Free climbing
Under free climbing means the climbing on rocks or artificial walls, only hands and feet are used for locomotion in which. Artificial aids are not allowed for locomotion. Free climbing includes sport climbing with the associated bouldering as well as traditional Saxon free climbing and free climbing as part of alpine climbing.
With the exception of free solo climbing , which is rarely practiced, aids such as ropes and hooks may be used in all other forms of free climbing, but only to ensure safety and not as a climbing aid. The “free” of the word free climbing means free of technical aids for locomotion and not, as is often wrongly assumed, free of safety devices. Free climbing differs from other types of climbing sport by consistently adhering to the common climbing ethic, according to which a route is only considered to be freely climbed if it has been climbed without the active use of hooks or other aids. Here the classic sentence applies literally: the journey is the destination.
When used exactly, the term “free climbing” only refers to the type of ascent, regardless of the type of route. The typical type of free climbing is practiced on sport climbing routes, which is why free climbing is often used as a synonym for sport climbing. The term rock climbing or climbing, on the other hand, is an umbrella term that includes both free climbing and technical climbing .
history
This climbing style has been developing since the end of the 19th century, when attempts were made to completely dispense with artificial aids for climbing the summit, after initially using artificial aids such as ladders and metal pins.
A pioneer of free climbing in the Alps was Paul Preuss (1886-1913). In his short life he performed more than 1,200 rock, skiing and mountaineering, including 150 first ascents and 300 ascents in alone . He rejected all technical aids for ascent and abseiling and advocated the principle that climbers should only rely on their knowledge and skills.
The first climbing guide with corresponding rules was published in 1908 by Rudolf Fehrmann ("The Mountaineer in Saxon Switzerland"). In 1913 the Saxon climbing rules were published in an addendum. These have been in effect since then and have been maintained and followed in Saxon Switzerland over the decades. These rules were partly adopted in other areas ( Bohemian Switzerland , Adersbach-Weckelsdorfer Felsenstadt , Český ráj , Palatinate , Battert , Zittau Mountains ) or served as a model there. In 1923 a supplementary edition appeared for the first time with a division into seven levels of difficulty.
In the 1950s and 1960s, John Gill shaped the sporting aspect of climbing. As a result, climbers in the Yosemite National Park , the then climbing center of the USA, pushed climbing to new levels of difficulty in the 1970s. This climbing center had a significant influence on free climbing due to the mountaineering ethic that prevailed there.
Around 1970, free climbing came back to West Germany and later all of Europe via West German climbers who climbed in the Yosemite National Park and also in Saxon Switzerland. By visiting Yosemite National Park and Saxon Switzerland with climbers there such as Bernd Arnold or John Bachar , Kurt Albert and other climbers had seen that it was possible to overcome difficult sections of the wall without using artificial aids to move. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Kurt Albert in particular introduced free climbing in 1975 with the term red point climbing. In the years that followed, the Austrian climber and mountain photographer Heinz Zak was also involved in this renaissance in Europe: he often climbed such routes himself and documented them in high photographic quality, so that they became known through the specialist magazines and found a larger audience. Until then (1970s) climbing routes in West Germany were often mastered with the help of hooks, rope ladders and similar aids, what is now called technical climbing . In Saxon Switzerland it was and is still practiced according to the old rules, whereby the red dot idea has also prevailed there. Technical climbing was never accepted in Saxon Switzerland.
Difficulty levels
Depending on how demanding a climbing route is, it is rated with a certain level of difficulty . The degree of the route is often based on its most difficult point (the key point). Difficulty assessments are made by first-time climbers, but are often perceived as subjective by repeaters, which in the history of climbing has repeatedly led to heated debates about the "correct" assessment of a tour. For example, the Austrian climber Albert Precht was notorious for his “hard” ratings, which many regarded as too low.
Different levels of difficulty are used in different countries and climbing areas. In Germany, the UIAA scale has largely prevailed, which in its modern form differentiates between free climbing difficulty and technical difficulty . The Saxon scale is still used in Saxon Switzerland, the Zittau Mountains and the Eastern Harz Mountains. A scale related to the Saxon one is used in the Czech Republic. In the Romansh-speaking countries of Europe and Switzerland , the French rating has prevailed for sport climbing. There are also the American scales ( Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) and National Climbing Classification System (NCCS)) as well as their own Australian, Brazilian, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish scales. In the English rating system, in addition to the technical climbing requirements, the psychological stress of a route is also taken into account; the Yosemite scale evaluates the pure climbing difficulties and the overall requirements (duration, effort, danger, etc.) of a route separately.
A comparative comparison of the difficulty scales can be found in the article Degree of difficulty
See also
Web links
literature
- Dieter Elsner, Jochen Haase: Mountain sports manual. Reinbek, Rowohlt 2000 ISBN 3-499-61002-7
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saxon Climbers' Federation: Saxon climbing rules ( Archived copy ( Memento of the original of 3 May 2008 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. ) Access : January 11, 2008
- ↑ Dieter Elsner / Jochen Haase: Bergsport Handbuch, Reinbek, Rowohlt 2000, p. 73
