Topher Donahue on the bivy during the first ascent of Air Guitar (5.12+), Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
Topher Donahue on the bivy during the first ascent of Air Guitar (5.12+), Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
aid climbing Pulling on protection or climbing upward while standing in slings attached to anchors. Aid climbing is used to bypass sections that the team cannot free-climb.
American Triangle A dangerous anchor-rigging method that increases the force on the individual anchors. It is created by threading the webbing or cord through two anchors and tying the ends together, forming a triangle that causes the anchors to pull against each other; the larger the angle in the triangle’s bottom corner, the greater the forces. This technique is dangerous if the anchors are not bomber; it was popular before the forces were well understood and can still occasionally be found on fixed rappel anchors.
AMGA American Mountain Guides Association is a national nonprofit organization that promotes high standards for guides. AMGA trains and certifies guides in rock guiding, alpine guiding, and ski mountaineering guiding and accredits guiding companies.
anchor Any temporary or permanent attachment to the rock used to protect a climber against a fall, fix a team to a belay, or fix a rappel rope. A good anchor can hold several thousand pounds, a bad anchor may crumple under body weight. Anchors come in many forms, including trees, boulders, chockstones, pitons, bolts, nuts, hexagonal chocks, camming devices, expandable tubes, and more.
assisted-braking belay device A belay device that will lock on to the rope under the force of a fall and does not rely on the squeezing action of the belayer’s hand to initiate and sustain the hold on the rope, although it is still recommended that the belayer maintain brake hand control of the rope when using this device.
auto-belay system A mechanical belay common in climbing gyms that allows the climber to ascend the wall with a top-ropelike belay from above and lower back to the ground without needing a partner. Auto-belay systems use webbing and either centrifugal force or magnets to slowly lower a climber’s weight the moment the webbing is weighted.
autoblock A friction hitch that is commonly used to provide a backup for rappelling or lowering, but it can also be used to ascend a fixed rope.
autoblocking belay device A belay device that can be configured to belay a second climber in a manner that locks the rope automatically in a fall.
autolocking carabiner A carabiner with a spring-loaded gate that locks automatically when you close the gate.
back-clip Clipping the rope backward through a protection carabiner so that the rope runs through the carabiner toward the rock. This increases the chance that the rope could snap across the gate and accidentally unclip.
belay Managing the rope to protect a climber, catch him if he falls, hold him if he hangs, and lower him when it’s time to come down, aided by the friction of the belay device; also refers to belay station.
belay anchor An anchor, usually multipoint, that the team uses to secure a belay station.
belay device A device that creates sharp bends in the rope to provide friction for belaying or rappelling.
belay loop A sewn loop on the front of all good rock climbing harnesses. The loop is most commonly used for clipping the belay or rappel device to a climber and is sometimes used to connect the climber to an anchor system.
bent-gate carabiner A carabiner with its gate bent inward for easy rope clipping.
beta Information about moves, protection, strategy, or other knowledge—given either before or during the ascent—that may help a climber ascend a route.
bight Any bend in the rope that does not cross itself. A bight is used for creating many knots and to thread the rope in to belay/rappel devices.
big wall A tall cliff that normally requires multiple days to ascend.
bolt An anchor consisting of a metal bolt that is either set in a drilled hole and expands in the hole when tightened (creating friction that secures the bolt in place) or is glued in to the hole with epoxy; an accompanying hanger provides an attachment point for clipping a carabiner. Well-placed bolts that are 10 millimeters (⅜ inch) or more in diameter are suitable for rock climbing anchors; smaller-diameter bolts should be considered dangerous.
bombproof Describes a completely reliable anchor; also called bomber.
bouldering Climbing without a rope, usually close to the ground where a fall does not have bad consequences.
cam A common term for a spring-loaded camming device; also refers to the individual camming lobes in a camming device. Cam can also be used as a verb when a downward force is dispersed into a crack wall as an outward force, creating friction to oppose the downward pull.
carabiner A high-strength aluminum snaplink used to connect parts of a climbing system.
chock Term for an artificial chockstone—a climbing anchor that wedges in a constriction for security, including hexagonal chocks and nuts.
chockstone A stone wedged in a crack.
cleaning Removing protection anchors from a climb.
clove hitch A hitch used for tying a rope in to an anchor or connecting some gear to the rope. A clove hitch is often used by the climber to clip in to the belay anchors because it is easy to adjust the tie-in length.
coil A bend in rope or webbing that crosses over itself.
cord Round accessory cord up to 7 millimeters in diameter and made of high-strength materials; used for cordelettes, slinging chocks, and making short loops.
cordelette A 5- to 7.5-meter (16- to 25-foot) piece of cord, usually between 5.5 millimeters and 7 millimeters in diameter and often tied into a loop. A cordelette is used in many tasks, including building belay anchors and aiding in self-rescue.
crux The hardest move or series of moves on a pitch; the hardest pitch on a multipitch climb.
double fisherman’s knot A standard knot for joining two ropes together or for tying a piece of cord into a loop.
double-length sling A sling that, when folded in half, fits nicely over the climber’s shoulder.
dynamic belay A technique in which the belayer intentionally lets some rope slip through the belay device in a leader fall to decrease the impact force on the climber and anchors.
dynamic rope A climbing rope that stretches under load to absorb the kinetic energy of a falling climber without allowing the impact force to become so great as to injure the climber or break the anchors.
dyno A dynamic move, where the climber pushes on the footholds and pulls on the handholds to gain momentum, then flies upward to catch a faraway hold.
equalize Tying the anchors together so they share any load; ideally they share it equally.
ERNEST An acronym for a set of principles for constructing belay anchors: Equalized, Redundant, No Extension, Solid, and Timely.
extension A potential extension of slings or cords in an anchor system caused by failure of a single point. An extension can create a higher impact force on the remaining anchors.
fall factor A measure of the severity of a fall, calculated by dividing the length of the fall by the length of rope in the system. The greater the fall factor, the greater the impact force on the anchors, climber, and belayer.
figure-eight knot A knot that is shaped like a numeral eight; used for tying the rope in to the harness, tying two ropes together, tying a loop for clipping in to anchors, connecting a haul pack to the rope, and so on.
fixed protection Any permanent anchor point; usually a bolt, piton, or permanently set chock or cam.
four-cam unit A camming unit with four cam lobes. A four-cam unit is often stronger than a three-cam unit.
free-soloing Climbing a route without a rope. When free-soloing, a fall can be, and often is, fatal.
friction hitch Any of several hitches that will lock on to the rope when loaded yet can be slid along the rope when not loaded; most often used for self-rescue techniques.
gate flutter The fast, repeated opening and closing of a carabiner gate that can occur when the rope runs through it during a fall.
girth hitch A hitch used to connect a sling or loop of cord to an object by wrapping it around the object and through itself.
GriGri An assisted-braking belay device made by Petzl.
half rope A rope designed to be used in pairs, but the individual ropes can be clipped in separately to protection points to reduce rope drag.
hand crack A crack the right size for setting hand jams.
hanging belay A belay stance with no ledge, so the climbers must hang in their harnesses.
hexagonal chock An asymmetrical, sixsided chock that wedges in to three different sizes of cracks.
hitch A type of knot where a rope or cord fastens around an object; without the object, the hitch would come undone.
HMS carabiner A large pear-shaped carabiner that works great with a Munter hitch.
horn A spike of rock that can be used for an anchor or hold.
impact force The peak load developed in a leader fall; the force is greatest on the top anchor.
kilonewton (kN) A metric measurement of force. One kilonewton is equal to about 225 pounds of force.
lap coil A method of stacking the rope back and forth over the belayer’s tie-in at hanging belays.
lap link An open steel ring with overlapping ends that are hammered together after the ring is placed around something. A lap link is often used to connect rappel ropes to fixed rappel anchors and is sometimes used as a lowering ring on sport routes.
lead climbing Climbing first up a pitch and placing protection as you go.
leader The person leading a pitch or climb.
lead fall A fall taken while leading; the leader falls twice the distance to the last piece of protection.
locking carabiner A carabiner with a gate that locks closed to prevent it from accidentally opening.
lock off Holding the body in position with one arm while the other arm reaches for the next hold or high protection.
lowering Descending by hanging on the rope and being lowered by the belayer. This is the common method of descent from a slingshot top rope or sport climb.
master point The main attachment loop in a belay or rappel anchor.
multidirectional anchor An anchor that can hold a load in any direction.
multipitch route A route that must be climbed in multiple pitches with intermediate belays.
Munter hitch A hitch that creates friction on the rope; used for belaying and rappelling.
natural protection An anchor made from a natural feature, such as a tree, boulder, chockstone, horn, or rock tunnel.
nut Term for a wedge-shaped anchor that locks into constrictions in a crack to create an anchor.
nut tool A thin metal pick used to help loosen and remove stuck protection or to clean cracks.
objective hazard A hazard that cannot be controlled by the climber; for example, rockfall, lightning, weather.
off-width crack A crack that is too wide for fists and too small to fit the body; one of the more difficult and despised types of climbing.
on-sight To lead a route on the first try without falling or hanging on the rope and without any prior knowledge about the moves, strategy, or protection; this is the finest style in which to ascend a route.
opposition Using anchors in opposition to each other to create a multidirectional anchor.
overhanging A section of rock that is steeper than vertical.
pitch The section of a climb between belays; a pitch climbs from one belay station to the next.
piton A steel spike that is hammered into a crack to create an anchor; an eye on the piton provides an attachment point. Pitons are fixed in place on some traditional routes that might be hard to protect with nuts and cams, and fixed pitons may or may not be reliable anchors.
pocket A hole in the rock that forms a hand- or foothold and sometimes a place to set protection.
protection point A rock anchor that a leader clips the rope to for safety if a fall occurs; often called pro.
prusik A friction hitch used in self-rescue systems. A prusik creates the highest friction of all the friction knots included in this book.
pulley effect The potential doubling of the impact force on the top anchor because it must hold the force of the falling climber and the force of the belayer.
quickdraw A short sling with a carabiner clipped to each end that is used for connecting the rope to bolts and nuts or for extending the protection on an anchor to minimize bending of the rope.
rack The collection of protection anchors, slings, quickdraws, etc. that climbers carry up a route to build the protection system.
rappel A method used for descending a rope in order to return to the ground.
rappel anchor Any anchor used to hold the rope when rappelling.
rappel backup A friction hitch used to back up the brake hand when rappelling.
rappel device A device, also used for belaying, that creates friction on the rope so a climber can control the rappel.
rappel ring A metal ring, preferably steel, attached to a fixed anchor; the rope is threaded through the ring (usually two or more rings attached to two or more anchors) to anchor the rope for rappelling or lowering.
redirect Changing the direction of pull on a rope by rerouting it through an anchor. This technique is often used to run the climber’s rope up to a high anchor and back to the belayer, thereby decreasing the load on the belayer and pulling the belayer up rather than down.
redpoint To climb a route without falling after previous effort spent working out the moves.
redundant Relying on more than a single link in the protection system; if a single point fails, one or more backups exist.
rest position Any body position that takes weight off the arms for a rest.
rockfall Rocks falling from above as a result of either natural or human causes; this is an objective hazard that climbers need to be aware of and avoid.
rope bag A nylon sack used to carry and protect the rope.
rope drag Friction caused by the rope running over the rock and through carabiners. Rope drag increases with each bend in the rope.
rope tarp A fabric mat for stacking the rope on the ground. To move to another route, you roll up the tarp, move it, and unroll the tarp without having to coil the rope; this is extremely convenient when climbing multiple single-pitch routes.
runout A section on a climb with a long distance between protection points, either because the protection was not available or because the climber chose not to set it.
sandbag To mislead a climber regarding the difficulty or danger of a route; sandbagging is not cool, because it can be dangerous.
screw gate A locking carabiner that locks shut when the gate is turned a few rotations.
second The climber who follows the leader up a pitch, cleaning the protection as he or she goes, with a top rope from the leader for safety.
seconding The act of following on a climb and cleaning a pitch.
self-rescue The act of rescuing your own team in the event of a mishap, using only the standard climbing equipment that you are carrying.
sheath The woven nylon outer layer of a rope that protects the core.
shock load The impact resulting from failure of one piece that causes the load to drop onto another, or any time a fall is held by material less dynamic than the climbing rope, such as onto webbing or static cord.
shoulder sling A piece of webbing sewn or tied into a loop, just long enough to comfortably fit over the climber’s shoulder.
simul-belay The act of belaying two climbers who follow a pitch at the same time; this technique is sometimes used by advanced climbers or guides for a team of three.
single rope A dynamic climbing rope rated to be used by itself for protecting a lead climber or second.
slab A rock face that is less than vertical.
slings Webbing sewn or tied into a loop; typically shoulder length to tripleshoulder length.
slingshot top rope The most common system for top-roping: the rope passes from the climber, up to the anchors at the top of the route, and back down to the belayer who is stationed on the ground.
sport climbing Climbing where all the protection consists of fixed bolts. Sport climbing routes are usually single-pitch routes, where the climber is lowered back to the ground after completing the climb.
squeeze chimney A chimney just wide enough to barely admit the climber’s body.
stacking the rope Uncoiling the rope in to a loose pile with the top and bottom ends exposed; the leader ties in to the top end. Stacking minimizes tangles; also called flaking the rope.
static elongation The amount a rope will stretch when holding a body-weight load.
static rope A climbing rope that stretches little so it works great for hauling, top-roping, or ascending a fixed line, but it is not suitable for lead climbing.
stemming Using footholds in opposition to get weight off the hands and to increase the security of marginal footholds; often used in inside corners.
stick-clip To clip the rope to the first bolt on a route by attaching a carabiner or quickdraw to a long stick. This technique prevents a ground fall if the climber falls in the beginning of the route.
stopper knot A knot tied in the end of a rope to keep a climber from rappelling or being lowered off the end of the rope.
subjective hazard A hazard that usually can be controlled by good judgment or conservatism on the part of the climber.
tail The rope end that sticks out after tying a knot.
thread Any naturally occurring tunnel in the rock that a sling may be passed through to create an anchor.
three-cam unit A camming unit with three cams. A three-cam unit is often weaker than a four-cam unit but fits into shallow cracks. Also known as a TCU.
topo A map of a route that uses symbols to show the rock features, belays, and fixed protection.
top-rope anchor The belay anchor for a top rope.
top-rope fall A fall while climbing on a top rope. The fall is usually very short unless there is slack in the system.
traditional (trad) climbing Climbing a route where the leader sets protection points along the way to be removed later by the second (as opposed to sport climbing).
transition The steps required to change from one climbing system to another; for example, from climbing to rappelling.
traverse A section on a climb or boulder problem that moves sideways rather than up.
tri-axial loading A situation where a carabiner is pulled in three directions, weakening the carabiner.
Tricam An anchor that can be wedged into a constriction in a crack or cammed into a parallel crack. Tricams are extremely versatile but not always stable.
triple-length sling A sling that, when folded into thirds, fits nicely over a climber’s shoulder.
twin ropes Thin ropes that must be used in pairs, with both ropes clipped in to all protection points; this provides two ropes for rappelling.
UIAA The Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme is the international association of national climbing clubs that sets standards for and tests climbing safety equipment. Also known as the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation.
walking The tendency for camming units to move in the crack when wriggled by the climbing rope. Walking can compromise the placement, though this is often negated by clipping the rope in with a long extension.
water knot The standard knot for tying webbing into a loop; a retraced overhand knot.
webbing Nylon fibers woven flat like a strap; used for making slings.
wedge To lock a chock or nut into place in a constricting section of a crack.
wire-gate carabiner A carabiner with a gate made of wire instead of solidaluminum stock. A wire-gate carabiner decreases weight and minimizes the chance of having the gate vibrate open in a fall, which can cause the carabiner to break.