Free climbing

Under free climbing is meant climbing on rock or artificial walls, in which only the hands and feet are used for locomotion. Artificial aids are not allowed for locomotion. To include free climbing sport climbing with the corresponding bouldering, as well as the traditional Saxon free climbing and free climbing in the context of alpine climbing.

With the exception of the rarely practiced free solo climbing allowed in all other forms of free climbing aids such as rope and hooks are used, but only to ensure the safety and not as a climbing aid. The "free" of the word free climbing is free of technical aids for mobility and not, as is often mistakenly assumed to be free from security agents. From other varieties of climbing to free climbing thus demarcates through strict adherence to the popular climbing ethics, after which a route is valid only climbed as free if it was climbed without active use of hooks or other aids. Here the classic phrase literally true: the journey is the destination.

For exact language, the term " free climbing " only on the Manner of commission, regardless of the type of route. The typical type of free climbing but is exercised in sport climbing routes, so free climbing is often used as a synonym for sport climbing. The term rock climbing or rock climbing, however, is a generic term which covers both free climbing as the technical climbing.

History

This climbing style developed since about 1890 in the Saxon Switzerland, as an attempt was made to completely eliminate artificial aids for the summit ascent. At the beginning of the local climbing tradition since 1864 artificial aids such as ladders and metal pins had been used initially.

A pioneer of free climbing in the Alps was Paul Preuss ( 1886-1913 ). In his short life he accomplished more than 1,200 rock, skiing and mountaineering, including 150 first ascents and 300 ascents alone. He rejected all the technical aids during the ascent and the descent, and stood on the principle that climbers should leave only their knowledge and skills.

The first climbing guide with corresponding rules in 1908 by Rudolf Fehrmanns published ( " The climber in the Saxon Switzerland "). 1913 were published in a supplement the Saxon climbing rules. These have been carried forward and were retained in Saxon Switzerland over the decades and followed. These rules were to some extent in other areas ( Palatinate, Battert, Zittau Mountains ) taken or served there as a model. 1923, an additional issue for the first time with division into seven levels of difficulty.

The Saxon climber Fritz Wiessner emigrated in the 1930s in the United States. There, the rules were made ​​popular by him and used by many climbers (especially of climbers in Camp 4 of Yosemite National Park, the former rock-climbing center of the U.S.) that drove climbing to new levels of difficulty in the seventies. Wiessner influenced by prevailing there mountaineer ethics significantly.

At about 1970, the free-climbing came back on West German climbers who climbed in Yosemite National Park and also in Saxon Switzerland, back to West Germany and later throughout Europe. By - before 1990 difficult to be organized - visits in the Saxon Switzerland with local climbers as Bernd Arnold Kurt Albert and other climbers had seen that it was possible to overcome difficult pieces of rock, without the use of artificial aids to locomotion. In the Federal Republic led mainly Kurt Albert the free climbing in 1975 with the concept of redpoint climbing one. In the years that even the Austrian climbers and mountain photographer Heinz Zak was at this Renaissance in Europe not Bystanders: he climbed those routes often even with it documented in high photographic quality so that they have known about the journals and a wider audience found. Until then ( 1970s) climbing routes were often overcome with the help of hook, rope ladders and similar aids in West Germany, which is now called technical climbing. Was in the Saxon Switzerland and it will still always be exercised under the old rules, where also there has prevailed the red dot idea. Technical climbing was never accepted in the Saxon Switzerland.

There also exist more or less illegal versions of the free climbing where no mountains, but buildings or trees to be climbed. Despite some stiff penalties these illegal versions are distributed quite right in some areas.

Difficulty

Depending on how demanding is a climbing route, it is divided into different levels of difficulty. Often the degree of the route based on the most difficult point of the path. Difficulty levels are not affected in the optimal case of the personal preferences of the person assessed, but should be an objective as possible assessment of climbing difficulty. However, since this is often difficult to achieve, it is particularly important at high levels of difficulty repeatedly heated discussions.

There different difficulty scales are used in different countries and climbing areas. In Germany, the UIAA scale has largely prevailed, in Saxony, the Saxon scale is still used. There is also the American scales: Yosemite Decimal System ( YDS ) and National Climbing Classification System ( NCCS ), as well as Australian, Norwegian and Swedish scales. In Europe, meanwhile, the French rating has prevailed, while the English rating also takes into account the mental load of a route.