Climbing Styles

Slab Climbing A climbing style dominated by thin face moves on less than vertical rock. Slab climbing places emphasis on friction, balance and small holds.

Face Climbing Essentially all climbing that is not crack climbing, with

Free Climbing To climb without mechanical aid, eg. to rockclimb in the normal sense. Often confused with soloing (climbing without gear), free climbing can be distinguished from aid climbing where the climber loads the rope and protection and uses them to achieve upward motion. In free climbing the rope and protection is merely there to catch the climber in case of a fall.

Free Solo (adj./v.) To climb without any form of protection i.e. in general without a rope. A fall whilst free soloing could be fatal.

Crack Climbing A form of climbing based around jamming bodyparts into a crack, rather than grasping holds. There are a variety of jams to suit cracks from fingers up to full body jams.

Roped Soloing (adj./v.) Climbing by oneself. A climber will rope solo by self-belaying, meaning that they are in control of their own safety, as opposed to the usual practice of climbing with a belayer, essentially someone else looking after the climbers safety.

Roof Climbing Climbing on overhung sections of rock, steeply overhung climbing places emphasis on core body strength, efficient movement and effective use of the feet to reduce the workload on the arms (heelhooks etc).

Top-roping

Climbing Equipment

Also see Gear Information

Climbing Techniques / Moves

Barn Door When the body swings away from the rock from two or more pivot points (usually one hand and and one foot) due to the angle.

Bridge

Campus (vb.)

Chimney

Dead Hang (adj.) Hanging from a hold with the arms straightened allowing body weight to be held by the skeleton rather than muscles.

Deadpoint

Drop Knee (n.)

Dyno

Edging

Figure 4 An advanced move involving placing the leg over the arm to gain height for the next hand hold when the foot holds have run out.

Fingerlock

Fist Jam

Flag (vb.) To dangle a leg in a way that improves balance.

Foot Jam

Gaston To push against a vertical feature of the rock, like a side pull but in the opposite direction.

Hand Jam

Heel Hook

Heel toe lock

Jam

Layback

Lockoff

Match To put the second hand/foot onto the hold the first hand/foot is on.

Mantle

Side Pull To grab a vertical feature of the rock and pull your body towards it.

Smear To use a large surface area (typically of the shoe) to provide friction on an area with no holds.

Stem

Traverse To climb sideways.

Undercling A hold that can be held from the bottom rather than the top.

Types of Holds

Bucket (n.) Big handhold that is easy to hold onto. Usually a depression, hole or scoop (concave) in the rock.

Chickenhead

Crimper (n.) A small hold that only fingertips fit onto.

Handle

Horn

Jug (n.) A large, easy to hold feature.

Letterbox

Pocket (n.) A hole in the rock face.

Sloper (n.) A slanted hold that is held mostly with hand friction.

Rock Features

Arete (n.) A corner where the rock sticks out.

Buttress (n.) A part of the mountain or rock formation that stands out from the main face (eg the North East Buttress of Tibrogargan).

Chockstone

Crack

Dihedral (n.) A corner. Literally the word means two planes coming together.

Flake

Overhang

Other Jargon

Bail (v.) To give up and abseil, or other wise get off the route because of difficulties.

Bail Biner (n.) A carabiner left behind when abseiling of lowering off a climb.

Belay monkey Any person recruited for the task of belaying for long periods of time.

Beta (n.) Information about a route.

Bomber (adj.) Coming from "bombproof" meaning very secure.

Bootie

Buildering (n.) To climb on buildings or manmade structures.

Cheese grate

Crux The hardest part of a climb.

Dog To complete a climb poorly, with rests on the rope or falls.

Downclimb (vb.) To climb downwards rather than upwards on a climb.

DWS - Deep Water Soloing (n.) Free solo climbing routes above deep water, such that the climbing will land in the water if they were to fall.

Elvis (n.) The uncontrollable shake of a leg during a climb. Often due to a combination of nerves and onercontraction of muscles.

Epic (adj.)

Flail

Flash (n.) Completion of a climb on the first attempt without falling or resting.

Hanging Belay (n.) A belay stance where the climbers must hang from the anchor rather than sit or stand on a ledge.

Highball (n.) A very high bouldering problem.

Onsight (v.) Completion of a climb on the first attempt without falling or resting, with no prior knowledge of the climb.

Pitch

Pink Point

Protection / Pro

Pumped (adj.) Tired. The feeling of muscular exhaustion that occurs during sustained climbing. Usually refers to the sensation caused by a large build-up of lactic acid in the fore-arm muscles due to heavy climbing i.e. My arms are feeling very pumped.

Red Point

Sandbag

Spanked

Ticked

Whipper

Woodie (n.) An (usually home-made) indoor climbing wall.

Zipper