How climbing works, in principle.

Free climbing and aid climbing

Wikipedia's overview of climbing divides styles into two families. In free climbing, gear is there only to protect against a fall; the climber gets up the rock by their own movement. In aid climbing, gear such as pitons and mechanical devices is used to make upward progress.

The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) uses "rock climbing" as a broad term for roped climbing, indoors or out, usually done in pairs with one climber protected by a partner. Bouldering, which the BMC describes as climbing at low height and Wikipedia as climbing without ropes, has its own page.

The two roles in a roped team

A roped team has a climber and a belayer. The American Alpine Club (AAC), in an article by Ron Funderburke first printed in Accidents in North American Climbing 2016 and posted on its site on 19 June 2023, calls belaying the core skill behind nearly all roped climbing. It describes the belayer's job as holding, lowering or catching the climber and managing the rope to keep them safe, using a method suited to the terrain, the style of climbing, experience, body weight and the tools available. Wikipedia's article on belaying sums up the principle as using friction on the rope so a falling climber does not fall far.

The AAC names the families of tools used for belaying: the Munter hitch, the Sticht plate (an early device), tube-style manual belay devices and assisted-braking devices such as the Grigri. The same article warns that lead belayers often learn only part of the skills they need before using them, which can lead to accidents, and it points to maker instructions and to the AAC's Gold Standard curriculum for instructors. How any of this is done is taught in person; the instruction page in the safety section sets out what bodies say about that.

How the rope is protected

Where the protection comes from is what separates several disciplines:

Top-rope

The rope is already anchored above the route, so a fall leaves the climber hanging on it (Wikipedia, secondary). See top-rope and lead.

Sport lead

The climber clips the rope into fixed protection, mainly bolts already in the rock (BMC; Wikipedia, secondary). See sport climbing.

Trad lead

The leader places removable protection on the way up and the second removes it while following (BMC). See trad climbing.

Multi-pitch

On routes longer than one rope length, climbers usually work in pairs, one leading each pitch while the other belays, sometimes swapping leads (Wikipedia, secondary). See multi-pitch and big wall.

The gear, as the UIAA lists it

The UIAA's 2018 extract from its Alpine Skills Summer Handbook gives a single-pitch equipment list: helmet, harness, quickdraws, belay device, rope, locking carabiners, climbing shoes and first aid, with removable protection listed as optional. Its multi-pitch list adds items for longer routes, navigation and weather. The UIAA says that before using technical gear, users must read the instructions, get specific training, understand the gear's limits and accept the risks, and it warns that failing to do so may result in severe injury or death.

The rope maker Beal describes the parts of this system as a "safety chain" (harness, rope, carabiners, tape, slings, anchors, belay devices and descenders) and says each part should conform to UIAA or EN standards. That is a maker's statement, and we saw it only in a search summary of a Beal product notice, so it is unconfirmed.

Braking devices and the UIAA standard

The UIAA's standard for braking devices, UIAA 129 (2009 version, in force from 1 July 2011), sorts them into three classes, as the UIAA described them in a news item on 1 February 2011:

In the same 2011 item, the UIAA said its Safety Label was the only certification for braking devices worldwide and that more than 50 makers, covering 1,900 products, were approved to use it. Those figures are as of February 2011. The standards and markings page explains the labels in more detail.

Fall factor

Petzl, a maker, defines fall factor as the length of a fall divided by the length of rope between belayer and climber, and says the idea only applies with a dynamic rope. It adds that friction from the rock and quickdraws stops the whole rope from stretching, so the effective fall factor can be higher than the theoretical one. We could read this only in a search summary of the Petzl article, so it is unconfirmed. It describes what the term means, not a figure for judging any fall.

Words for how a route was climbed

Gripped Magazine (Aaron Pardy, 7 July 2024) sets out the common terms for ascent style:

Onsight

Climbed first try with no prior information about the route.

Flash

Climbed first try, but with prior information such as beta (advice on the moves).

Redpoint

A clean ascent after at least one failed attempt. Gripped traces the word to the German "Rotpunkt", the red dot Kurt Albert painted at route bases in the Frankenjura in the 1970s.

Pinkpoint

A redpoint with the protection already in place; Gripped says the term was common in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Headpoint

A lead after rehearsing the route on a top-rope, used mostly for bold trad routes.

Unroped climbing, named only

The BMC lists soloing, climbing alone and usually without a rope, as high-risk and for experienced climbers only. Free soloing means no rope or protection at all (Wikipedia, secondary). Deep-water soloing, also called psicobloc, is unroped climbing above deep water, usually on sea cliffs; Wikipedia links the psicobloc name to Mallorca, a detail we found in that single source only. This site names these styles so the terms are clear. It does not describe how they are done.