Imagine standing at the base of a towering mountain, bare rock just staring down at you. Your heart pounds and your hands sweat, you see someone climbing on the sheer rock face, holding what seems to be nothing. They move with purposeful intent, raising their hands and legs to pull themselves upwards with nothing but ropes to hold them secure. Welcome to the extreme world of rock climbing, a sport that pushes both your mental and physical limits to its limits.
It sounds hard right? Using your upper body and arm strength to scale flat walls, jumping off the rock surface only to catch the tiniest hold like a certain spider hero would. Rock climbing is one of those sports that intimidates everyone at first glance. Everyone has heard stories of drastic injuries related to falling. Why would you trust yourself to scale up a wall only to fall at significant heights? Why do people climb up if in the end they come down and risk injuries, couldn’t safer sports do just as well?
In all honesty, rock climbing offers exhilaration that is not for everyone. The thrill of overcoming your mental and physical limits to finish a tough route can bring a rush of dopamine like no other. It’s not just about finishing the route, but pushing past your limits and growing as an individual.
But what is Rock Climbing? Why are people addicted to this extreme sport? Could you do it? Let’s dive in together what rock climbing is and what makes it so difficult.
What is Rock Climbing?
At its core, Rock Climbing is an intensive activity where participants scale natural rock faces or artificial climbing walls. The sport requires a unique blend of physical strength, endurance, and mental determination. Here you test your mettle against different routes to the top of the rock face, utilising different combinations of hand holds and foot holds.
For natural rock faces, you have to solve your way through the route, feeling the cracks to see if it is suitable for your next move. In artificial rock climbing gyms, the routes are preset by route setters and you follow the colour-coded holds on the wall.
Rock climbing is set into four categories, top rope, lead climbing, speed climbing, and bouldering. Each of them is unique and can push climbers to grow differently. Some climbers may feel more affinity towards bouldering rather than rope climbing, but in the end, they still push all climbers forward.
Bouldering is short, challenging routes without ropes that focus on utilising technique and strength. Climbers normally jump down to the safety mats that line the gym floors. For outdoor adventures, climbers bring in mobile mats called crash pads to provide safety cushions. Similar to sprinting, climbs here focus on short bursts of intense and complex movements.
Speed climbing is a unique blend of rope climbing but with the burst of power from bouldering where climbers race against each other to scale a rope wall as fast as possible. Here climbers need to make quick but efficient moves that will allow them to keep momentum up.
Rope climbing is broken into two sub-categories. Sport climbing/Top Rope uses fixed anchors at the top for ropes to ascend longer routes. Traditional climbing/Lead Climbing is an extended version of sport climbing where you need to place your gear into the wall as you climb up, which offers a more challenging experience. Climbers here focus on building their endurance and keeping calm in order to go higher up the wall, similar to marathon running.
What are the difficulties in rock climbing
The difficulties in rock climbing come in all shapes and sizes. From the next hold being too far and too small, or fear gripping your heart by being high up the wall or facing last hold syndrome. Climbers face a plethora of trials while they climb every time. A group of climbers can find different issues on the same route, each needing a unique way of solving the problem.
The Physical Aspect
There are a few factors that contribute to the physical difficulty of the route. Such as your physical capabilities to the techniques that the route demands, everything combines together to create unique problems to solve.
What could make a route challenging is the type of holds used, such as those as small as credit cards or those as large as a basketball but the surface is too smooth to hold. There are names for these holds, jugs are those holds that have a dip inside so it’s the best ones to hold, crimps are small ones that only allow the tops of your fingers to be utilised, slopers are large smooth holds that require good body positioning to utilise and pinches require you to pinch them. There are around 9 types of holds with more sub-categories.
Another challenge could be the flow of the route, meaning the type of moves that the route would require you to perform to finish the route. Maybe the flow focuses on the holds being far apart, so those with shorter reach may face difficulties. Or maybe the flow focuses on tight spaces where those who are taller may find it more challenging to do.
The Mental Aspect
This aspect is often what makes climbing such a complex sport. Your mental fortitude plays such a crucial role in how you climb, it shapes what moves you like to train or even what sort of routes you are weaker with. While many new individuals imagine that climbing is purely a physical sport, seasoned climbers understand that their mental game is by far the most important aspect of climbing.
The first hurdle that many climbers face is all about learning. Climbing has a unique, complex set of moves that you won’t ever use in your daily life or other sports. Beginner climbers may face learning to use their feet to hook onto a hold, or to stop relying on just their hands. Utilising your entire body is a lot more challenging than it sounds. Even experienced climbers constantly have to learn new moves and new ways to coordinate themselves across challenging routes. Every climber has to keep learning, adapting their knowledge to the current situation otherwise they would only stagnate.
Every climber faces this, whether new or experienced, all climbers face fear in climbing. Whether it is because they are precariously balancing on a small hold or the move requires coordination which invokes fear of hitting the wall. Experienced climbers have to learn how to manage their fears, as the faintest hesitation could cost them the route.
“I think the lesson of climbing is that you can push through the fear. If you embrace the fear, you still act even though it scares you.” – Alex Honnold, ‘Free Solo (2018)’.
Insecurities are the killers to any climber’s mental game. It may seem so distant, but your mental health and how you see yourself change the way you climb. Insecurities may weaken your climbing resolve, prevent you from learning anything else, or stray any climber from their path. Learning how to manage your own insecurities and doubts as you forge a path forward as a climber changes how you would approach the challenges. Fortunately, the rock climbing community is an inviting and accepting space, searching for those who will not only accept you but push you forward is crucial in this intensive sport.
So is rock climbing hard?
Well, yes and no. Like every facet of life, it’s a complicated answer. The only realistic answer we can give you is for you to try it out. Maybe you will fall in love with it, or fall out of it quickly. Many factors come into play in this sport, whether it be your physical fitness or your mental fortitude.
Maybe call your friend, or drag your friends rock climbing. After all, you don’t have to walk this path alone.
