Climbing route

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A climbing route is a path by which a climber reaches the top of a mountain, rock, or ice wall. Routes can vary dramatically in difficulty and, once committed to that ascent, can be difficult to stop or return. So, choice of route can be critically important. Guidebooks, if available, are helpful in providing detailed maps and photographs of routes.

In the earliest days of mountaineering, climbers got to the top by whatever means got them there. Little information about how they did it is available. During the 19th century, as explorers of the Alps tried ever harder summits, it became clearer that choosing an eastern face over a southwestern ridge could spell the difference between success or failure. One example was the first ascent of the Matterhorn, which had been repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempted via the southern side. The strata there tended to slope down and away while the rocks of the northeastern ridge (the one closest to Zermatt) tilted up - a steeper, but safer route.

As technique developed, and mountains of the world were conquered vis-a-vis easy routes, climbers began to challenge themselves by looking for and trying other routes. Once all the obvious lines had been tried, climbers looked for more technically challenging routes (e.g. an all-rock route threading between icefields or a single thin, fissure running in a continuous straight line from base to summit. An aesthetic element came in, as well. An easy, but confusing route, weaving back and forth across a face was less desirable than a direct route along a scenic ridge. Safe routes that yielded to good technique were more desirable than routes with loose rock and awkward climbing.

Climbing routes that were overlooked or required greater technical skill became associated with the climber(s) who came up with them. Inevitably, there were climbers so energetic that they established multiple routes on a single mountain or cliff, and it became common practice that the first climber would choose a name for the route. This opened up a whole new outlet for creative overkill. Some climbing areas will have a bewildering variety of curious and amusing names for their many routes, as seen in the list below.

An example of this ubiquitous route-naming can be seen at the world-renowned rock outcrop called "The Nose." It is located on the well-known face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. It has received this name for the cliff outcrop that protrudes out over the valley floor from this massive granite wall. A list of routes to the right of The Nose includes:

• New Dawn
• Wall of the Early Morning Light
• Mescalito
• Hockey Night in Canada
• Pacific Ocean Wall (just to the left of a large pattern that looks vaguely like a map of North America)
• Sea of Dreams
• North American Wall
• Wyoming Sheep Ranch (crosses the "Wyoming" of the pattern)
• New Jersey Turnpike
• Born Under a Bad Sign
• Bad to the Bone
• Zodiac
• Eagle's Way
• On the Waterfront
• Waterfall Route
• Chinese Water Torture
• East Buttress (one of the earliest, dating from 1953)

Names often incorporated puns. For example, in Joshua Tree National Park, route names included Coarse and Buggy, Cranking Skills or Hospital Bills ("cranking" being the use of upper body strength), Rockwork Orange (after A Clockwork Orange), Fist Full of Crystals (from A Fistful of Dollars), Dangling Woo Li Master (from The Dancing Wu Li Masters), etc.

Another reason for the large number of named routes was the need to indicate precisely where the route went. For high mountain routes, rockfall and snowfall would significantly change the mountain landscape over the years that it was only possible to give a general idea of a route (i.e. "Climb the ridge to the black tower, pass below it on the right side, and go up a snow-filled gully to the summit ridge").

Established climbing routes are much more predictable and help prevent climbers from getting themselves into a bind. For example, an incorrect choice of a crack could leave the climber stranded in a very precarious position. Here guidebooks, if available, can be very helpful in assessing routes with photographs depicting paths using lines of ascent or a topographic map ("topo" for short) showing a simplified view of the climbing route with specialized symbols indicating important characteristics of the climbing route and to help the climber become aware of established climbing gear such as pitons of bolts. For climbing routes longer than the climbing rope (usually about 60 meters), a good topo will also indicate the recommended belay stations.

[edit] References

• George Meyers and Don Reid, Yosemite Climbs (Chockstone Press, 1987)