Lead climbing - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lead climbing is a climbing

Climbing

Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations.Climbing activities include:* Bouldering: Ascending boulders or small...

technique used to ascend a route. This technique is predominantly used in rock climbing

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...

and involves a lead climber attaching themselves to a length of dynamic (elastic) climbing rope

Rope

A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...

and ascending a route while periodically attaching protection (quickdraws or traditional protection) to the face of the route and "clipping in" to it. The lead climber must have another person acting as a belayer

Belaying

thumb|200px|right|A belayer is belaying behind a lead climberBelaying refers to a variety of techniques used in climbing to exert friction on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far...

. The belayer has multiple roles: holding the rope in the event of a fall, and paying out or taking up rope as the climber moves.

As lead climbing does not require a pre-placed anchor at the top of the route, it is often seen as less restricted than top roping

Top roping

Top-rope climbing is a style in climbing in which a rope, used for the climber's safety, runs from a belayer at the foot of a route through one or more carabiners connected to an anchor system at the top of the route and back down to the climber, usually attaching to the climber by means of a...

. Also, because a lead climber does not have an anchor point above them whilst climbing, only the limbs and body of the climber are used to effect upward progress. Protective devices are only placed to catch the climber in the event of a fall.

Lead climbing is an advanced aspect of rock climbing and is not often practiced by novice climbers. Like so many other facets of sports climbing, though, this depends on the venue - in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, for example, it is relatively common for novice climbers to climb on lead because lead climbing skills are required to qualify for a climbing license, which in turn is required to rent gear and climb in indoor gyms. Therefore, introductory climbing courses have to feature lead climbing, including fall technique.

Lead climbing basics

When lead climbing, the lead climber or leader wears a harness

Climbing harness

A climbing harness is a piece of equipment used in certain types of rock-climbing, abseiling or other activities requiring the use of ropes to provide access or safety...

tied to one end of a rope. The leader's partner provides the belay, paying out rope as needed, but ready to hold the rope tightly, usually with the aid of a belay device

Belay device

Belay devices are mechanical pieces of climbing equipment used to control a rope during belaying. They are designed to improve belay safety for the climber by allowing the belayer to manage their duties with minimal physical effort. With the right belay device, a small, weak climber can easily...

, to catch the leader in the event of a fall. The lead climber ascends the route, periodically placing protection for safety in the event of a fall. The protection can consist of pre-placed bolts

Bolt (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....

and 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, to which the climber clips quickdraw

Quickdraw

Quickdraws are used by rock climbers to connect the climbing rope to bolt anchors or other protection, while lead climbing...

s, or removable protection such as 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 spring-loaded camming devices which are carefully secured by the climber into cracks or other features. Distances between pieces of protection can range from three to forty feet or more, although most often the distance is between six and twelve feet.

At any point, the leader can fall at least twice as far as the distance to the most recently placed protection. If a leader is ten feet above the last piece of protection, a fall will be a minimum of twenty feet. Realistically, the fall would likely include several more feet due to rope elasticity and slack and give in the overall mechanical system. If a lead climber, starting from the ground, approaches twice the height of the last piece of protection, there is danger of a ground fall (more commonly referred to as "decking") in which the falling climber hits the ground before the rope goes tight.

The severity of a fall which is arrested by the climbing rope is measured by the fall factor
Fall factor
In climbing, using a dynamic rope, the fall factor f is the ratio of the height h a climber falls before the climber's rope begins to stretch and the rope length L available to absorb the energy of the fall....

: the ratio of the height a climber falls before his rope begins to stretch and the rope length available to absorb the energy of the fall. (A leader may reduce her fall factor by using "protection", equipment that attaches in some way to the rock, allowing the rope to pass through it.) A fall of 20 feet is much more severe (exerts more force on the climber and climbing equipment) if it occurs with 10 feet of rope out (i.e. the climber has placed no protection and falls from 10 feet above the belayer to 10 feet below—a factor 2 fall) than if it occurs 100 feet above the belayer (a fall factor of 0.2), in which case the stretch of the rope more effectively cushions the fall.

Once the leader reaches a suitable spot for anchoring

Anchor (climbing)

In rock climbing, an anchor can be any way of attaching the climber, the rope, or a load to rock, ice, steep dirt, or a building by either permanent or temporary means...

, or runs out of protection (hopefully the former), two things can occur:

The climber is lowered to the ground by the belayer or rappels to the ground, removing the pieces of protection on the way down. This is common when 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,...

or climbing short routes.
The leader belays the lower climber (the former belayer) up to the anchors. On the way up, the climber cleans (removes) the protection placed by the leader. This is common when climbing multi-pitch routes, where this process is repeated once for each pitch
Pitch (vertical space)
-Climbing:In rock climbing and ice climbing, a pitch is a steep section of a route that requires a rope between two belays, as part of a climbing system...

.

The term 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,...

covers routes where most or all of the required protection is provided by permanently installed equipment; traditional climbing

Traditional 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...

(or trad) usually requires the leader to place removable protection. It is unusual but not impossible to see some pieces of permanent protection installed in the rock on some trad climbing routes. Sometimes, these pieces will be installed in spots where protection is vital but placing temporary protection would be difficult or impossible; other times, the pieces are remnants of the days before removable equipment was the standard protection method.

Lead climbing is done for several reasons. Often, placing a top-rope

Top roping

is not an option because the anchors are not accessible by any means other than climbing. Sport climbing and traditional climbing both utilize lead climbing techniques for practical reasons, as well as stylistic reasons.

Lead climbing also gives more of a thrill for the climber because they know that they may fall where as when top roping they can't fall down.

Lead climbing basics

See also