it's definitely day 24, right?
right
sooo... how about the dfferent types of climbing? there's a bit of a visual glossary at the bottom, if all the equipment confuses you. ...it still confuses the hell out of me, sometimes... there are several other types of climbing, but these are, i think, the three main types...
Trad
traditional, obviously. this is the type of climbing you're most likely to be familliar with. it's the type that requires all sorts of curious and arcane equipment, such as nuts, friends or cams, quickdraws, rope, karabiners or krabs, straps, tape, harness, rock shoes, chalk bags, hexes, helmets, belay (pronounced bee-lay) devices, and about a million other curious and exciting-looking bits and bobs. doing it properly costs a bleedin' fortune, mate. it's done on rock that has cracks, fissures and pockets in which to lodge your cams, hexes and nuts...
*pause for juvenile sniggering*
...and is tricky. you put your safety equipment in as you go, and this takes practice and experience. if you cock up the placement of a nut, for example...
*pauses for more juvenile sniggering*
...when your second comes up and puts strain on it, it can pop out of the rock and whack you painfully in the head, or other parts. same goes for hexes (which are really more like giant nuts than anything else) and cams. also, if you fall, you want to be goddamned sure that shit's in there nice and tight. a fall is terrifying enough, believe me, without "unzipping" your nuts (yeah, yeah yeah - when you've finished.....jeez - how old are you?) all the way down the rockface.
Sport
this requires much, much less equipment than trad. simply rope, harness, quickdraws, rock shoes, belay device, chalk bag, and a helmet, if you've got any sense. this type of climbing is done on much smoother rock walls with few or no places to put safety equipment. on a sport climb, you clip a quickdraw to the eyebolts already drilled into the rock (by your friendly local or national climbing or mountaineering organisation), and then run your rope through the other end of the quickdraw as you go. it will have an extra-strong loop or clip at the top, called a lower-off point. (and if you've seen the movie 127 hours - awesome, BTW - this is the piece of metal he kisses towards the end) when you reach that, you clip the rope through it, and then get lowered down, collecting your quickdraws alng the way (or leaving them in place for your second to collect when they climb up).
Free
this, as far as i'm concerned, is the preserve of nutters.
using no equipment other than a chalkbag and some rock shoes, you climb your chosen route with nothing to arrest your fall, should you slip. *shudder*
some people like to do it naked, too.
Glossary
rock shoes. these have a soft upper, sticky, smooth rubber soles, and generally a pointed toe (to allow you to get easier putchase in those tiny, tricky cracks
on the left are cams or "friends" - these can be squeezed to close the head, and then inserted into the crack where the head expands and (hopefully) grips the rock. top right are karabiners, or "krabs". these are hugely useful things which clip the various parts of your climbing rig together. bottom right are nuts. these are carefully shaped nuggets of metal which can be inserted into cracks and then, by virtue of their odd shape, wedged tight. the wire on the end allows you to clip a krab to it, and then run your rope through the krab. bottom middle is a nut key. one of my best friends on a trad climb (since i'm usually the second - hubby being a better climber). this marvellous and wonderful little device allows you to lever a nut out from a crack if it has become wedged. absolutely invaluable!
quickdraws. these allow for quick and (relatively) easy clipping on to various bits of kit.
belay devices come in many weird and wonderful shapes. this is the bit that the second uses to hold the rope taut without getting rope burn should the climber fall. it's a sort of friction lock, working on the pulley principle. i can hold hubby's weight with three fingers using one of these.
the chalk bag. this hangs from the harness, or a belt. it can hold loose chalk or, as in the picture, a chalk ball. this is loose chalk held inside a mesh which is released when you squeeze the ball. generally insisted on by indoor climbing walls as, if you fall, the chalk doesn't explode everywhere.
And Finally...
i urge you to watch this video. it will blow your mind. takes a while to load, but it's worth it...
No comments:
Post a Comment