Sports Climbing

Sports Climbing

Sports Climbing is practised on some Limestone Crags and is really only for the stronger experienced climber. This type of climbing is similar to traditional climbing but all the protection has been pre-placed on the rock at convenient safe intervals. The protection consists of steel anchors known as “bolts”.

The leader places a “quickdraw” (2 karibeners joined with a loop of tape) karibiner on the bolt and runs the rope through the other Karibiner. In the event of a fall the belayer arrests the fall in a similar way to traditional climbing.

Sports climbing is far safer and climbers can really climb to their limits without the risk of any real injury if they fall. Many of the routes are so hard that a few attempts may be required getting use to the holds and techniques required (this is called “working a route”).

This type of climbing is unsuitable for beginners because of the sheer difficulty of most of the climbs.

Illustrations: Clipping a bolt & Typical Stainless Expansion bolt Hanger