Adam Wightman

Jennifer Courtney
English 2030
23 April 2017
Rock Climbing
Rock climbing is an intense mental and physical sport which requires a lot of strength, as

well as technique. Climbing is a male dominant sport. Although there are women who rock

climb, the majority of the climbing community consists of white middle class males. Climbing

can be a very dangerous activity, and is considered an extreme sport; like skiing, snowboarding,

surfing etc., and while climbing speech shares some similarities to these other sports

communities, much of the language is individualistic to only the sport of rock climbing. For the

data that I collected, I spent time with my friend Marley whos been climbing for 5 years now.

Marley spends most of his time climbing outside, and is a very experienced climber; while at

Momentum he will often attract a crowd. Marley described the different sub groups within the

community, telling me there are people who rope climb, these people usually take the sport in a

more serious tone and care about the skill and technique. There are people who rarely climb

outside and only go to the climbing gyms, such as Momentum or The Front, focusing only on the

physical aspect. Then there are people who boulder. Marley told me that boulderers are the

dirt bags of climbing, the type of people to drink a beer, smoke a cig, then climb a route.

Granted there are people who go to the gym, climb ropes, and boulder, but climbers usually end

up leaning more towards one of those categories.

Marley enjoys climbing ropes more than bouldering, but there isnt much speech

exchange in climbing ropes considering the height from the ground, therefor I decided to study

bouldering. Bouldering consists of short burst climbs that usually require more strength than

climbing ropes. Rather than being strapped in by a rope, you have a climbing pad underneath you

and a spotter, which is someone on the ground to push your body towards the pad if you fall. To
finish a route, which is what a climb is called, you climb to the top of the boulder and top out,

meaning you throw your body over the top of the boulder so youre able to stand on the rock.

From there you can either down climb, meaning to climb down the way you came, or you can

sometimes walk down the other side of the boulder.

For my first round of data collection I went up little cottonwood canyon with Marley and

his friend Alec for several hours. Alec and Marley started climbing around the same time, but

Alec recently took a year off because of an injury. Marley and Alec were already at the climbing

spot when I showed up, so Marley had to hike down to show me where it was. I followed him as

we bush wacked for half an hour up a steep unofficial trail; I was confused because the trail

seemed so dangerous that it wouldnt lead to a common climbing area. I then asked what the

routes were called and Marley said its actually just a sweet area that I scoped out the other day

when I was hiking. When we made it to the climbing spot, Alec was there waiting for us.

At the bouldering area, Marley and Alec discussed FAs to put in a guidebook. An FA

means a first ascent, which is when youre the first to finish a route that is undiscovered, and

could one day go into a climbing guidebook. This is not something climbers do often considering

how dangerous it can be to boulder in an undiscovered area. They then told me that they wanted

to make a guidebook for climbing in little cottonwood, a climbing guidebook consists of

locations for routes.

We walked over to the first route they attempted. Marley started climbing the route and

Alec spotted him, as well as yelling words of encouragement. Its common practice for the

people watching, and or spotting to encourage the climber, saying things like yeah, cmon,
and you got this. Encouraging also can get more technical, giving the person advice on moves

they can make to continue the route rather than falling off.

Theres a pretty good jug just above your right hand (jug meaning a good hand hold)
Heel hook it (digging your heal into a rock)
Get your feet up (when bouldering you want your body to be the least stretched out as
possible)
Another common part of encouraging in climbing is saying send it. This can mean to

finish the climb, or keep going. It comes from the word ascent, which means to go up. What I

find interesting about this is Ive also heard people saying send it while skiing and

snowboarding. Utah skiers, snowboarders, and climbers all use similar terms such as gnar, dude,

rad, heinous, psyched, sketch, etc. Marley says heinous, and psyched very often. Climbers

will say I was psyched on this route or Im getting psyched on climbing lately. Climbers also

use heinous to describe a route being difficult such as the footwork on this route is super

heinous. Skiers, snowboarders, and climbers also have similar accents, which involve adding,

or elongating vowels. Dude sounds more like dee-ude, and dope sounds like duh-ope. It stands

out the most with words that have an O vowel in them. Climbing speech gets much more

complex and has a long list of words that only other climbers can understand, but I will discuss

that later.

Marley got close to the top of the boulder, but I could tell he was using up all of the

strength he had. He yelled FUCKKKK and jumped down, landing on the pad. Fuck I was so

close, but I botched the top, he said. botched is another word for messing up. After Marley

took a failed attempt, Alec was the next to try the route. Before climbing, he stood still, staring

up the route and putting both his arms in midair, hands positioned as if he were climbing. He was

studying the route, trying to figure out what moves to make in order to finish it. The whole thing
became routine between the two. The spotter would yell out words of encouragement, the

climber would fall yelling cuss words, and then the spotter would study the route trying to figure

out what mistakes they made on their last attempt.

Alec finished the route on his fifth try, mentioning that the climb was probably a V6; he

was referring to bouldering grades. V0 is the lowest bouldering grade, and V16 is the highest

(which only a handful people in the world can finish). When it comes to the grades, V4-V6 is

usually where people hit a wall. When someone can climb above this level, they are a very

experienced climber. After Alec finished the route, he taunted Marley saying that if he didnt

finish the climb by the end of the day, then he was going to call the route Marleys Project. A

project is a climb which someone cant finish, but that they would like to work on. When

someone picks a project, that person usually plans on being able to finish it within two weeks to

a months time.

Marley tried to climb the route 2 more times, but said that he just wasnt feeling strong

enough. Next to that was another route on what is called slab. Slab climbs are all in the

footwork, and are usually fairly easy to ascend. Marley said that it looked like a V0, and told me

to try it out. As I climbed it, Marley took a picture of me and said if you want to piss some

people off, you should post this on instagram and put the caption as: my favorite hobbies include

breaking holds off of classic routes, punting, and getting my hands nice and chossy before

jumping on the wall. him and Alec looked at each other and started laughing. I had no idea what

he was talking about so I asked him to clarify. He told me that chossy hands are the same as

sweaty palms, and climbing with sweaty palms will make the hand holds slippery for other

climbers, which along with breaking holds off of climbs will make other climbers hate you. He

then explained that punting means to constantly fall.

 Around a year ago I went on a trip with Marley to Joes Valley, a common climbing

destination. There, I learned the part of climbing etiquette taken the most seriously is to not

climb with chossy hands. I recall Marley taking extra precaution to avoid getting his palms

greasy, including staying away from finger foods, not washing his hands, and not using hair gel.

When climbing with sweaty hands you make the hand holds slippery, which makes finishing a

route much more difficult. A climber can avoid this by keeping their hands dry and away from

greasy food, as well as using the proper amount of chalk. I remember Marley, along with the

other people bouldering, constantly talking about choss, and how annoyed they were with

people making hand holds slippery. It seems as if thats what I heard people talk about the most.

Often times the people who do get the hand holds greasy are the beginners who dont know

proper climbing etiquette.

Climbing etiquette:
Use chalk in order to keep hand holds dry.
Be aware of other climbers; dont climb above or below other people because it could result in
serious injury.
Dont give other people advice when they dont ask for it.
When finished climbing, use a brush to wipe off excess chalk.
Leave the area like you werent there, clean up after yourself.

Climbing language is complex in that it consists of a lot of terminology, including a lot

that I still dont understand. When Ive been climbing with Marley, I find it difficult to talk to

anyone other than him. Ive had conversations with Alec outside of climbing when we were all

hanging out in social settings, but that day at little cottonwood I barely spoke to him. Because

Im an outsider to the community, Im unable to understand the majority of their conversation.

Terminology
Ascend-to get to the top of a climb
Beta-showing someone the moves they need to do in order to ascend
Botch-to mess up
Campus-to climb a route only using arms, with feet hanging down
Choss-slippery holds
Crag-an area with routes
Crimp-a hold that is gripped by only the fingers
Crux-the most difficult part of a climb
FA-first ascent
Flash-a climb that someone can do easily
Gumbo-someone new to climbing, (negative term)
Jug-a good handhold
Punting-to fall often

(This is only a brief list of terms)

The fact that the language is inaccessible to outsiders reflects the ideologies that they have about

outsiders. They dont want to climb with beginners and or outsiders because they usually dont

have the proper etiquette, and make mistakes that can end up hurting other people. In order to

understand and speak the language, you have to have experience and knowledge for the sport.

The language is a way to build community in that climbers want to climb with other people who

know what theyre talking about. To clarify, experienced climbers wont necessarily say rude

thing to outsiders, as long as they dont anger them, but rather ignore the outsiders.

What Marley mentioned earlier about the different subgroups shows the power dynamics

within climbing. The two dominant groups within the subgroups are people who boulder and

people who rope climb. Climbers take people who only go to the gym and never outside as a

joke. The climbing gym is looked at by the dominant members as just a place to train, and that

going outside is where the majority of your time climbing should be spent. When it comes to

comparing people who boulder to people who rope climb, its more difficult to figure out which

is has more dominance over the other. A lot of people do both, but some only do one or the other,

and think negatively of the other group. Rope climbing has been around much longer than

bouldering, and tends to attract an older crowd usually 25 and up, and bouldering attracts a
younger crowd, usually people within their late teens to early 20s. Marleys comment about

boulderers was fairly stereotyped, not all people who boulder drink and smoke, and just because

people drink and smoke doesnt mean they dont take climbing seriously, but other climbers view

things that way. Some climbers drink and smoke, while others watch everything they eat, dont

drink, and workout constantly. Those who stay healthier are viewed as more dominant and

serious, while others who drink and smoke are viewed as not taking the sport as serious.

Climbers discourse as a whole for several different reasons. Its used to encourage, or

help out climbing. Its used to build connections with others who view the sport the same way

that they do. Some climbers want to climb with people who are all about having fun; others want

to find people who take things to a more serious. Climbers may be friends with outsiders, but

when their actually climbing, they only want to associate themselves with group members. This

is because its also used for safety considering that it is a very dangerous sport, and its very

important to take the right precautions when doing so. They want to find partners that know what

theyre talking about, and ones that they can trust.