A Climbing Glossary

The next couple of posts (long in coming) deal with the time I spent in Red Rocks, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, rock climbing. This trip was a good way to ease myself out of being on vacation halfway around the world, although part of me definitely longed to just go home and relax in a very familiar environment and see my parents. In any case, since I think the people who have been reading this may not be familiar with much climbing terminology, I’m including a brief glossary to hopefully help you make sense of the posts to follow.

• 5.6, 5.7, etc: the American rating system for climb difficulty ranges from 5.0 (no climbs are really rated 5.0, though) through 5.15 (climbed by the most accomplished professional climbers); ratings 5.10-5.15 have sub-ratings of a, b, c, and d such that a 5.10a is easier than a 5.10b, which is easier than a 10c, etc.
• Belay: the process by which a person keeps the rope to which the climber is attached as short as possible in order to minimize the distance the climber will fall if they come off the rock
• Follow: usually used in reference to Trad climbing, following is essential top-roping a climb after the leader has done it; on a multi-pitch trad climb, this means that the leader belays the follower from above, and then both climbers begin to climb the next pitch from the top of the previous one
• Gear / Protection: objects that are placed into cracks or other features of the rock by trad climbers; examples of types of gear include nuts and cams
• Leading / Lead Climbing: climbing during which the climber’s rope is trailing behind them and is periodically attached to a fixed bolt (as in Sport Climbing) or a piece of gear (as in Trad Climbing); when between these attachment points, the climber is subject to a longer fall if they come off the rock
• Pitch: the distance that a climber covers in one climb, usually restrained by the height of the rock wall or the length of the rope; a climber is belayed up one pitch of climbing before they are lowered or attach themselves to an anchor at the top
• Rappel (Rapp): a maneuver during which a climber lowers themselves down a pitch
• Send: a climber is said to have “sent” a climb if they complete the entire pitch without falling or asking their belayer to take the rope tight so they can rest
• Sport: climbing in which climbers attach carabiners to fixed bolts in the rock wall and thread their rope though the carabiners to arrest themselves if they fall; usually this sort of climbing is only one “pitch”
• Top Rope (TR): refers to a climb on which the climber’s rope is threaded through anchors at the top of the pitch; if the climber comes off the rock they really fall no distance at all, because the rope is kept fairly taught the entire way up (the alternative is lead climbing)
• Trad: stands for “traditional,” a style of climbing in which climbers place gear at intervals to arrest themselves if they fall; trad is the alternative to “sport” climbing; often “multi-pitch”

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