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Sport Climber's Glossary

fredrogers

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fredrogers Gumby

fredrogers

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I think this is courtesy of John Long, stolen from some site in Sweden:

 

For your next trip to any rad sportclimbing area... Here's a brief list of terms to allow you to converse freely with the species known as the "sportclimber"! (some of these were plagerized from the Sport Climbing Connection)

 

Onsight Free Solo Angus MacGillicuddy has never been to Mt. Hogwash. Walking along the base, Angus spots a line of bolts up an overhanging schist intrusion. He fancies the look of the route, laces up his boots, blows his nose, chalks up and gapes at several girls from the Swedish Sport Climbing Team, who are limbering up and changing into bright-colored tights. Psyched, Angus winks, spits into his palms, then solos up the schist intrusion.

 

Free Solo Angus has been to Mt. Roughage several times. On two occasions, he's climbed The Watercloset, a difficult route that follows a basalt intrusion via chancy dynamics. Angus has it in mind to solo The Watercloset. Now at the base, he laces up, touches his toes, exhales hard, then solos the route.

 

Worked Solo Angus has been coming to Mt. Peatmoss for 11 years. He's lead Compost 50 times, toproped it 70 times, and, also on a toprope, has worked the crux bit over and over till he knows it better than the hair on his palms. Now he plans to `solo' Compost, an intricate razor job up a monzonite intrusion. At the base, he flexes his guns, flexes his back, flexes his loins, jumps onto Compost and solos it in six minutes.

 

Onsight Flash or A Vue: climb the route without any falls, without having tried it before, without watching anybody do it, and without any special knowledge (beta) on how to do the moves. Angus has never been to Mt. Basura. One route, The Offal, takes a loose line up a steep albeit trashy intrusion. Angus racks up and leads The Offal straight off, placing all the gear. He takes no falls, nor a single rest on the line.

 

Beta Flash: no falls, without having tried it before. Usually with some knowledge of the moves gained by watching people or instructions on how to do the moves. 3. flash with running beta: no falls, first try, but with somebody telling you how to do the moves as you progress. This is Angus' first trip to Mt. Gismo. At the local pub, Angus runs into Jack Nastyface, the local hardman. Since Angus is buying, Jack describes down to the last pinky lock the sequence for climbing The Honest Indonesian, an improbable Mt. Gismo test piece following a sketchy dun intrusion. With the sequence memorized, Angus flashes the route the next afternoon. Deja Vu It's been some years since Angus was last at Mt. Tallywhacker. He remembers trying the Chamfered Luby -- and failing miserably. The successive lunges along the scarlet intrusion notwithstanding, he remembers little about the route. But Angus is a better climber than he was 7 years ago, and the next morning, he manhandles the Chamfered Luby on his `first' try.

 

(all three flash terms can be applied to a toprope ascent, but the terms below apply only to leading)

 

Red Point: lead with no preplaced gear (other than bolts or normally fixed gear like pitons). Usually this implies that it's not your first try, falls were taken, etc., but no gear was left in place to assist the lead. Removing all the quickdraws (especially the top one) is often time-consuming, so if others are waiting to do the route, pinkpoint style (below) is often used (and some people inaccurately call it redpoint also) Angus has tried to climb The Widget on Mt. Sputnik for five years now. He's aided it, toproped it, studied it from a helicopter, on jumars, with opera glasses. Finally, he leads it, no falls, placing the gear as he goes.

 

Pink Point: lead with preplaced gear (usually quickdraws clipped to the bolts). The rope is not left in place after falls -- it is pulled through the gear, which is reclipped on the next attempt. Sometimes the quickdraws are placed by other people and left in place for many weeks. Angus has been trying to climb The Bullwhip on Mt. Maplethorp for 10 years. He's gotten close, and after hosing the Windgate intrusion with Gumout, squeegeeing it clean, then buffing each hold with 600-grit sand paper, he wants to try the lead once again. But first, he raps down the route, places all the gear, then flashes the lead.

 

Yellow-Point - A no falls top-roped ascent, or Yellow-Point - A climb where you were so scared you almost pee'd your pants.

 

Brown-Point - similar to Yellow-Point except for more severve consequences. Brown Point Angus has never tried Intelligent Gas From Uranus on Mt. Bachar. He starts up the blank face between the two brown intrusions full of intentions to make a flash ascent. Things go bad in a hurry, and Angus soon is hanging from the cord. He's quickly on a toprope, pulling through the first two grim bits. Later, stumped at the crux, he incorporates a side rope, one etrier and a `come along' belay. This makes Angus feel like he's got the strength of 10 men as he works out the crux. Within hours, he stands on the summit, ready to rap down and place the gear for a `pink point' ascent the next day.

 

Other Techniques

 

Yoyo: preplaced gear; the rope is left clipped through [most of] the gear after each lead attempt. Other terms can be used to describe non-free ascents.

 

For example, hangdogging There are other procedures that Angus sometimes employs in his quest for the summit that are worth mentioning. For instance, he's been known to `hangdog.' That is, after he falls off his lead attempt, he won't hesitate to hang on the rope, rest, then carry on fully refreshed.

 

When Angus first went to Mt. Pipedream, he didn't have time for too many shenanigans, but he did want to bag The Tiajuana Virgin, a nearly non-existent line of pockets along an ivory intrusion. To save time, he rapped down to the crux, worked it out on a toprope, then rapped to the deck and `red pointed' the route. Thus, Angus had `speed dogged' the route (also known as `greyhounding').

 

Also at Mt. Bachar, Angus took a liking to The Pipefitter. He did not, however, like the looks of the first bolt, which was 30 feet off the talus. Angus needed a `coon dog' to go up and fetch him that first clip. Shawn had already mounted The Pipefitter 69 times before, and gladly `coon dogged' for Angus. He clipped the first bolt, lowered, then handed off the blunted sharp end for Rover to take over -- in relative safety.

 

Angus encountered a similar situation at Mt. Hamstring. The Rocky Mountain Oyster followed an overhanging intrusion, and the first bolt, way the hell up there, already had a quickdraw on it. Nobody's fool, Angus took a long bight of rope, twirled it over his head like a lariat and hurled it at the in situ quickdraw. The bight of rope hit the dogleg carabiner at the gate and with a click!, Angus was clipped in! He named this method the `rodeo clip.' Rodeo-Clip - While hanging off of a bolt you pull up a bunch of rope and flip it up to the quick draw clipping the rope through a biner. Angus certainly is not one, but he's known a few `dog's asses.' These are craven swine who cannot accept defeat and alter an existing route to make it easier for them to scale, placing additional bolts, chiseling holds, etc. Starvation, thirst and financial ruin to them all.

 

Terms like redpoint are used to give additional details on what tactics were used to free climb a route. For example, was the route done first try with no falls, or were several attempts/practices required? The purpose is to shed some light on the abilities of the climber (at least on that day); in contrast, the difficulty of the route stays constant and is reflected in the rating. involves practicing the moves of a climb and resting or aiding on the gear instead of lowering to the ground or to a natural rest after each fall. Of course the latter never happen on sport routes since they are always so safe. Gee wiz all those bolts nice and close together.

 

Alpine route - Anything out of earshot of the car radio.

 

Auto Beta: When a belayer or observer starts giving you blow-by-blow descriptions of the route and how to climb it when you're already on it. "Shut up man.. there you go into auto beta mode again!"

 

Bagged: Short for sandbagged.

 

Cheese: Adjective for an easy route.. "That route was cheese!"

 

Crater: To fall and hit the ground. To take a fall to the ground; i.e. "He cratered."

 

Dirt Me: Lower me to the Ground.

 

Dog It: Hanging by the rope to rest then finish the route.

 

Gush: See Crater.

 

Essential Rack: A Daytimer and the keys to the Saab Turbo.

 

Honed: Excellent muscle definition... climbing well. "Dude you're Way honed!"

 

Heinous: Either way hard or way bad.. "Oh man that's Heinous.." or "Oh man that's a heinous approach!"

 

Pumped: Forearms bulging.. visibly pronounced blood vessels. Toasted: Way past "pumped" take a rest day.

 

Offwidth: A crack too big to jam, too small to chimney. See "Heinous"

 

Peel: To come off.. fall or slip.. "Watch me dude I'm gonna peel!"

 

Perfect Belay: The front bumper of a Ford F150.

 

Pig: The haul bag.

 

Puke: See offwidth.

 

Run-out - The bolts are more than 5 feet apart.

 

Screamer: A BIG whipper See also Dave Roberts classic piece "Bad Day at Practice Rock".

 

Talus Food: A climber who has cratered. See Crater. as in "...Dhude...blow that clip and you're talus food..."

 

The Tree: J-Tree national monument

 

The New: New river Gorge

 

The Forks: Paradise Forks

 

Trad: Traditionalist. Places and removes all gear on the route (unless fixed- bolts or pitons). Too much work for sport climbers.

 

Wank: See hangdog.

 

Wanker: One who engages in the practice of wanking.

 

Whipper: A long lead fall.

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Gaper/Poseur: One who owns the Saab 500 Turbo (or Subaru Outback as the case may be) and wears the $40 Patagonia beanie but does not do much more than hangdog or yellow point.

 

Cascadeclimber: See gaper/poseur

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richard_noggin Gumby

richard_noggin

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See I told ya!

Red point: placeing all the gear on lead

Pink point: preplaceing gear( sport climb )

Brown point: Top roped rehearsed preplaced gear trad route ( see traditionalist above )

I knew Largo would back me up [big Grin]

Hang dogg'in day glow spandex sporto,s brown point'in our cracks and call'in em First accents [Roll Eyes]

Whathefuksupwitdat they must be from Cali or Colorado

They musta been eatin too much of that unprocessed [HORSECOCK]

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