Traditional climbing

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Traditional climbing, or Trad climbing, is a style of climbing that emphasizes the skills necessary for establishing routes in an exploratory fashion. Before the advent of sport climbing, the normal style of unaided rock climbing was what is now referred to as "traditional". Trad climbing usually involves the leader ascending a section of rock while placing their own protective devices as he/she climbs. Route finding, effective gear placements, self control, and good down-climbing skills are essential. Normally, such climbs are not previewed or rehearsed on a top rope (with or without tension), and emphasis is placed on passing difficult sections on the first try. As a form of free climbing, only the limbs and body of the climber are used to effect upward progress, and protective devices are placed solely to catch the climber in the event of a fall.

Traditional climbing includes placement of all forms of protection, including bolts, while leading. In its purest form such placements are done without any aid from the rope. Bolting in traditional style requires standing on natural holds, drilling a hole (manual twist drills until mid 1970's, power drills thereafter) and hammering in a shaft and hanger, a difficult and time consuming process. Because of this difficulty and the once prevailing ethic (generally, pre-1980s in the U.S.) of minimizing bolts as they permanently mark the rock, traditional bolted routes often entail more distance between protection bolts than sport climbs. Not all bolted traditional climbs are “run out” between bolts; nevertheless, traditional climbing has now become associated with “bold,” “adventurous” if not “scary” climbing with minimal protection and the possibility of long falls. With the advent of power drills and changing climbing ethics (primarily during the 1970's and 1980's), climbers began placing bolts with sling tension from hooks on flakes and knobs (famous example: Bachar-Yerian 5.11c, Tuolumne Meadows, California), and eventually began placing them from the tops of cliffs on rappel to create so called "sport" routes.

Traditional and sport climbing (currently the two main categories of rock climbing styles) not only differ in means of protection, but means of making progress. In sport climbing, the climber may rest on tension after a fall or while rehearsing a difficult move, prior to completing a demanding sequence unaided. In the purest form of traditional climbing, resting on the rope during the ascent is eschewed, particularly after a fall. ^[1], ^[2]

Overall, traditional climbing emphasizes the adventure aspect of rock climbing -- in fact, it is sometimes called "adventure climbing" in Australia; as such it contrasts with sport climbing, which emphasizes the athletic aspect.

1 Trad climbing in the United Kingdom
2 Trad Climbing in Australia
3 Trad climbing in the United States
4 Trad in the rest of the world
5 Sources
6 External Links
7 See also

[edit] Trad climbing in the United Kingdom

Britain has a long tradition of "clean" climbing, (no hammer or pitons) and is thus home to some very bold climbs. The trad ethic is the dominant one in the UK, although sport climbing has become popular in recent years.

In the United Kingdom, "traditional" means that all protection is placed by the leader and removed by the following climber.

In early 2006 Dave MacLeod, a renowned climber out of Glasgow, Scotland, climbed Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock (Scotland) for the world's then hardest trad climb, the first at the grade of E11. The route's grade, E11 7a, is equivalent to French 8c/8c+ or US 5.14c/d R.

[edit] Trad Climbing in Australia

Major Trad areas:

Arapiles: Solid sandstone trad climbing with the occasional bolt on the harder lines. ~ 2000 routes in a small area.

The Grampians: Sandstone and quartzite, huge area.

Blue Mountains: sandstone

Point Perpendicular: Sandstone, top down, sea cliff climbing.

Frog Buttress: Rhyolite columns, predominately crack climbing.

[edit] Trad climbing in the United States

"Traditional" climbing in the United States generally means a climbing style developed in the late 1950s through the 1960s, especially for making first ascents, when the emphasis turned from getting to the top by any means of rope aid to doing routes without any rope reliance (then termed free climbing). The expression traditional climbing seems not to appear in climbing literature referring to climbing styles prior to that era. See ^[1] for its probable first appearance.

The separation of rock climbing into traditional or "trad" and sport forms, beginning in the 1980's, created some tension between adherents of the different styles. Advocates of sport climbing held traditional rules limited the ability of a new generation to do new routes on increasingly difficult faces and cliffs. Trad advocates contended not everything should be climbed by any means. It is a debate which continues to this day.

In North America, a route may be described as "traditional" even if there are bolts already in place on the route, as long as these bolts were placed while on lead, rather than rappel. Such lead placements sometimes results in routes with less protection than sport routes, making the consequence of falling possibly more risky.

Major trad climbing areas of the US:

Yosemite Valley, California: Home of the Big Wall
Tuolumne Meadows, California: alpine meadows and solid granite domes. Primarily bolted trad climbs
Tahquitz, California
The Needles, California: High Quality
The Black Hills, South Dakota: History
The Gunks, New York:
Joshua Tree National Park, California: over 4,000 routes
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado: high alpine climbing
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Notable trad climbers

[edit] Trad in the rest of the world

Compared to the U.S., Australia, and U.K., there are few trad climbing areas in mainland Europe:

Valle dell'Orco (Gran Paradiso national park, Italy)
Val di Mello (north of Lecco, Italy)
Handegg (Switzerland)
The upper needles of Chamonix (France), only climbable in summer.
Farther north a superb area with nice summer temperatures and killer friction is Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden
Even farther and with much more rain are the huge granite walls of northern Norway, Lofoten Islands above Narvik, Nissedal south-west of Oslo
Saxon Switzerland cradle of traditional Free climbing located mainly in Saxon Switzerland National_Park.