Understand Essential Rock Climbing Equipment

Series Summary

In the sport of rock climbing, your gear is your life. Rock climbing equipment has seen a significant jump in technology since the 1970s, making it safer than ever, but familiarity with the ropes, harnesses, and devices you'll be using is essential. Although man has been climbing trees, hills and mountains for since the dawn of time, as a sport, rock climbing began at the end of the nineteenth century in Germany and England. Since then, it has grown into a world famous sport that hundreds of thousands participate in. There are several different types of climbing, each having its own grade of difficulty and danger; and it is considered one of the more extreme sports because of the high risk involved, no matter what type of climbing you do. But when the proper rock climbing techniques are employed and safety procedures are followed, it can be a very enjoyable and safe sport.

In these free rock and mountain climbing instructional videos, you'll learn how to assemble the essential climbing gear & equipment needed to start climbing. Expert climber Bill Killough-Hill gives you advice on choosing the best climbing shoes, helmet and clothes, as well as ropes, harnesses, carabiners, grigri & belay devices, tricams & removal protection gear and more. He also gives tips on coiling rope and how to care for and store your rock climbing gear. After watching this series you'll feel more confident and knowledgeable about your rock climbing gear, helping you to really enjoy your next rock climbing trip.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Bill with Zoar Outdoor here on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we're at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Trustees of Reservation Property and in this series I'm going to be talking about rock climbing gear. What I have here in front of me is a wide assortment of things that you might use if you were going climbing. We'll talk about each of them individually after, but for now let's give you a general sense. Over here we've got an assortment of climbing shoes, couple of climbing harnesses, helmet, chalk bag, a climbing rope and then some other ropes and webbing, this sort of material is called webbing that you might use for setting up anchors and other pieces. Over here is some technical equipment, some belay devices, there's carabiners, other pieces that would be used for attaching the equipment to the rock and an assortment of backup other things. A backpack to carry it all in, a guidebook is handy to know what you're about to be doing and water is good to have a long and I always like to have a least a few band-aids in a bag so those little scrapes and things and bruises can be taken care of without too much trouble at the cliff. So all this is a lot of equipment, you don't need it all to get started, but I wanted to make sure you knew what it was and we'll talk about what you do need to get started."