Clean climbing
Encyclopedia
Clean climbing is a rock climbing
term that describes techniques and equipment which climbers use in order to avoid damage to the rock. These techniques date at least in part from the 1920s and earlier in England, but the term itself may have emerged in about 1970 during the widespread and rapid adoption in the United States and Canada of nuts
(also called chocks), and the very similar but often larger "hexes," in preference to piton
s, which damaged rock and were more difficult and time-consuming to install. Pitons were thus eliminated in North America as a primary means of protection in a period of less than three years.
Due to subsequently major improvements in equipment and techique, the term "clean climbing" has come to occupy a far less central, and somewhat different, position in discussions of climbing technology, compared with that of the brief and formative period when it emerged four decades ago.
, piton
s, copperheads
and others scar rock permanently. Various protection
devices became widely available around 1970, which were far less likely to damage rock and much faster and easier to install, when used sensibly. Such "clean" gear, as of contemporary times, now include spring-loaded camming devices, nuts
and chocks, and slings
, for hitching natural features.
Contemporary alternatives to pitons, formerly called "clean climbing gear," have made most routes safer and easier to protect, and have greatly contributed to a remarkable increase in the standards of difficulty notable since about 1970. Pitons are now regarded as highly specialized equipment, needed by a small minority of climbers interested in routes of peculiar difficulty.
Even clean gear can damage rock, if the rock is very soft or if the hardware is impacted with substantial force. A falling climber's energy can drive a camming device's lobes outward with great force. This can carve grooves into the rock's surface, or, if the cam is in a crack behind a flake, the expansion can loosen the flake and eventually (or suddenly) split it off. Wedges (nuts) can also be forced into a crack much harder than the leader intended, and cracks have been damaged as cleaners try to chisel or pull stuck nuts out of their constrictions. In very soft rock, nuts and cams both can blow right through the rock and out of their placements, even with forces as small as those generated by tugging to "set" the piece. Although hooks are often categorized as clean, they easily damage soft rock and can even damage granite.
(North Wales) in 1926 reportedly was the first climber to use pebbles slung with rope for protecting a rock climb. These were replaced by the use of machined nuts in England during the 1950s.
In 1961, John Brailsford of Sheffield, England, reportedly was the first to manufacture nuts specifically for climbing. http://www.needlesports.com/nutsmuseum/nutsstory.htm
Rock scarring caused by pitons was an important impetus for the emergence of the term, and the initial reason climbers largely abandoned pitons. However, today what was in 1970s called "clean protection" and regarded by many climbers of the day with some suspicion with regard to safety, is now recognized as a faster, easier, more efficient and safer means of protecting most climbing routes than pitons, which are now in comparison with the 1960s, rarely used.
When chrome molybdenum steel pitons replaced softer iron in the early 1960s, pitons became more easily removable, resulting in their more intensive use and alarming damage to increasingly popular climbing routes. In response, there was a "movement" among U.S. climbers around 1970 to eliminate their use.
Although bolts continue to be used today for sport climbing
, and aid climbers, rescuers and occasionally mountaineers may employ pitons, bolts and a variety of other hammered techniques, the average free climber today has no experience with hammering or drilling. Prior to the introduction of spring-loaded camming devices (in about 1980), clean climbing involved a safety trade-off in certain situations. Protection methods of today, however, are generally seen as faster, safer and easier than those of the piton era, and average run-outs between gear placements have probably become shorter on many routes.
Although English climbers had long used stones wedged into cracks and slung with cord for protection, this practice was rare in the U.S. In 1967, Royal Robbins
returned from England with a sampling of artificially manufactured chock stones. He promptly made the first ascent of the Nutcracker in Yosemite Valley using exclusively these wedges. He subsequently wrote about this 6-pitch climb and others in Summit magazine and the American Alpine Journal
but without much obvious immediate influence.
Within several years, another well-known Yosemite climber Yvon Chouinard
began to commercially manufacture metal chocks, or nuts, in California. An important milestone occurred with the 1972 Chouinard Equipment Catalog, which included two articles on environmental concerns and climbing gear. One was written by Chouinard and Tom Frost
; another was by Doug Robinson titled "The Whole Natural Art of Protection". Around this time, Bill Forrest also produced a somewhat less successful range of passive chocks, but more notably started experiments with camming which went on to become the first Lowe Alpine System active camming devices (sometimes jokingly called "crack jumars").
Many other prominent climbers of the era, including John Stannard at the Shawangunks in New York,
were influential participants in this early 1970s movement. As a result, climbers en masse rapidly adopted the technique, pitons quickly fell from favor, and the switch to "clean climbing" constituted a landmark change in the sport of rock climbing.
in which protection was installed and removed by each successive party on a given route. However, the term "trad climbing" only arose later, to describe that which is not sport climbing
, a comparatively recent activity in which all protective gear is permanently and abundantly fixed on certain routes.
Fixed gear certainly existed in 1970 as it does currently. Some contemporary routes, like a number of long, limestone climbs in the Bow Valley
, Alberta, are notable for fixed bolts at belay stances and for protection at relatively wide intervals, and thus a kind of hybrid of trad and sport is possible—if supplementary gear can be placed. Perhaps the most extreme example of currently acceptable non-"clean climbing" is the many via ferrata
mountaineering routes, of primarily the Alps.
A relatively small number of climbers believe in varying degrees that fixed gear should never be placed on any route in order to preserve the rock and its inherent challenges. This long-standing cultural question of doctrine is largely separate from issues that gave rise to the term "clean climbing."
Some climbing areas, notably some of the National Parks
of the United States, have de jure regulations about whether, when and how hammer activity may be employed. For example, drilling is not banned in Yosemite, but power drills are. Other areas have de facto local ethics prohibiting certain activity. For example, bolting is not banned in Pinnacles
, but the local climbing community doesn't tolerate rap-bolting — bottom-up route development is expected.
In the late 1990s, climbers very nearly lost the right to employ any equipment or technique whatsoever which would have left any trace at all in designated wilderness
areas of the United States. The impact of certain legislation proposed at that time would have made it illegal to alter rock in those areas via hammering, but the proposed rules were so strict, they would have banned fixed gear, even including things like leaving a sling behind following a rappel. Climbers and other outdoors enthusiasts successfully lobbied to relax the proposal.
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
term that describes techniques and equipment which climbers use in order to avoid damage to the rock. These techniques date at least in part from the 1920s and earlier in England, but the term itself may have emerged in about 1970 during the widespread and rapid adoption in the United States and Canada of nuts
Nut (climbing)
In rock climbing, a nut is a metal wedge threaded on a wire, used for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock. Quickdraws are clipped to the nut wire by the ascending climber and the rope threads through the quickdraw. Nuts come in a variety of sizes and styles, and several different...
(also called chocks), and the very similar but often larger "hexes," in preference to piton
Piton
In climbing, a piton is a metal spike that is driven into a crack or seam in the rock with a hammer, and which acts as an anchor to protect the climber against the consequences of a fall, or to assist progress in aid climbing...
s, which damaged rock and were more difficult and time-consuming to install. Pitons were thus eliminated in North America as a primary means of protection in a period of less than three years.
Due to subsequently major improvements in equipment and techique, the term "clean climbing" has come to occupy a far less central, and somewhat different, position in discussions of climbing technology, compared with that of the brief and formative period when it emerged four decades ago.
Rock Preservation
Drilled and hammered equipment such as boltsBolt (climbing)
In rock climbing, a bolt is a permanent anchor fixed into a hole drilled in the rock as a form of protection. Most bolts are either self-anchoring expansion bolts or fixed in place with liquid resin....
, piton
Piton
In climbing, a piton is a metal spike that is driven into a crack or seam in the rock with a hammer, and which acts as an anchor to protect the climber against the consequences of a fall, or to assist progress in aid climbing...
s, copperheads
Copperhead (climbing)
For other uses of the word see copperheadIn rock climbing, a copperhead is a small nut made of a soft metal, originally copper or brass, later usually aluminium. Copperheads are placed in the smallest cracks and seams where their malleability means that they can conform to the rock and grip better:...
and others scar rock permanently. Various protection
Protection (climbing)
To make climbing as safe as possible, most climbers use protection, a term used to describe the equipment used to prevent injury to themselves and others.-Types of climbing:...
devices became widely available around 1970, which were far less likely to damage rock and much faster and easier to install, when used sensibly. Such "clean" gear, as of contemporary times, now include spring-loaded camming devices, nuts
Nut (climbing)
In rock climbing, a nut is a metal wedge threaded on a wire, used for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock. Quickdraws are clipped to the nut wire by the ascending climber and the rope threads through the quickdraw. Nuts come in a variety of sizes and styles, and several different...
and chocks, and slings
Sling (climbing equipment)
A sling or runner is an item of climbing equipment consisting of a tied or sewn loop of webbing that can be wrapped around sections of rock, hitched to other pieces of equipment or tied directly to a tensioned line using a prusik knot; for anchor extension , equalization, or climbing the...
, for hitching natural features.
Contemporary alternatives to pitons, formerly called "clean climbing gear," have made most routes safer and easier to protect, and have greatly contributed to a remarkable increase in the standards of difficulty notable since about 1970. Pitons are now regarded as highly specialized equipment, needed by a small minority of climbers interested in routes of peculiar difficulty.
Even clean gear can damage rock, if the rock is very soft or if the hardware is impacted with substantial force. A falling climber's energy can drive a camming device's lobes outward with great force. This can carve grooves into the rock's surface, or, if the cam is in a crack behind a flake, the expansion can loosen the flake and eventually (or suddenly) split it off. Wedges (nuts) can also be forced into a crack much harder than the leader intended, and cracks have been damaged as cleaners try to chisel or pull stuck nuts out of their constrictions. In very soft rock, nuts and cams both can blow right through the rock and out of their placements, even with forces as small as those generated by tugging to "set" the piece. Although hooks are often categorized as clean, they easily damage soft rock and can even damage granite.
History
Morley Wood during the ascent of Piggot's Climb on Clogwyn du'r ArdduClogwyn Du'r Arddu
Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, on the north flank of Snowdon, is considered by many to be one of the best climbing cliffs in Britain. It is north-facing and comparatively remote . The name is Welsh and probably means "black cliff of the plough"...
(North Wales) in 1926 reportedly was the first climber to use pebbles slung with rope for protecting a rock climb. These were replaced by the use of machined nuts in England during the 1950s.
In 1961, John Brailsford of Sheffield, England, reportedly was the first to manufacture nuts specifically for climbing. http://www.needlesports.com/nutsmuseum/nutsstory.htm
Rock scarring caused by pitons was an important impetus for the emergence of the term, and the initial reason climbers largely abandoned pitons. However, today what was in 1970s called "clean protection" and regarded by many climbers of the day with some suspicion with regard to safety, is now recognized as a faster, easier, more efficient and safer means of protecting most climbing routes than pitons, which are now in comparison with the 1960s, rarely used.
When chrome molybdenum steel pitons replaced softer iron in the early 1960s, pitons became more easily removable, resulting in their more intensive use and alarming damage to increasingly popular climbing routes. In response, there was a "movement" among U.S. climbers around 1970 to eliminate their use.
Although bolts continue to be used today for sport climbing
Sport climbing
Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock, and possibly bolts, for protection,...
, and aid climbers, rescuers and occasionally mountaineers may employ pitons, bolts and a variety of other hammered techniques, the average free climber today has no experience with hammering or drilling. Prior to the introduction of spring-loaded camming devices (in about 1980), clean climbing involved a safety trade-off in certain situations. Protection methods of today, however, are generally seen as faster, safer and easier than those of the piton era, and average run-outs between gear placements have probably become shorter on many routes.
Although English climbers had long used stones wedged into cracks and slung with cord for protection, this practice was rare in the U.S. In 1967, Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins is one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite...
returned from England with a sampling of artificially manufactured chock stones. He promptly made the first ascent of the Nutcracker in Yosemite Valley using exclusively these wedges. He subsequently wrote about this 6-pitch climb and others in Summit magazine and the American Alpine Journal
American Alpine Journal
The American Alpine Journal is an annual magazine published by the American Alpine Club. Its mission is "to document and communicate mountain exploration."...
but without much obvious immediate influence.
Within several years, another well-known Yosemite climber Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard is a rock climber, environmentalist and outdoor industry businessman, noted for his contributions to climbing, climbing equipment and the outdoor gear business. His second company, Patagonia is known for its environmental focus...
began to commercially manufacture metal chocks, or nuts, in California. An important milestone occurred with the 1972 Chouinard Equipment Catalog, which included two articles on environmental concerns and climbing gear. One was written by Chouinard and Tom Frost
Tom Frost
Tom Frost is a rock climber from California, best known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He is also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer.-Rock climbing and mountaineering:...
; another was by Doug Robinson titled "The Whole Natural Art of Protection". Around this time, Bill Forrest also produced a somewhat less successful range of passive chocks, but more notably started experiments with camming which went on to become the first Lowe Alpine System active camming devices (sometimes jokingly called "crack jumars").
Many other prominent climbers of the era, including John Stannard at the Shawangunks in New York,
were influential participants in this early 1970s movement. As a result, climbers en masse rapidly adopted the technique, pitons quickly fell from favor, and the switch to "clean climbing" constituted a landmark change in the sport of rock climbing.
Conditions today
Piton scars from an earlier era are still widely visible. Today, on a relative handful of long-established climbing routes in a few places, these old scars enable the use of clean hardware. Such hardware would have been less useful on these particular routes before the rock was altered. It's also true that certain routes which formerly were only ascendable on aid "go free" today for the same reason: there are in some places cracks smaller than fingertips which can now be climbed without aid because piton scars provide holds which didn't previously exist.Values and regulation
Most rock climbing, both long before and immediately after the development of "clean climbing", would now be classified as traditional climbingTraditional climbing
Traditional climbing, or trad climbing, is a style of rock climbing in which a climber or group of climbers places all gear required to protect against falls , and removes it when a passage is complete...
in which protection was installed and removed by each successive party on a given route. However, the term "trad climbing" only arose later, to describe that which is not sport climbing
Sport climbing
Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock, and possibly bolts, for protection,...
, a comparatively recent activity in which all protective gear is permanently and abundantly fixed on certain routes.
Fixed gear certainly existed in 1970 as it does currently. Some contemporary routes, like a number of long, limestone climbs in the Bow Valley
Bow Valley
Bow Valley is a valley located along the upper Bow River in Alberta, Canada.The name "Bow" refers to the reeds that grew along its banks and which were used by the local First Nations peoples to make bows; the Peigan name for the river is "Makhabn", meaning "river where bow weeds grow".-Parks:Bow...
, Alberta, are notable for fixed bolts at belay stances and for protection at relatively wide intervals, and thus a kind of hybrid of trad and sport is possible—if supplementary gear can be placed. Perhaps the most extreme example of currently acceptable non-"clean climbing" is the many via ferrata
Via ferrata
A via ferrata or klettersteig is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities...
mountaineering routes, of primarily the Alps.
A relatively small number of climbers believe in varying degrees that fixed gear should never be placed on any route in order to preserve the rock and its inherent challenges. This long-standing cultural question of doctrine is largely separate from issues that gave rise to the term "clean climbing."
Some climbing areas, notably some of the National Parks
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
of the United States, have de jure regulations about whether, when and how hammer activity may be employed. For example, drilling is not banned in Yosemite, but power drills are. Other areas have de facto local ethics prohibiting certain activity. For example, bolting is not banned in Pinnacles
Pinnacles National Monument
Pinnacles National Monument is a protected mountainous area located east of central California's Salinas Valley, just miles from the town of Soledad...
, but the local climbing community doesn't tolerate rap-bolting — bottom-up route development is expected.
In the late 1990s, climbers very nearly lost the right to employ any equipment or technique whatsoever which would have left any trace at all in designated wilderness
National Wilderness Preservation System
The National Wilderness Preservation System of the United States protects federally managed land areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. It was established by the Wilderness Act upon the signature of President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964...
areas of the United States. The impact of certain legislation proposed at that time would have made it illegal to alter rock in those areas via hammering, but the proposed rules were so strict, they would have banned fixed gear, even including things like leaving a sling behind following a rappel. Climbers and other outdoors enthusiasts successfully lobbied to relax the proposal.