Hugtök í klettaklifri

Skrifað af: Sigurður Tómas Þórisson Föstudagur, 10. september 2004 09:56

Eitthvað vorum við í einhverri klifurferðinni í sumar að tjá okkur um hvað væri nú rétt skilgreining á hugtökum eins og "onsight", "flash", "redpoint" og fleira.
Fann ágæta breska síðu um skýringar á miklum fjölda enskra hugtaka og hér eru þau sem ég vildi helst fá á hreint. Þeir sem hafa áhuga á að skoða allan listann er bent á veffangið í titli greinarinnar.

ONSIGHT . To climb a route free with no beta, without falls, without prior inspection, from bottom to top. The "purest" way to do a route. (The ultra-pure onsight is done nude, possibly at night.) Any route which is led first time, with no falls. To be a true onsight the climber must not have seen anyone else perform the moves. (stundum er talað um að það að vita gráðuna teljist vera “beta” og vitandi hana geti maður bara flashað leiðina, sjá Flash að neðan)

FLASH . To climb a route without practice (but perhaps with beta) without falls on the first viewing and first attempt. (This is very similiar to onsight, which is even purer: no beta.) Opinion is divided as to what constitutes beta: to some people, even knowing the route's grade makes an ascent a flash rather than an onsight. Also sometimes prepended to "git" when someone achieves this feat. (einnig talað um beta-flash, spurning með mun á því og venjulegu flashi?)

REDPOINT . Leading a bolted route after inspecting it, and maybe after practising individual moves on a toprope. Originally, if the quickdraws were preplaced, this would be called a pinkpoint; for a redpoint, the leader would have to place the quickdraws as they went. However, preplaced quickdraws have now become the norm and now would be known as a redpoint. Derived from German Rotpunkt. The word came in to common usage in the Frankenjura in the 1970s: it originated from the practice of painting a small red circle at the bottom of a climb that had been climbed without aid. Kurt Albert and others started the trend. A sport route which is led after watching others, rehearsing moves on toprope, or simply any sport lead where moves have been done before (in the event of a fall). See also cheating, headpoint.

PINKPOINT . To climb a bolted route after inspecting it, placing all of the quickdraws and maybe practicing individual moves on a toprope.

HEADPOINT . A traditional1 route which is led after (toprope) practice, sometimes with preplaced protection. Sometimes thought to be a modern affliction for routes over E8, though it was clearly already in use in Joe Brown's day in the 1950s; see the first ascent description for Brown's Eliminate (E2 5b), which talks of careful practice in the days of nailed boots. The traditional equivalent of a redpoint.

DOGGING . Trying and failing repeatedly on a route, and using the gear that has been put in to pull oneself up to a previous high point. Can also mean any repeated attempt to get up a route which involves a great deal of hanging off the gear without returning to the ground (the latter being yo-yoing).


CHEATING . In a "sport" which has no rules, and where death is always a distinct possibility, it's hard to say that cheating as such exists while on a route. Pulling on protection, falling off, escaping to another, easier route or simply retreating can all be wise in the event. These only become "cheating" if you deny them afterwards and inflate your claims, perhaps saying you flashed a route when in fact you fell, or rested on the gear. Even this can be irrelevant – nobody cares if you made it up that HVS cleanly except, apparently, you – unless such claims could endanger others. Honesty is thus highly prized among climbers, and the suggestion that someone did not climb a route cleanly or never reached the top is a great insult. With no rules, climbing relies on a web of ethics; without trust, the enjoyment goes. OK?

ALPINE START . Getting up earlier than about 5 am. So-called because climbers in the Alps tend to start early to avoid the queues or melting snow or simply because sleeping in a dormitory full of snoring Germans is a non-starter anyway. [

ADVENTURE CLIMBING . What the British regard as normal and the French generally see as idiotique: anything traditional2, scary or otherwise likely to result in broken and shattered bits. What we love.