Rock Climbing: The Basics

A detailed Summary of Rock Climbing: The Basics

Adrenaline pumping through your veins. Sweat beads roll down your forehead. Chalk, sandstone, and blood are apparent on your hands. Tendentious attacks the joints of your fingers and elbows. You walk away physically weaker, but mentally stronger. What you have just tasted is the "rush" experience of my favorite sport, rock climbing.

Climbing is something that comes naturally to all of us. We have done it since we were kids playing in the back yard. And why do we climb now? Maybe it's because we are just bigger kids, looking for a challenge, a place in the history books, the rush, or the cleansing feeling of just doing it. All of us climb for different reasons you will find your own reason to climb and your own style to get you there. There are many different types of rock climbing; bouldering, soloing, free climbing, sport climbing, indoor climbing, and aid climbing.

Bouldering is in plain terms is a very, very short climb. The Climber's Handbook magnifies bouldering as "climbing in it's most natural and purest form. It is one of the most enjoyable forms of climbing as it improves fitness and teaches a plethora of techniques on how to move on rock" (14). When bouldering your feet may never get more that a few feet of the groun

categories: on-sight, flash, and red-point. Your on-sight level is the highest grade you can climb first try, without falls. To be considered a true on-sight, you must do the climb without any prior coaching. If someone gives you specific advice, such as how to do the moves or even just the location of the crux (the hardest part), your first-try ascent will be considered a "flash." You only get one try to on-sight or flash a route.

climb. You may climb this way because you can not physically ascend the climb with just your hands and feet. For example the climb might be overhanging and the crack that runs up this over hang is too small to get hands or fingers into. At this point you would take some gear and place it into the crack, then you would clip in an aider (a cloth ladder) and step in it. Next, you would clip in your rope to that piece of gear and hang there then you place another piece of gear and soon on and so forth to make progression up the rock.

Indoor climbing came from people wanting to train year round or during adverse

"To the beginner, rock climbing appears to require great arm strength. Not suprisingly, beginning climbers tire quickly, and as the terrain steepens they resort to flailing about for handholds and foot holds. This saps energy" (Graydon and Hanson 180). To help a beginning climber simple techniques should be incorporated to improve their abilities. Try to use your feet as much as possible, this will help by saving your arm strength and conserving energy. Keep your arms outstretched as much as possible, to avoid hanging on bent arms, which is very tiring. As you raise a foot to the next foothold, try to keep your arms straight, trying not to use them to haul yourself from one hold to the next. Once you start to step on a foothold, shift all of your weight and complete the move. Shift your hips over your foot and stand up by using leg muscles, not by pulling yourself up with your arms. Legs are much stronger than arms, so let the legs lift your body.

conditions like when it was raining. Today, however, indoor climbing is much more than that. Climbing competitions are done on indoor climbing walls and the walls are even some times moved out side. Graydon and Hanson praised indoor climbing because it "provides a great opportunity to learn to climb in a very controlled environment" (73). Climbing in a rock gym is how I train for the outdoors. It helps me evaluate how hard I'm pushing myself and harnesses my sanity from a stressed out day.

Rock climbing has been around for a long time, but the activity has o

Some common words found in the essay are:
Climber's Handbook, France Gear, Graydon Hanson, Aid Climbing, , Decimal System, Chris Sharma, rock climbing, sport climbing, indoor climbing, feet ground, clip rope, climbing climbing, arms legs, climbing bouldering, free climbing, piece gear,

Approximate Word count = 1729
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Sports