Extreme Sports – Rock Climbing
Rock climbing – true rock climbing where you tempt fate as you dangle from a cliff by your fingertips – is seeing a rise in popularity as an extreme sport. Tempting fate and surmounting nature’s challenges have made rock climbing one of the physical activities that more and more people are flocking towards, but there are a few considerations that individuals should know before heading out to tackle an intimidating cliff side. Rock climbing can have unpredictable results and situations, and anyone attempting the activity should assume that anything can happen.
Rock climbing is a fairly simple extreme sport. Basically, those who attempt rock climbing are attempting to scale a usually steep or sheer cliff face or arrive at the summit of a mountain using safety gear and specific equipment. Concentration and mental control are a large part of this sport, as one slip can cost a life. Because of these high levels of risk, rock climbing requires the knowledge of safety and specific climbing techniques and shouldn’t be attempted by the average unskilled person.
The climbing system is a term used to describe the techniques and the equipment used by roped climbers to protect themselves from injury or death while they are rock climbing. In most circumstances, climbers work in pairs or groups. One climbs and the other relays the rope or climbing equipment where it is needed. The person working the rope is called a “belayer” and it is their responsibility to feed rope to the lead climber and ensure that they use a belay device to make it work safely. The climber’s safety is their paramount concern, so concentration on the task at hand is integral. Being a belayer is about trust, so most climbers take people that they have a connection with in order to maintain that focus on trust and ensure that there is a lack of inherent fear.
There are two broad categories of rock climbing. The first is aid climbing and the second is free climbing. Aid climbing is pretty much what it sounds like; aid climbing uses artificial devices that are placed in the rock or around the area so that the climbers have footholds in the surface they are climbing. Free climbing lacks these footholds and assistants and works instead on a free climbing regiment that involves rope and safety equipment. The free climber only uses the natural features of the rock and the rope as footholds.
By Sports Info Editor
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