Is rock climbing really dangerous?

Rock climbing has always been a relatively small sport, especially in China, but the development momentum of rock climbing in China in recent years is still very good.

When 20 18 just came back from California, there were relatively few high-quality and reliable rock gyms in China. Most of the team members are the first group of "old people" who play rock climbing in China, and there are also some rock climbers trained by sports colleges. Ordinary interested players obviously feel less. Of course, some big cities have higher acceptance of rock climbing because of better resource conditions, which is much better than most other cities.

Perhaps it is because rock climbing was included in the Olympic Games for the first time in Tokyo Olympic Games, which has attracted more attention in recent years. The number and quality of rock climbing venues in China are improving, attracting more people to try this sport.

For many domestic friends, the first time I learned about rock climbing may be from the documentary "Rock Climbing with Hands" (formerly known as Free Solo) filmed in the famous Yosemite National Park in the United States. The protagonist is a great god named Alex Honnold.

He climbed up this rock wall called Elca Pitan:

Even if you haven't been here, Mac computer users must be familiar with it. This is the background of the previous El Capitan OS desktop. The picture below shows his climbing route:

This film has contributed greatly to the promotion of rock climbing, but it has also made many people who don't understand rock climbing have a greater misunderstanding that rock climbing is extreme and dangerous. For rock climbing, many people in China initially gave a simple and rude evaluation of "few foreigners".

But is this really the case?

First of all, it must be explained that, as the title tells you, the sports shown in this film are called free singles (I think it is more accurate to translate them into "free singles" or "unarmed singles", which is conducive to the understanding of classification). Free solo rock climbing is really dangerous, but it is only a branch of rock climbing, an extreme branch. In fact, most climbers will not try, because it is really too dangerous.

There are actually many kinds of rock climbing. From a macro point of view, from the development stage of rock climbing, it experienced the traditional rock climbing stage, and then separated from it the sports rock climbing.

Traditional rock climbing and sports rock climbing

Traditional rock climbing (or Trad for short) is similar to sports rock climbing, and the relationship between them can be understood as follows: sports rock climbing is a form of exercise abstracted from some traditional rock climbing.

There are two kinds of traditional rock climbing: one is auxiliary rock climbing (also called instrumental rock climbing) and the other is free rock climbing (which can also be translated into freehand rock climbing, which is why the author thinks that free solo should be translated into freehand rock climbing instead of freehand rock climbing). The difference between the two is whether there is an instrument/external force for climbing. Free/unarmed climbing without external assistance does not mean that there is no protection. Only the so-called Solo can be unprotected. By the way, not all forms of rock climbing that contain the word solo are unprotected.

This paper focuses on three main forms of free climbing: one is guided climbing, the other is top rope climbing and the other is bouldering climbing. These three kinds of free rock climbing are protected, as well as traditional rock climbing and sports rock climbing. Readers who may be concerned about the rock climbing competition in this Tokyo Olympic Games or other rock climbing events in recent years know that there are three events in the rock climbing competition: speed, difficulty and bouldering. The "difficulty" here is actually a "pioneer" (in fact, if you notice the English name of the "difficulty" competition, you will find that it is actually a "lead"). I think it's called "difficulty", which may be a name originally created to distinguish it from "speed" rock climbing. I think it is more appropriate and intuitive to call it "pioneer" directly. "Extreme speed" rock climbing is a unique project derived from sports rock climbing. Traditional rock climbing does not have this kind, because it never emphasizes climbing speed. In essence, "speed" climbing or top rope climbing (using automatic protector instead of real person protection) only talks about speed from the perspective of competition.

Compared with traditional rock climbing, the logic of rock climbing is basically the same, and the difference is mainly reflected in the setting of anchors: because the anchors used in sports rock climbing are fixed on the rock wall (artificial or natural rock wall) in advance, the related links of setting anchors in traditional rock climbing are omitted. There is little difference between traditional rock climbing and sports rock climbing, because there is no need to set anchor points. Of course, there is another difference, that is, traditional rock climbing activities are only carried out on outdoor natural rock walls, while sports rock climbing can be carried out on both natural rock walls and indoor/outdoor artificial rock walls (the bouldering of sports rock climbing is indoor, and the rock points are also artificial rock points).

Bolt (bolt)

Regarding the forms of rock climbing, you may have heard of some other types of rock climbing, such as multi-point rock climbing, rope climbing and so on. , this article will not be repeated.

The above three forms of "pioneer", "top rope" and "bouldering" are the core and the most common.

Pioneer & Top Rope

Both "Pioneer" and "Top Rope" are climbing high rock walls, which is in sharp contrast to "Bouldering" only climbing relatively low boulders. For "Pioneer" and "Top Rope" climbing types, climbers will wear safety belts and then use climbing ropes specially used for climbing. One end of the rope is tied to the safety belt, and the other end is fixed by the protective device.

The top is the end of the climber; Here is the protector.

There are various types of protection devices, such as:

Various types of protective devices

But the biggest difference between pioneer and top rope is the different way and logic of using rope. The above direct comparison:

On the left is the top rope; On the right is Pioneer. Note that the "top" in the picture is just a sign, more like the "top" of sports rock climbing. This is not the peak of traditional rock climbing.

For top rope climbing, it means that people can reach the top of the rock wall in advance by some methods, such as hiking from a path, and then making anchor points and grasping points at the top. We sometimes refer to it as a protection station or "top". The traditional way to climb the summit is more troublesome than sports climbing, but it is also closer to nature, mainly using fresh and stout roots and large and stable rocks. This involves many details, such as security.

Schematic diagram of traditional rock climbing vertex protection station

Make an anchor point at the root of the tree.

Make an anchor point on the stone.

After the roof is completed, put down the climbing rope along the rock wall through the mountaineering buckle on the main node, hike to the bottom of the rock wall or repel yourself from the rope. This ring lock on the master node (there will be at least two ring locks for safe backup) is equivalent to a crown block fixed at the vertex.

Various types of carabiners.

When climbing with the top rope, the protector will control the other end of the rope and tighten it from time to time during climbing. Therefore, when a climber falls from his hand, he will basically fall for a short distance, which is about equal to the slack length of the rope plus the dynamic stretching of the rope, so it is completely harmless from the perspective of falling injury.

For pioneer rock climbing, we can think of it this way: in some cases, people can't or can't reach the top of the rock wall by other means, so they can only climb from below the rock wall to the top of the rock wall. For the safety of climbers, this process also needs to be protected, but because there is no "vertex" protection station, it is necessary to lead the climbers to make an anchor point as a temporary protection station every short climb, and then pass the rope through the Quickdraw hanging on the temporary protection station.

In the process of pioneer climbing, if the climber falls before putting the rope into the quick hook of the next temporary protection station, he may fall a greater distance, which is roughly equal to twice the distance from the climber's falling position to the last temporary protection station, plus the length of the unstrained rope and the dynamic extension distance of the rope; At the same time, according to the position relationship between the landing point and the last protection station, there may be different degrees of swing; This kind of Fall is called fall in the domestic rock climbing circle, which is actually a literal translation of English. Because there is no real fall in the top rope state (temporary protection station where the climber's waist is lower than the highest rope when climbing the top rope or climbing the pioneer), no special description will be made. As mentioned above, it is only the loose distance of the rope plus the dynamic extension of the rope.

Schematic diagram of impact and fall

Falling is much more exciting, and it also enhances the danger, especially before the climber starts climbing from the ground and hangs the rope into the second quick hook, there will be a danger of touching the ground, supplemented by bouldering protection. But the protection of the weight itself is different from that of the top rope, so I won't talk about it here.

I won't say much about other specific operation details here, such as the use of anchoring devices with different characteristics such as cams and nuts used in traditional rock climbing, and the use of quick hooks.

Quick drawing

Mountain sketch (or simply mountain)

Rock mechanical plug (cam)

Rock wedge (nut)

Part of the equipment carried by traditional climbers

We only introduce it mainly from the perspective of traditional rock climbing, which is more comprehensive. In fact, the above is generally applicable to sports rock climbing, except that the process of anchoring and capping is omitted in sports rock climbing, or rather, these tasks are completed by line setters, who need to set protection points in advance (such as fixing hangers on rock walls) and use more durable and stable devices and methods.

Ignoring the factors of the environment itself, there is not much difference between the climbing experience of top rope and bouldering, sports/traditional climbing. But now the Rock Museum will use a device called Auto Belay as the top rope protection, liberating the real protector, but the climbing experience is different, because once the climber falls, he will slowly land, instead of stopping in the air like a real protector and taking a break before continuing to climb. As for pioneers, only real protectors can be used. Tradition is consistent with sports rock climbing. In sports rock climbing, the pioneer climber can complete the operation of the current protection point only by hanging the quick hook into the hanging piece, and then hanging the rope into the quick hook (even in some indoor rock halls, the quick hook has been hung, just hang the rope in), which saves the process of finding a suitable place on the rock wall to place the safety point and anchor equipment, and the experience is still very different. But for the climbing action itself, there is not much difference.

Automatic protection (automatic protection)

In fact, traditional rock climbing and sports rock climbing are more of a "concept" problem with different emphasis. Traditional rock climbing pays more attention to the process of rock climbing in outdoor natural environment. Besides rock climbing, it also pays more attention to the application of various knots and the setting of anchor points. However, sports rock climbing itself is separated from the development of traditional rock climbing, and it pays more attention to rock climbing itself, that is, rock climbing action, rock climbing skills and so on.

gemstone

The bouldering is not protected by ropes and other equipment, so the climbing height is not high to ensure that the climber does not fall in danger. The protection method is also different from other climbs. The purpose of Spot is not to keep the climber away from the ground (falling impact), but to make the climber's body as vertical as possible when falling, so as to avoid the climber's back and head injuries caused by falling. In addition, during the bouldering activities, a thick cushion will be placed on the ground near the climbers for buffering, and the indoor bouldering hall will arrange a thick cushion under the rock wall as a whole. At the same time, climbers also need to master the correct falling skills to avoid injury.

For outdoor rock climbing, there are still some subdivisions from the environment, such as the more exciting deep-water solo, as the name implies, there is deeper water under the rock wall. After falling, the climber will fall into the water to avoid hitting the ground. Generally, there will be teammates rowing kayaks nearby, ready to "rescue" at any time to prevent the danger of drowning.

Postscript (same as postscript); Police sergeant

In a strict and responsible attitude, it must be explained that even protected rock climbing still has dangers. For example, the setting of protection stations, whether the use of knots is safe and reasonable, whether the actions of hanging ropes and protection are standardized and safe, and so on.

There is another danger that can't be ignored, such as gear failure, such as the fracture of the ring lock caused by metal fatigue, but this matter has little to do with the climbing behavior itself (of course, we should also pay attention to the correct use and basic maintenance of the equipment). It's another problem, which is a bit similar to the logic that the car is out of control because of a flat tire when driving. This problem in rock climbing, including some other sports such as skydiving, is basically compensated to a certain extent through redundant logic. Of course, the reliable quality of the equipment itself is the main premise of safety.

This article only gives a superficial introduction to rock climbing. In fact, all the links mentioned in this article need to be mastered in more detail. Before you really try climbing, you must do your homework and complete some basic safety training under the guidance of professionals. Only in this way can you ensure the safety of rock climbing to the greatest extent.

So, is rock climbing really dangerous? I believe you have your own answer.

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