We welcome all levels of climbing here at KCLMC. However, if you’ve never been climbing before, the first time can be pretty baffling. So this section is to outline what climbing is all about and the types that we do. It will introduce you to the basics of indoor climbing, outdoor rock climbing and bouldering. There is another section on Winter Climbing/Mountaineering which walks you through the principles of glacial and ice climbing.
CLIMBING INDOORS:
When you first come to the Castle with us to try out climbing, you’ll learn that there are 2 basic forms of climbing. These are climbing the long walls in a climbing centre using ropes and a harness, and bouldering, when the walls are small and you don’t use a rope.
We like to get you to try out both, but the usual way to start climbing is doing “top-roping”. This is where you wear a harness that goes around your waist and legs which is tied to the end of a rope using a knot called a figure of eight (see below).
The rope goes from your harness straight up the wall in front of you and through a very sturdy metal ring at the top, and back down again where it is held by your climbing partner to keep you safe. They also wear a harness and they use a piece of kit called a belay device (also called ATC or plate) and a karabiner (also called crab) to keep the rope safely attached to them – and YOU – in a technique called belaying. As you climb upwards, their end of the rope becomes loose and they “take in” the rope as you go so you always feel supported by it. When you get to the top, they gently let you down as you lean back walk down the wall with your toes. Et viola! You’ve conquered your first climb!
There is another type of climbing called leading which is where the rope is not already positioned for you, but you place it yourself as you go up the wall. We’ll teach you this a little later as it needs a bit more care. But it explains why the walls are riddled with clips (called quick draws).
The second subset of climbing mentioned was bouldering. You don’t need a partner for this as there are no ropes or harnesses involved – in fact you shouldn’t wear a harness in case you fall awkwardly on it. Big crash mats are placed at the bottom of a low wall (about 4m) and when you’re at the top, you either jump or climb back down (down-climbing). The routes in bouldering are sometimes called problems and like in the longer rope routes, they are especially set so that you should try to use holds (multi-shaped lumps of resin bolted to the wall) of the same colour. Because bouldering involves shorter routes, it generally needs less stamina than route-climbing but is more sustained in terms of difficulty and might require more strength.
Both boulder problems and climbing routes are especially set and marked up in grades depending on their difficulty. There are several grading systems but the one most commonly used is the French system, which ranges from 4a (easy) to 9b (professional level). Each numerical grade has an “a”, “b” and “c” so that it ranges 4a, 4b, 4c, 5a etc. Grades in bouldering have the same principle but start at V0, V1, V2, V3 etc.
CLIMBING OUTDOORS
Climbing gets more complicated when you step into the awesome world of climbing on real rock. Bouldering remains much the same, even the grading system. But route-climbing is divided into sport climbing and trad climbing (short for “traditional”). Sport is very similar to leading indoors apart from you must place your own quick draws instead of them being already there for you. The grades are even the same. But trad climbing is a whole new entity and requires much more skill. Unlike sport climbing, there is nothing fixed in the rock at all to help you, and you must have a rack on your harness (a collection of climbing gear) which you use as you climb up to make yourself safe with by connecting the rope to it. The gear used ranges from simple nuts (blocks of solid metal that are wedged into cracks) to more complicated cams (spring-loaded devices that need careful placement) and more. There is a separate section of gear here. It might seem complicated but it isn’t really that bad!
Outdoor climbing introduces another concept – seconding. Once the leader has finished their pitch (section of a climb), the person who was belaying then climbs up behind them (the role of belayer has now been transferred to the leader). The seconder removes all of the gear that was used by the leader so nothing gets left behind on the rock (which is really important both for the environment and for your wallet!).
Climbing can be single-pitch or multi-pitch. A multi-pitch climb is usually on larger rock faces or mountains, whereas a single pitch might be in a quarry or short rock faces (Stanage in the peak district is a great example). Single pitches might not require a seconder if the leader can be lowered back down to the ground and can therefore take out the gear they placed on their way.
Grades for trad climbing are quite complicated - there are numerical grades for difficulty (e.g. 4a) which follow the English, not French, system; and there are descriptive grades for protectability (this takes into account how many places there are for the nuts and cams mentioned above). This part of the grade starts "Moderate", "Difficult", "Very Difficult","Severe", "Hard Severe" etc. Don't worry - they sound harder than they are because they got their names back when climbing was a sport enjoyed in hob-nail boots!
This section is just to give you a brief overview of the kinds of climbing we do. Feel free to have a browse of our other sections on winter mountaineering and ice climbing too. Remember that we’ll help you get to grips with the new techniques and skills you need and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
