Climbing - Climbing Styles and Categories
Climbing actually covers a wide range of different activities. Everything from bouldering, to free soloing, to sport, trad (traditional), aid and even alpine or ice climbing is enjoyed by those who all call themselves climbers.
Bouldering is one level of climbing. While requiring less gear and, to a degree, less training, bouldering may be relatively simple, but simple doesn't mean easy. Participants scramble over a large rounded rock with no more equipment than perhaps a crash pad to protect against falls.
Crash pads are layered composites of foam that provide a cushion in the case of accidental falls. Often they're supplemented by a spotter who can move a falling body onto the pad in mid-air. Even that simple job isn't exactly risk free.
Bouldering is often done with traditional rock climbing shoes. But those shoes, as the name suggests, are more often used for actual rock climbing, this is rising up the face of a more or less vertical rock face.
Even within rock climbing there are many sub-divisions and styles. Free soloing is popular, but dangerous. Little or no equipment is used for protection or assistance during the ascent or descent. As the name suggests, it's sometimes done entirely alone, which as most instructors will tell you is unwise to say the least.
But rock climbing also merges into trad climbing with the incorporation of a standard rack. A 'rack' is the set of gear a climber brings along to use in making a climb. Ropes, harnesses, pro are all part of a rack. They're used in two different ways.
In traditional 'trad' climbing, to be redundant, the gear is used almost entirely only for protection against falling. A cam or nut is inserted into a crack, connected to a rope by a carabiner and the climber works up the rock face almost entirely under his or her own power. The pro is strictly used in case of a slip or fall.
In aid climbing, by contrast, the gear is actually used to aid in the climb, hence the name. Far from being a compromise, the circumstances in which the gear is used make it essential. Those circumstances often are among the most extreme. In vertical climbs up a sheer face with virtually no hand or toe holds, the only way to get to the top is by using gear.
Portable ledges and hammocks, often used to sleep overnight on and in, ropes and slings tied to pitons, and other gear represent the only possible means of ascent. But tremendous skill, experience and strength - not to mention chutzpah - is required for aid climbing.
Alpine or ice climbing is in a category all its own. Involving a commitment to large expense, the severest conditions and days or weeks of enduring them, this is true mountain climbing. The highest skill is required to tackle something like K-2 or Everest and many of the lesser known mountains of Peru or China. At some point in the climb, that mountain becomes ice covered.
But everyone has to begin somewhere. Joining a climbing gym and taking classes is a great way to get started. You'll get a much better idea about what kind of climbing appeals to you most.
