How To Get Started: Rock Climbing, Part 4

Welcome back to the Find Your Adventure blog.

In the first 3 parts of this series, we've progressed from climbing close to the ground without ropes (Bouldering), moved on to cover the safest way to actually gain some height (Top-Roping), and took the leap into lead climbing under the fairly controlled conditions of clipping bolts (Sport Climbing).  Here, in Part 4, we'll step off the ledge, so to speak, and venture out into the much more complicated (and potentially scary!) world of Traditional - or "Trad" - Climbing. 

Trad Climbing is the real deal.  This is the style of climbing that enables you to approach a mountain or a cliff that nobody has ever climbed before and tackle it. There may not be any bolts or anchors pre-placed by previous parties.  It's just you, your partner, a whole bunch of gear, and a brain full of knowledge and experience.

Basically, you're on your own!  But that's the challenge you were looking for, right?

I should start off by saying that Trad Climbing is very serious business, and you should absolutely NOT try it unless you have some idea of what you're doing.  Most people these days start off by taking classes - probably from their local climbing gym or a reputable guide service; and that is certainly the route that I would recommend.

There are, of course, ways to teach yourself.  When I started, I bought books like "Mountaineering: The Freedom Of The Hills," and John Long's 1993 book "Climbing Anchors."  I studied them, bought some gear, and went to my local climbing area to practice placing gear and building anchors.  I worked constantly on my knots and read every climbing magazine I could get my hands on.  My friends and I top-roped various routes and placed gear on the way up like we were leading.  We even pretended to fall on gear to see how it held our weight.  

Whichever path you decide to take, make sure that you start slow and easy.  Practice a LOT.  Don't get yourself in over your head, because you could easily get yourself or your partner killed!

Ok, now that I've scared you sufficiently, let's talk about the process.

It's basically the same as Sport Climbing, except instead of clipping bolts, you'll be clipping "protection" that you place (or find) as you proceed up the cliff.  Protection comes in many shapes and forms.  It could be a tree or a root that you find 10 feet up the climb.  You'll take a sling or a length of cord or nylon webbing and tie it around the tree, put a carabiner on it, then clip the rope into that carabiner.  

Or, your piece of "pro" (that's what climbers call "protection") might be a metal wedge that you jam into a crack.  It could also be a spring-loaded device called a "cam."

I'll go over the various pieces of gear in a bit.

Let's step back and start at the beginning - the bottom of the climb.

Just like Sport Climbing, Trad Climbing requires one of you to be the Leader and one of you to be the Belayer.  The Leader will have the "pro", also called "the rack."  He or she will also have a collection of slings (those loops of nylon webbing with 2 carabiners - one for the pro and one for the rope.)  The slings and the pro will be clipped into "gear loops" on the Leader's harness.  Some Leaders also like to carry a kind of purpose-built "gear sling" over their shoulder that they can also carry gear on.  Once loaded up with as much stuff as the Leader thinks he'll need for the climb, he ties into the rope and starts up, with the Belayer feeding out the rope.

Right off the bat, the Leader should be looking for that first "placement" - the first spot to place that first piece of pro.  Usually, it's some kind of crack in the rocks into which the Leader will place one of those wedges or cams.  Remember, if you are the Leader, the whole point of putting in pro is to prevent you from hitting the ground if you fall.  You might fall a few feet, but as long as you don't actually hit the ground you probably won't get hurt too badly.  So if you climb up more than 8 or 10 feet, you should probably put in that first piece, because a fall from any higher could be pretty bad.  Your Belayer could even serve as a "spotter" (Remember?  from Part 1 about Bouldering?), ready to catch you or at least break your fall a bit until you get that first piece in.

Now, the terrain might be really easy, and you may not feel like you have to put in anything yet, but you should ALWAYS protect yourself from a "groundfall" (hitting the ground).  Always put in a piece as soon as you find a good spot to do so.  You never know what might happen.  You might get stung by a bee, a rock might break off, or it might start raining.  It would be a shame for some weird, flukey thing to cause you to fall and break your leg - or worse!  So just put that first piece in as soon as you can.

Of course, it might not be that easy.  In order to put in a piece of pro, you need to find a good place to stop, sort through your rack, find the appropriate piece, insert it, clip the sling to it, then clip the rope to it.  That could take some time.  You don't want to do that hanging from one finger or in a spot where your feet are about to slip off.  This is yet another reason why it's a good idea to always start trad leading on a climb that is well within your abilities.

You may crush the really hard routes on Top Rope at the gym, but this is the REAL world.  This is Trad Leading, and you need to drop it down a few notches because the consequences are serious.  Remember:  Gravity is very unforgiving!  It's always there, waiting for you to make a mistake!

So, you climbed up 6, 8 or 10 feet, you've come to good spot where you have good footholds and at least one really good handhold that you can grab onto.  Now, you have to look around for that crack. 

Here's where we can talk about the different kinds of pro.

Like I said, the most basic kind is the simple, metal wedge.  This falls into the category called "passive protection."  The other category is, you guessed it, "active protection."

There are a few different variations of wedges, there are a few different manufacturers that make them, and each manufacturer has a different twist on the same idea.  Some are color-coded so you can find the right size.  Most are numbered.  There are different materials - steel, brass, aluminum - and there are different shapes.  Which brand or mix that you choose to buy is really up to you.  You'll want a wide variety, from big to tiny, so you can protect yourself no matter what size or shape crack you come to.

Some of the biggest brands are:  Black Diamond (which makes "Stoppers" - that's their line of wedges),  DMM (their wedges are called "Wallnuts"), and Wild Country "Rock Nuts."  Other brands are Metolius, Omega Pacific and Trango, among others.

A company called Camp makes an interesting wedge called a "tri-cam," which is a unique design that can be used in both a passive and a sort of "active" mode.  

Another kind of oddball design is the hexagonal wedges that can fit in a wider variety of cracks depending on which way you place them.  

You'll really just need to get your hands on some, play with them, practice with them and figure out which ones you're most comfortable with.  Most likely, you'll end up with an assortment of a few different brands.

This brings us to "active" protection.

These are those "cams" that we talked about.  They're much more expensive than those simple metal wedges, but they're worth their weight in gold when you really need them.  They basically do the same thing as the metal wedges, except that they are spring-loaded and "lock" into place even if the crack itself is perfectly parallel.  

You see, the regular metal wedges really only work if there is a constriction.  You look around, find a crack, but you have to find a crack that gets narrower as it goes downward.  Then you place the wedge above the constriction and give it a good, hard yank downward INTO the constriction.  That "locks" the wedge in position so that it won't wiggle out as you climb past it with your rope and sling tugging on it.

But a cam doesn't need a constriction.  To place a cam, you pull on the "trigger" which pulls the "lobes" of the cam downward and makes the size of it's head smaller.  Then, you place it in the crack and release the trigger.  At that point, the spring pushes the lobes against the rock and "locks" it into place.  The real beauty of the design is that, as you pull downwards on it (which is what would happen if you fell), the downward pressure actually transfers that force to the head and tries to make it even bigger.  This means that it REALLY locks the cam in place because it would have to get smaller in order to fall out of the crack.

That might not make sense just reading this, but when you hold one in your hands and really see how it works, you'll get it.

All that being said, you'll definitely want some cams on your rack!

So, after you've placed that first piece 10 feet off the deck, you'll want to place that next piece pretty soon.  Remember, like we talked about in Part 3, you're going to fall TWICE the distance from the last piece of protection as you climb up past it.

If you've placed a piece 10 feet up, then climb 3 feet higher, now you're going to fall 6 feet, plus a little rope stretch (and another foot or so if your Belayer is jerked toward the cliff, or even more if he doesn't catch you right away!)  Because of that, and because the primary goal in placing protection is to prevent you from hitting the ground, it's a good idea to get that second piece in as soon as possible.

As you get higher, you can space the pro out a little more if you're comfortable.  For example, if you're 50 feet up and you put a piece in, theoretically you can climb 25 feet higher before a fall will result in you hitting the ground.  So you might not really NEED to put another piece in for 15 or 20 feet.

Not that you should shrug off a fall of any height, however.  Even a little fall of 5 or 10 feet can break an ankle or cause you to hit your head.

That's a good reason why you should always Trad Climb with a helmet on!

Ok, I'm going to stop here.  In the next part, I'll talk about what to do when you get to the top of the pitch.  You DO remember what a "pitch" is, right?

See you in Part 5!

Chris at AkshunKat