Rock climbing isn’t the type of sport that you just throw yourself into. It requires planning, knowledge, grit, and a great deal of teamwork. Start small and work your way up.
Types of Climbing:
Free vs Aid Climbing
According to North Country Climbing, the most common form of climbing is “free climbing.” This occurs when individuals use their own power to ascend; not using anything man-made to help forward progress.
“Aid climbing” is when a climber must or chooses to use the assistance of objects to help them ascend. This type of climbing involves a great deal of specialized gear Aid climbing has its own rating scale from A0 to A5 (or potentially A6) based on the difficulty of placing gear and the ability of the gear to hold a fall.
Bouldering
Bouldering is a type of climbing that involves short ascents without a rope. This is often considered the purest form of climbing because it focuses on the athletic motion of climbing and uses a minimal amount of gear. Specialized gear is unnecessary to boulder, although most boulderers use climbing shoes, chalk to dry their sweaty hands, and a pad to protect their falls.
Bouldering climbs are called “problems” because they are a relatively short series of moves that need to be solved. These problems are often very acrobatic and quite physical: short moves equal huge efforts. Since ropes are not used in bouldering, every bouldering fall is a ground fall. For these reasons, bouldering is physically demanding and not recommended for beginners.
Mountaineering
Encyclopedia Brittanica defines mountaineering as the sport of attaining, or attempting to attain, high points in mountainous regions, mainly for pleasure. Mountaineering requires a certain amount of experience because it is restricted to climbing in locations where hazardous terrain and weather conditions exist.
Nature provides the challenges for Mountaineering participants. It tests the edge of courage, resourcefulness, cunning, strength, ability, and stamina. To a greater degree than other sports, Mountaineering is a group activity; each individual heavily relies upon its group members for support. The pleasures of mountaineering lie in the physical and spiritual satisfaction achieved through intense personal effort, proficiency, and connection with nature.
Mixed Climbing
Rockies Ice suggests that mixed climbing, or drytooling, requires a diverse skill set as climbers must be proficient in the art of ice and rock climbing. “Classic” mixed climbing originated in the mountain environments and was needed to navigate alpine faces. “Modern” mixed climbing was developed to climb ice routes that weren’t quite formed. A modern mixed route has equal amounts of rock and ice; the rock is climbed by drytooling (hooking ice axes and crampons on rock ledges and cracks). The mixed experience is popular among diverse climbers, including winter specialists.
Ice Climbing
Rock Climbing Central indicates that ice climbing is a semi-new sport. Like rock climbing, it branches out from mountaineering but retains all main characteristics: high levels of adrenaline, terrain unpredictability, and high dependence on weather conditions. Because it is rare to find a place where pure ice covers the rock, ice climbing is a mixture of stones and ice, like waterfalls, alpines, and icy cliffs. In the absence of ice, drytooling is used to mimic ice climbing techniques by using the same tools on rock.
Climbing is such a rewarding experience but the mountain you must climb to get there is not an easy one. It is an investment that requires dedication, practice and teamwork.