Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Climbing, But Were Afraid To Ask

[rydra_wong]

This is a post where you can ask all the questions you're always wanted to ask about climbing, whether you've already started or are just beginning to think about maybe possibly kind of giving this a try.

Or maybe you've been climbing for decades, and have always wondered about that one thing, and by now it would be OMG TOO EMBARASSING to admit you don't know.

No topics are off-limit, no questions too clueless, so let rip and get answers from demi-n00bs experienced climbers.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

OMFG GRADING. Yes, basically, bigger numbers are always more badass.

But there are ten zillionty different grading systems, some of which are cunningly designed to look like each other while meaning something completely different! And sometimes the grade measures "average difficulty of the whole thing" and sometimes it measures "maximum difficulty" and sometimes overall strenuousness gets factored in and it's all subjective and OMFG.

In the UK, we have a special grading system for trad routes which exists purely for the purpose of confusing foreigners and allowing endless grading wank (grading wank being one of the perennial climbing wanks.)

It includes a technical grade (for example, "6c") which says how difficult the moves are in pure technique terms and then an adjectival grade (for example, "E7") which says how dangerous/exposed/hardcore/badass the route is, and then everyone fights viciously over the latter in internet forums. And then some Americans come over and do it incredibly easily and hardened British trad climbers cry into their beer.

I am a simple bouldering soul and just do V-numbers (V for John "Vermin" Sherman).

You start with V0 (or "VB" for even-easier-than-V0, though some walls just roll that up into V0). It gets harder as the numbers go up. Because bouldering problems are essentially the point of maximum badassitude with the rest of the climb taken away -- bouldering is the espresso of the climbing world -- it's usually fairly clear what it's measuring.

Now I hope that some kind people will chip in and explain other grading systems.

[robynbender]

"trad route" = Traditional Route? (In which case, OMG, what does a frakking NONTraditional Route look like?) [is confuzed]

[cofax7]

"Trad" climbing is climbing where as you ascend you place "protection" (little nuts & bolts & spring-loaded cams) into cracks in the rock, and clip the rope to them, so if you fall, you only fall twice the distance from your last piece of protection (assuming your belayer is paying attention and the protection holds).

This in comparison to "sport" climbing, which is climbing on routes where someone has drilled holes and placed bolts on the rock, to which the climber clips the rope. This is more invasive, considered "impure" by many, but is very popular, especially in areas where the rock doesn't have a lot of natural crannies in which to place protection.

[rydra_wong]

Adding to what cofax7 said: trad climbing can be much more dangerous (not always, but it can be) than sport climbing, if the particular configuration of the rock on a route doesn't allow for much protection or reliable protection.

So you have the separate system of grading, which factors in how exposed/dangerous/"committing" a route is (if something's "committing", it means you can't safely downclimb out of a situation if you get stuck; the only way out is up), whereas sports climbs are graded purely on physical difficulty.