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Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National ParkRock climbing has been going on for as long as people have wanted to go up mountains. Chinese watercolors that date back to 400 BC illustrate men climbing mountains. The locations of some cliff dwellings in the Southwestern United States suggest at least some of the Anasazi living there in the fourteenth century were skilled rock climbers. It wasn't until the nineteenth century, however, that rock climbing came to be seen as one of the most challenging and essential aspects of mountaineering. By the 1950s, it became a sport of its own. -
John MuirAt its core, rock climbing is about going up. Early rock climbing was simply a way for mountaineers to train in advance of a real adventure, and was simply a necessity for traversing the Swiss Alps or the Lake District in England, the Himalayas or the Italian Dolomites. These grizzled men traveled deep into the wild, where most never dared. By the early 1800s, rock climbing equipment included a basic three-point crampon, a spiked metal cage worn over boots to provide extra traction over rocks. It also featured a separate walking stick and hand axe, which today are combined in a single ice axe. Of course, even then there were the naturals of rock climbing who, like John Muir who scaled Cathedral Peak as an on-site free solo in 1869, needed little more than boots, hands and a rock to climb. -
Climbing wallAs many recreational climbers caught the mountaineering spirit in the twentieth century and tried more challenging terrains, the sport developed in several new directions. A system of grading developed to measure the difficulty of the climb and the skill of the climber. But the growth of rock climbing was very decentralized, appearing simultaneously in many countries around the world. As a result, several different grading techniques and accompanying climbing styles evolved.
In the United States, the 1960s and '70s saw an explosion in rock climbing popularity and the development of new equipment. Stronger, thinner ropes and the development of a quick snap hook called a Caribbeaner have made complex rope systems a frequent part of some rock climbing approaches. Drilling bolts into rock to establish supports has been replaced with clips that do not deface the environment. Men and women alike now ascend well-established faces for the personal challenge, aided by all manner of nutritional supplements and high-energy bars inspired by the basic mountaineering diet of nuts and dried fruit. While the spirit of the mountaineers undoubtedly lives on in a number of gravity-defying purists, the ultimate sign of modern rock climbing having crossed over into the mainstream is the large number of synthetic climbing walls that can be customized and traversed without ever leaving the comforts of the city.
