Sport climbing

Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock, and possibly bolts, for protection, (in contrast with traditional climbing, where the rock is typically devoid of fixed anchors and bolts, and where climbers must place removable protection as they climb). Since the need to place protection is virtually eliminated, sport climbing places an emphasis on gymnastic-like ability, strength, and endurance - as opposed to the adventure, risk and self-sufficiency which characterize traditional climbing. Since artificial means are used primarily for safety rather than to make upward progress, sport climbing is considered a form of free climbing.

A climber with harness, rope, and quick-draw. (Railay Beach, Thailand)

Basics

Sport climbing equipment. From left to right, top to bottom are: rope, helmet, climbing shoes, harness, chalk bag, belay device, and quick draws.

On a sport climbing route, pre-placed bolts follow a 'line' up a rock face. Sport climbs can vary in length from a few metres to a full 60 metre rope length for multi-pitch climbs. The climbs might be equipped with just a few bolts or many.

Sport climbing can be undertaken with relatively little equipment. Equipment used in sport climbing includes:

• A dynamic rope
• Quickdraws
• A belay device
• Climbing harnesses for belayer and climber
• Climbing Shoes and chalk bag are normally used, although not technically necessary

Two quickdraws. The left side of the draws are clipped directly to the bolt. The rope will be clipped through the right side.

To lead a sport climb means to ascend a route with a rope tied to the climber's harness, and with the loose end of the rope handled by a belayer. As each bolt is reached along the route, the climber attaches a quickdraw to the bolt, and then clips the rope through the hanging end of the quickdraw. This bolt is now protecting the climber in the event of a fall. At the top of sport routes, there is typically a two-bolt anchor that can be used to return the climber to the ground or previous rappel point.

Because sport routes do not require placing protection, the climber can concentrate on the difficulty of the moves rather than placing protection or the consequences of a fall.

Sport climbing differs from traditional climbing with respect to the type and placement of protection. Traditional climbing uses mostly removable protection (such as cams or nuts), and tends to minimize the usage of pre-placed protection. Sport climbing typically involves single pitch routes but can have multi-pitch routes. El Potrero Chico is a well known multi-pitch sport climbing area. Long multi-pitch routes may lack pre-placed anchors due to economical, logistical or ethical reasons.

Rock types that produce good sport climbs include limestone, granite and quartzite, though sport climbs can be found on almost all rock types.

Ratings

Main article: Climbing grade

Sport climbs are assigned subjective ratings to indicate difficulty. The type of rating depends on the geographic location of the route, since different countries and climbing communities use different rating systems.

The Ewbank rating system, used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, is a numerical open-ended system, starting from 1, which you can (at least in theory) walk up, up to 34 (as of 2008).

The French rating system considers the overall difficulty of the climb, taking into account the difficulty of the moves and the length of climb. This differs from most grading systems where one rates a climbing route according to the most difficult section (or single move). Grades are numerical, starting at 1 (very easy), and the system is open-ended. Each numerical grade can be subdivided by adding a letter (a, b or c). Examples: 2, 4, 4b, 6a, 7c. An optional + (no -) may be used to further differentiate difficulty. Many countries in Europe use a system with similar grades but not necessarily matching difficulties. Sport climbing in Britain and Ireland uses the French grading system, often prefixed with the letter "F".

In the United States, the Yosemite Decimal System is used to rate sport climbs. Current grades for sport routes vary between 5.0 (very, very easy) to 5.15 (ridiculously hard), although the system is open-ended. Past 5.10, letter grades between a and d are sometimes used for further subdivision (e.g. 5.11a or 5.10d). Pluses and minuses may also be used (e.g. 5.9+ or 5.11-). Originally, the YDS rating was designed to rate the difficulty of the hardest move on a given route. However, modern sport grades often take into account other features such as length and sustainedness.

Ethics

The ethics climbers adopt toward their sport are not always steadfast, and they often depend on the venue. The following examples are merely outlines that do not always hold true.

Bolting

Whether a route should be bolted as a sport climb is often in dispute.

In some areas, including some in the United States, if a route cannot be safely climbed with the use of traditional gear, it is generally acceptable to the climbing community to bolt it. In much of the U.K., similar bolting is widely considered unacceptable. However, regulations regarding bolting can vary from state to state and between landowners or land managers & should always be thoroughly researched. Also look into Park policy and local climbing ethics before bolting.

Additionally, the method of bolting may often be challenged. Many early sport routes were bolted on lead by the first ascender: a "traditional" approach. One could say that it became "sport" climbing when routes started to get bolted from the top (hanging on a rope).

First ascents

Sometimes, a newly bolted route is considered "red tagged," and ethics dictate that the person who bolted the route should be the only climber to attempt it until they can send it. This is because equipping a new route is an expensive & time-consuming endeavor for the person who finds it. Other times, the bolter will allow the route they developed to become an "open project" that anyone can try. Ascents of reserved routes have led to a number of controversies in the sport climbing world.

Chipping, comfortizing, and reinforcing

Changing the natural features of rock is often frowned upon, but in many parts of the world it is accepted to some extent. At some areas, "chipping" of the rock with a chisel or similar tool to create a hold that did not exist naturally is considered acceptable. This is particularly true in some quarries as well as some European crags. However, at many other areas, local ethics absolutely forbid this.

Comfortizing holds often involves aggressively cleaning a route to the point where sharp holds have been filed down, often making them somewhat easier to use. While many climbers frown on this, in some areas comfortizing is considered acceptable to a point.

Reinforcing rock with glue is the most widely accepted modification to natural features in the sport climbing world. When a popular route is climbed over and over, holds may become looser and closer to breaking. Sometimes, these holds will be reinforced to prevent them from breaking. Other times, if a hold entirely breaks off, it may be glued back on. In most areas, these practices are considered acceptable if done neatly.

Sending

Sometimes, an ascent or the style in which it is done will come into dispute. For example, a leader who experiences tension on their rope from their belayer while climbing without falling may have not made a valid ascent, through no fault of their own. Additionally, the line between an onsight and a flash is often disputed. Some climbers consider any knowledge of a route, including its grade, to be data that invalidates an onsight. However, other climbers will go so far as to belay another climber on a route and still claim that they did not have enough prior knowledge to move from the onsight realm to the flash realm.

Not sending

If a climber fails to onsight or flash a route, they may decide to "work" it by attempting to climb it despite falling and hanging on the rope. However, at popular destinations, multiple parties of climbers will often line up to try a route. A climber working a route may spend an inordinate amount of time on it, preventing other parties from climbing it. This is often frowned upon, particularly if the climber is toproping rather than leading.

Not sending a route means that a climber was unable to climb a route without hanging on the rope or falling: a send refers to someone climbing a route entirely under his/her own power without assist from the rope.

Venues

Australia

Australia has some excellent sport climbing areas, and from time to time some of the hardest climbs in the world are established by either locals, or visitors such as Wolfgang Güllich.

Major sport climbing areas:

Nowra

The Blue Mountains,

The Grampians

France

France was the birthplace and longtime champion of hard sport climbing in the 80s and 90s. This was partially due to their rock not being suitable for traditional type routes. In France, sport climbing and bouldering are very popular and competitive climbing is big business. With lots of limestone and balmy weather, there are many sport routes to be climbed in France.

Major sport climbing areas:

Ceuse

Buoux

Verdon Gorge: Long routes or hard routes that start at the top of a 1,000-foot-high (300 m) rock wall

Les Calanques

Some of the hardest routes in France:

Akira, Charente, 9b+?

Realization (Biographie Extension), Ceuse, 9a+ ( repeated by Dave Graham )

Salamander, Saint-Pierre en Faucigny, 9a+?

Hugh, Eaux-Claires, near Vilhonneur 9a

L'autre côté du ciel, Eaux-Claires, 9a?

Mandallaz drive, D’Allonzier la Caille, 9a?

All of these routes (except Realization) were first climbed by Frenchman Fred Rouhling. Akira has been a matter of great discution due the fact that Fred Rouhling has not climbed any 9b confirmed yet, thus putting in question the grade 9b+ itself.

Germany

Many consider Germany to be the next country after France to embrace sport climbing.

Notable climbers:

Kurt Albert was in many ways the original free climber.

Wolfgang Gullich put up the world’s first 9a, Action Directe in the Frankenjura.

Major sport climbing areas:

Frankenjura (aka Fränkische Schweiz) - a world famous climbing area with over 4,000 routes on various types of limestone formations.

Elbsandsteingebirge (aka Sächsische Schweiz), is a major sandstone climbing area in East Germany.

Holzen

Lürdissen

Ith

Some of the hardest routes in Germany:

Action Directe, Frankenjura, 9a

Corona, Frankenjura, 9a+

The man that follows hell, Frankenjura, 9a+?

Die Welle, Leonhardstein, 9a

Many world class routes in the 8b+/9a/9a+ range are in nearby Austrian Tyrol.

Korea

Sport climbing in Korea is getting more and more popular. Most cities and municipal governments have their own indoor or outdoor climbing walls now. More than 150 climbing areas (and an equal number of gyms/walls) throughout the country are packed up with climbers on weekends. Korea uses the Yosemite Decimal grading system.

Notable climber: Go Mi-young was world top 5 climber in both sport climbing and ice climbing. She also climbed all peaks of Mount Everest in 2007. She died in 2009 descending Nanga Parbet.

Major sport climbing areas:

Seoul Metropolitan Area

Seonunsan Provincial Park, Jeollabuk Province

Yongseo Pokpo, Jeollanam Province

Ganhyeon Resort, Gangwon Province

Geumjeongsan, Busan

Major traditional climbing crags include

Bukhansan National Park, Seoul/Gyeonggi Province

Seoraksan National Park, Gangwon Province

Spain

In the 1980s, Spain's limestone crags became known as excellent winter sport climbing destinations. With excellent weather and some of the finest climbing in Europe, Spain is popular with both local climbers and visitors from across Europe. A wide variety of rock can be found in this world-class climbing locale, including granite, slate, limestone, and sandstone. With the highest number of 9a routes in the world, Spain has become one of the premier climbing destinations for the highest-caliber climbers. The island of Majorca, for example, is considered the birthplace of deep-water soloing, and such world-class climbers as Chris Sharma have featured Majorca in their videos.

Major sport climbing areas:

Mallorca

Rodellar

Riglos

Vilanova de Meià

Siurana

Baltzola

El Chorro in the province of Málaga

La Pedriza in the Community of Madrid

Santa Linya

Some of the hardest routes in Spain include:

Chilam Balam 9b, Villanueva del Rosario (FA Bernabé Fernandez repeated by Adam Ondra)

Chaxi Raxi 9b, Oliana (FA Adam Ondra)

Delincuente Natural 9b, Rodellar (FA Dani Andrada)

Es Pontas 9b? , Mallorca (FA Chris Sharma)

Fight or Flight 9b, Oliana (FA Chris Sharma)

First round first minuto 9b, Margalef (FA Chris Sharma)

Golpe de Estado 9b, Siurana (FA Chris Sharma)

La Capella 9b, Siurana (FA Adam Ondra)

La Planta de Shiva 9b, Villanueva del Rosario (FA Adam Ondra)

Neanderthal 9b, Santa Linya (FA Chris Sharma)

La Rambla 9a+, Siurana (FA Ramón Julián Puigblanque)

Note on Chilam Balam - The proposed grade was 9b+ and has sparked an onslaught of online controversy around the world, “I cannot take Bernabé's proposal seriously as I can't see any references that would demonstrate his skills of climbing at such a high level — far above the rest of the world. I would be lying if I said that I believed in the correctness of the grade 9b+!,” writes German Alexander Huber on the European spray-tracking website, www.8a.nu. At the time the hardest climb route was proposed by Chris Sharma with his FA Realization with the grade of 9a+.[3] In April 2011 Adam Ondra climbed Chilam Balam and suggested the grade 9b.

Thailand

Thailand offers good sport climbing on limestone crags near the southern islands and in its northern regions.

northern Thailand Among several developed crags in the Chiang Mai area, there is Crazy Horse, about an hour's drive east of the city. There are also some developed climbing areas which offer cleared routes with stout top-rope anchors, routes with horizontal fixed cables for traverse climbing, and tightropes with overhead safety cables and other challenging activities.

southern Thailand The Rock around Railay Beach The rock is all limestone and is part of the world's largest coral reef, stretching from China to Papua New Guinea. The routes are all bolted sport climbing routes. The French grading system is used. With over 700 routes ranging from beginner 5a's to classic multipitch 6a's right up to the extremes of 8c, there's enough to keep any climber busy for years.

United Kingdom

Sport climbing began in the UK around 1984.

Major sport climbing areas include:

Raven Tor

Portland

Malham

Pen Trwyn

Kilnsey

Some early proponents of the sport climbing revolution in the UK were Ron Fawcett, Jerry Moffatt and Ben Moon. They were heavily influenced by climbing in France, and the German conception of free climbing.

Some of the hardest UK sport routes:

Overshadow 9a+, at Malham Cove

The Big Bang, Lower Pen Trwyn, 9a

Mutation, Raven Tor, 9a

Rainshadow, Malham, 9a

Northern Lights, Kilnsey, 9a

At some UK climbing areas, sport climbing is frowned upon because some climbers believe that the permanent placing of bolts in mountainous and sea-cliff areas detracts from the wilderness experience, damages the rock, and devalues the achievements of the first ascensionist who climbed in traditional style, placing their own protection. Sport climbing takes place on indoor climbing walls and on some limestone and slate cliffs and other rock types that are unsuited to traditional climbing. Some of the sport routes were originally climbed as aid routes and a great deal of existing fixed gear such as Pitons had been hammered into the routes when the routes were free climbed (not using aid) the original fixed gear was replaced with bolts creating a sport route.

United States

Sport climbing is a relatively modern branch of the sport, becoming popular in the US during the 1980s. John Long's 1989 technique manual How to Rock Climb, (Chockstone Press) used the term "sport climbing" repeatedly in reference to what is now considered "traditional climbing." The original sport climbers in the U.S. were trad climbers that adopted a European style of climbing. They created routes that provided plenty of fixed protection (pre-installed Bolts) put in on rappel (or 'top-down'). The first routes tended to be vertical with small handholds. As time went by, new routes got steeper, placing an increased emphasis on stamina.

Allan Watts was the first person in the U.S. to adopt a top-down style of climbing. His rappel-bolted routes at Smith Rock were soon internationally acclaimed as some of the best climbing in the U.S. In 1988 Frenchman J.B. Tribout established the first 5.14 in the U.S. at Smith Rock called "To Bolt or Not to Be". Other notable early developers were: Scott Franklin, Dale Goddard and Christian Griffith.

In the early 1980s, Dan Goodwin, aka Spider Dan, Skyscraperman, who gained fame for scaling skyscrapers, broke from rock climbing tradition by free soloing without a rope difficult climbs, including the then tallest structure on the planet, the CN Tower, thus opening a new era for skyscraper climbers. On American national television Goodwin, while free soloing Mickey's Beach crack at Stinson Beach, California, performed the One Arm Fly Off and the Flag Maneuver. Responding to traditionalists within the rock climbing community who hailed his ascents as stunts, Goodwin stated he was sport climbing and therefore not bound by the rules of rock climbing. In 1988, Goodwin built the climbing wall for the First International Sport Climbing Championship which was held at Snowbird, Utah, where he served as a commentator for CBS Sports.

Major sport climbing areas:

American Fork Canyon, Utah

New River Gorge, West Virginia

Owens River Gorge, California

Red Rocks, Nevada

Red River Gorge, Kentucky

Rifle, Colorado

Rumney, New Hampshire

Smith Rock, Oregon

Difficult sport climbing routes in the U.S. (with European scale in parentheses):

Jumbo Love, Clark Mountain, California, 5.15b (9b)

Flex Luthor, Fortress of Solitude, Colorado, 5.15a (9a+)

Jaws II, Rumney, 5.15a (9a+)

Kryptonite, Fortress of Solitude, Colorado, 5.14d (9a)

Psychedelic, St George, 5.14d (9a)

The Fly, Rumney, 5.14d (9a/8B+)

Livin’ Astroglide, Rumney, 5.14c/d (9a)

Cain, Willow River, Wisconsin, 5.14c (8c+)

Monkey Face, Smith Rock, Oregon 5.14c

The Golden Ticket, Red River Gorge 5.14c/d (9a)

Access and conflicts

The United States has a strong history of traditional climbing, especially at certain crags, and considerable value is placed on routes staying as they were done by the first ascender. In the U.S. it is considered unacceptable to add bolts to an established traditional route to turn it into a sport climb.

In the UK, a number of established routes have been bolted by sports climbers, this has generally been done in recent years by consensus with the first climber, though in earlier years this was not always the case. In Spain also, traditional climbs have been overbolted against the wishes of traditional climbers.

In 2007, the British Mountaineering Council introduced 10,000 bolts into the UK climbing scene mostly to replace existing unsafe fixed protection., which some fear will cause further conflict.

Bird watchers and other non-climbing wilderness visitors sometimes object to being distracted by brightly-colored slings left at rappel anchors, leading climbers to use webbing the same color as the rock.

Venezuela

Venezuela has several states with sport equipped routes, the most known place to practice sport climbing is La Guairita, Caracas, with hundreds of sport and trad routes. The park also has several Bouldering problems ranging from V0 to V11 in difficulty.

Other states with widely known sport routes are Trujillo, Guarico, Tachira and Lara.

See also

• Template:Wikitravelpar
• Rock Climbing
• Climbing equipment
• Lead Climbing
• Glossary of climbing terms
• International Federation of Sport Climbing
• Asian Sport Climbing Federation--http://www.afsc-climbing.com
• Southeast Asia Climbing Federation--http://www.seacf.org

References

• Long, John (2003). How to Rock Climb! 4th edition. Helena, Montana, USA: Falcon Publishing. ISBN 0762724714.
• Horst, Eric (2003). How to Climb 5.12, 2nd edition. Helena, Montana, USA: Falcon Publishing. ISBN 0762725761.
• Goddard, Dale (1994). Performance Rock Climbing. Mechanicsburg, PA, USA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0811722198. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Mellor, Don (2003). Rock Climbing: a trailside guide. New York, NY, USA: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 039331653X.
• Climbing Magazine (August 2006)