Boulder Climbing

Boulder climbing, most commonly referred to as bouldering, is an extreme sport that has been around for a long time. Very often thought of as mountain climbing without the mountain and ropes, bouldering aficionados in Great Britain pioneered this sport some time in the late 1880s. In those days, the climbing of a boulder was considered a warm up and training activity for the more ambitious mountain climbs that the participants would engage in later on. Self proclaimed American boulder climber pioneer John Gill has made many advances in this sport that have allowed it to enter the mainstream. As opposed to traditional rock climbing, the focus in boulder climbing is on the performance of the athlete on the rock they are climbing instead of on the headway they can make on any given mountain hike, the type of equipment they may have that ensures success of some mountain climbing expeditions and failure of others, or the personal safety gear they posses.

Safety is nonetheless of great important to any boulder climber. After all, even though she or he will only be about six feet off the ground, a fall from this height will hurt and might result in severe injuries if safety precautions are not taken. Chalk is often used to allow climbers to get a good grip on the boulder they are climbing and to prevent them from slipping. Drying the hands and reducing slippage due to sweating hands, a chalk pouch is indispensable in this activity. Another important item that should be a part of your climbing gear is the choice of shoe. While particular climbing shoes are not required and may even be looked down upon by the purists on the fringe of the sport, many climbers prefer to wear specialized climbing shoes that not only protect their feet from rock cuts, splinters, and painful twists, but also help them in securing a safe footing during their climbing experience.

In competitions, crash pads will break the fall of a climber and allow for a safer landing. Fortunately, boulder climbers no longer wait until the competitions come around to use a mat to break a fall, but many climbers now carry their own collapsible mats that they use when bouldering recreationally. Many times an individual who is designated as a spotter will seek to direct the climber away from danger, or in case of a fall, will render first aid. A few boulder climbers will use top ropes to traverse a boulder, but the majority of the sports aficionados look on this safety precaution with disdain, as it distorts the actual beauty and goal of the activity itself.

Since bouldering has become a highly competitive game, judging methods have evolved over the years. At first the “B” system invented by John Gill was used. Terming boulders as problems that need to be solved, difficulty levels were assigned to different boulders. Thus, a B1 problem boulder would not be considered easy yet does not fall into the hard category either. A B2 problem boulder simply designates a boulder that is harder to traverse and master than a B1 rock. The B3 boulder climb, on the other hand, designates boulders that have been so hard to climb that they have only been successfully mastered once. As is apparent to boulder climbing enthusiasts, the “B” system only worked for a short period of time until more participants in the sports brought more differentiated skill levels to the climbs. Soon the “B” scale was replaced by the “V” grade system invented by John Sherman, another great of the sport. This scale is open ended, but at this point only designations from V0 to V16 are used. Some refer to a VB rating, which simply means “V-basic” if a boulder does not even meat a V0 designation. Sometimes a plus or minus sign is added to the V designations to even further pare down the difficulty level of a rock. The “V” scale and the “B” system are comparable at times; for example, a “B1” problem as defined by John Gill is similar to a “V5+” problem designation using the John Sherman scale. In Europe, the cradle of this sport, an entirely different grading system is used: the Fontainebleau grading. This system uses the numbers 1 through 8 and the letter designations of a through c. An “8c” rating would be similar to Sherman’s “V15” rating.

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