only going to fall a short distance. Once you learn to trust the rope and your belayer it feels pretty tame. An engineer reading this will ask "how did the rope get through the anchors in the first place?" Good question. Somebody either had to lead the climb (described below) or in some cases you can hike to the top of a climb and feed the rope through an anchor.

Laurel (on left) belaying, Megan climbing

Lead climbing

In the photo shown below the climber is lead climbing. In this scenario the belayer feeds out rope as the climber ascends. The climber either places his own gear in cracks (cams, stoppers, etc.) or clips the rope to bolts that are already in the rock as he ascends the route. In this example there are no bolts so the climber must place his own gear in the crack. The rope is then clipped to carabiners attached to the gear.

Joe leading Lightning Crack on North Six Shooter at Indian Creek

Lead climbing is more committing than top roping because if you fall you will fall at least twice as far as you are above your last piece of gear. It also takes time and energy to place gear as you climb, which adds to the difficulty. These elements of lead climbing introduce a whole new mental aspect...fear of falling! A big part of lead climbing is figuring out how to manage that fear so it doesn't hinder your climbing performance. I call it "the great equalizer." Someone who has a good "lead head" (i.e., is able to manage their fear) can often times climb on par with or harder than someone who is physically a better climber.

Some climbing gear is shown in the photo below. This "gear" is also referred to as protection or "pro." I use mostly spring loaded camming devices (cams), because they are relatively quick to place in a crack and they are more likely to stay put when loaded in multiple directions. Also shown are some rectangular shaped aluminum wedges with wires running through them. These are referred to as nuts or stoppers. These are great for placing in a vertical tapered crack. The old school climbers could get them to stay in just about any crack.

Cams, stoppers and slings

 There are quite a few other types of gear used to protect a climber but this gives you the general idea. You don't see any pitons. Not too many climbers use pitons now days. Now let's practice usage..."dude, I got a bomber nut placement!" Translated, that means the nut he just placed in the crack is good and will hold a fall. That makes a climber very happy. Got it?

Well, that's the end of today's climbing lesson. Stay tuned for a southern Arizona adventure.