Free climbing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Free climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend. No artificial aids are employed to make upwards progress; ropes and protection are used only as insurance against falls and their consequences.
In contrast, aid climbing is a practice employed primarily in extremely sheer vertical circumstances in which equipment is directly pulled or stood on to ascend.
An umbrella term, "free climbing" spans four subsets of climbing styles: traditional, sport, free soloing and bouldering.
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[edit] Styles
Styles of free climbing include traditional climbing, sport climbing, free soloing and bouldering.
[edit] Rules
There are no rules per se to free climbing beyond showing respect for the rock and for other climbers. Over the years as climbing has become more popular, climbers more skilled, and an entire generation of aficionados spawned from and with the ethics of climbing gyms joined traditionally trained adherents, certain conventions have begun to emerge among those concerned with them.
By no means are they universally accepted; in fact, many if not most are abhored (and certainly ignored) by older and more traditionally oriented climbers.
Among these are a preference for:
- Climbing a given route on the first try without any advance knowledge of it (so-called on-sighting)
And discouragements of:
- Pre-climb inspections (to learn the nuances of a route rather than assessing the route from a safety point of view)
- Resting on gear or rope (hangdogging)
- Pre-placing gear (pinkpointing)
- Pulling or weighting gear Aid-style (french free)
- Prior top roping (headpointing)
- Practice through falling
[edit] Common misunderstandings of the term
While clear in its contrast to aid climbing, the term free climbing is nonetheless prone to misunderstanding and misuse.
The two most common errors are:
- Confusing free climbing with its subset free soloing, a willfully risk-taking endeavor involving climbing with just one's hands, feet, and body without any rope or protective equipment
- Conflating soloing a free climb with free soloing, "soloing" alone meaning merely to climb with no partner, which depending on the difficulty of the route can be done safely using any of a number of self-belaying systems.
[edit] References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
[edit] Further reading
- How to Rock Climb, John Long
[edit] External links
- Falesia Free Climbing World - Arrampicata Sportiva - Free Climbing Falesia, a climbing portal with a forum, a gallery, and topographical maps of routes and crags all over the world. (Italian) (English) (Greek)
