Sport climbing: bolts already in the rock.

What sport climbing is

The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) defines sport climbing as climbing on fixed protection, mainly bolts already placed in the rock. It is usually single-pitch, the BMC says, though multi-pitch sport routes also exist. Wikipedia adds the detail that separates it from aid climbing: the bolts are permanent and protect the climber in a fall, but they are not pulled on to make progress. By Wikipedia's definitions, that makes sport climbing a form of free climbing.

The difference from trad climbing is who provides the protection. On a trad route the leader places removable gear on the way up; on a sport route the bolts are already there. The top-rope and lead page explains the two ways the rope can run.

The gear on the list

The UIAA's 2018 single-pitch equipment list, from its Alpine Skills Summer Handbook, names a helmet, harness, quickdraws, belay device, rope, locking carabiners, climbing shoes and first aid, with removable protection as optional. The UIAA also says that anyone using technical gear must read its instructions and get specific training, warning that failing to do so may result in severe injury or death. The carabiners and quickdraws and bolts pages describe the hardware.

How sport routes are graded

Mammut, a gear maker, describes the French scale in a July 2025 explainer as running from 1 to 9c, with letters added from grade 5 and plus signs for finer steps, and calls it the standard for sport climbing, especially in Europe. That is the maker's description. The BMC notes that UK climbers who have only climbed sport routes or indoors tend to use French grades, while UK trad routes carry the separate British two-part grade.

The CAI paper on grade scales (Italian Alpine Club, hosted by the UIAA, undated) says that towards the end of the 1980s Francois Labande, who compiled guidebooks including those to the Dauphine, presented the French scale aligned to the UIAA scale, using Arabic numerals and putting 6a where UIAA VI+ had been.

Mammut (2025, maker claim) says the UIAA scale is common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and on traditional alpine routes. Wikipedia gives the top sport grade stated in 2026 as French 9c, or 5.15d on the Yosemite scale, both for the route Silence. The grading systems page covers each scale, and the comparison tables page shows how published charts line them up.

Onsight, flash and redpoint

Gripped Magazine (Aaron Pardy, 7 July 2024) defines an onsight as a first-try ascent with no prior information, a flash as a first-try ascent with prior information such as beta, and a redpoint as a clean ascent after at least one failed attempt. Gripped traces "redpoint" to the German "Rotpunkt", the red dot that Kurt Albert painted at the base of routes in the Frankenjura in the 1970s. A pinkpoint, in Gripped's account, is a redpoint with the protection already in place, a usage it says was common in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Sport climbing in competition

Lead is one of World Climbing's three competition disciplines, with bouldering and speed. Wikipedia notes that competition lead is climbed on bolted routes. World Climbing was called the IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) until 10 December 2025.

Who decides where bolts go

Because bolts are drilled into the rock and left there, climbing bodies publish policies on where they are acceptable.

• In the UK, the BMC says its formal position on drilled equipment is set out in its bolting policy, which gives a framework for agreeing where bolts are and are not acceptable, aims to safeguard climbing traditions and protect the crag and mountain environment, and describes consultation for new bolting.
• In the US, the Access Fund says it decided from the start not to take sides in ethical debates such as bolting, and to defend climbing in all its forms, and that this is still its policy.

Fixed anchors on US federal land have their own recent history, including draft federal guidance released in June 2026. The access and ethics page covers that, the BMC's bolting rules and seasonal closures in more detail.