SUMC - Swansea University Mountaineering Club

If you are just getting interested in climbing, chances are you're feeling a little overwhelmed. Never mind coming to grips with the vertical world - you can't even understand half of what your more experienced friends are talking about. There are new terms and slang that develop on a near-weekly basis, and each subset of climbing culture has its own very technical definitions that outsiders rarely hear. Nevertheless, this list will get you off the ground. Peruse it in the privacy of your own home, and before you know it you'll be surprising your friends, spewing tales of heinously epic offwidths with the best of them. We welcome your additions and encourage off-the-wall slang. If you have something to add, please let us know.

Abseil - British equivalent of rappel. Rappel is a French word meaning, "to retrieve", which you would do to your rope after you slide down it - if you want to use it again. Abseil is from the German and means, "to rope down."

Aid climbing - Climbing in which the climber ascends or rests by making use of the rope or gear to support his/her weight.

Air Rappel - A (ground) fall due to an error while rappelling.

Alpine style - An approach to climbing peaks in which the ascent is made in one push, usually by travelling as light as possible.

Anal Flossing - A fall in which the leader falls onto the portion of the rope below him such that it slides through his butt cheeks. Not recommended for those that follow common hygiene techniques and schedules.

Anchor - Any tree, block, nut, bolt, Friend, Camalot or other protection device that holds a climber or team to a wall, slope or cliff with rope, slings and karabiners.

Ascender - A piece of gear (e.g. Jumar) that enables a climber to ascend a rope. Attached to the rope, it will grip in one direction (down), slide in the other (up).

Back-clip - Improper method of clipping rope into a karabiner such that the rope could more easily unclip itself.

Barn-dooring - When a climber swings out (like a door) as a result of being off-balance; as from a lieback position.

Belay - An old sailing term, meaning to secure. The use of a rope to stop a climber's potential fall.

Big wall - Extremely long, multi-pitch routes which usually cannot be climbed in a single day.

Bight - A bend in a rope.

Biner - Short for "karabiner."

Bivi - To bivouac. Camping with little protection from the elements. Climbers often bivouac on summit days, when it is impractical to carry full camping gear.

Bloody tips - The condition of having raw and bleeding fingertips from rough holds.

Bomber - an anchor system or placement that is very solid and can be trusted 100%.

Brain Bucket - Slang for a helmet.

Bucket - A very large incut hold that you can wrap your fingers over.

Burly - Powerful or strenuous.

Butterfly or backpack coil - Quick method of coiling a rope, in two sets of bights of doubled rope, so that it may be easily transported, tied to the back like a pack.

Karabiner - An aluminium, steel or titanium snap-link used for holding the rope and connecting it to gear.

Chalk - Made from magnesium carbonate. Gymnasts, weight lifters and climbers have used chalk for decades to counteract sweaty hands and improve grip. Nevertheless, white chalk marks are often unsightly and don't wash off the rock unless exposed to frequent precipitation.

Cheese Grater - The act of taking a large fall, while leading on less than vertical rock, that results in sliding down the rock and usually causes abrasions to the knees and/or hands and elbows. Also, a crack that can shred unprotected hands.

Chickenhead - A protrusion of rock, so named because of its resemblance to the head of a chicken. These holds often make good anchors to sling.

Chickenwing - A grim technique used in ascending offwidth cracks, in which the climber jams an arm bent at the elbow and outstretched like a chicken's wing into the crack.

Chock - An artificial chockstone wedged into a crack for protection by hand without the use of a hammer.

Choss - Loose, rotten or otherwise crappy rock.

Classic - A term that refers to a climbing route which is renowned, usually locally and nation-wide.

Cleaning - removing protection while seconding or rappelling.

Copperhead - A cylinder of copper alloy swaged to a wire loop and pounded into shallow cracks or depressions for body-weight aid placements.

Cornice - Overhanging lip of snow, formed by wind, on the top of ridges. The lip overhangs in the leeward direction. IF you're on or underneath it when it breaks...

Crater - to hit the ground before your rope catches you.

Crevasse - A deep crack in a glacier.

Crank - To pull up hard on a hold.

Crimper - A small feature or hold which only your fingertips can contact.

Crux - The hardest part of a climb or pitch.

Daisy chain - A series of karabiners or loops sewn into a piece of webbing so that there are many places to clip into it.

Deadpoint - The top of a swing or controlled lunge, when upward motion has stopped but downward fall has not yet begun.

Deck - Slang for falling and hitting the ground. As in, "Did you see that guy deck?! Is he ok?!"

Dirt me - "Lower me to the ground; I'm done with the pitch and have put the rope through the anchors at the top."

Draw - Short for "quickdraw."

Dyno - a dynamic move or lunge

Edging - Technique in which the climber places his/her feet on narrowly protruding edges.

Elvis - A bad case of the shakes, as in "Look at that guy on the BY doing' the Elvis!" We've also been using it to mean large camming devices, like a #6 Friend or #5 Camalot.

Epic - Slang term for a climbing adventure that was long, arduous or somehow much more than you bargained for.

Equalised - Usually used in reference to anchors set in such a way that the weight of the climbing team and/or the force of a fall is distributed equally among all the pieces that are part of the anchor.

Expedition style - An approach to climbing big peaks in which the ascent is made by shuttling gear and establishing a series of camps that eventually puts the climbers in a position to make a summit bid.

Face climbing - Using the features that protrude from a rock face (rather than cracks in the face) to climb.

Finger stack - A method of jamming in which the fingers are stacked on top of each other in a thin crack.

Fixed line - A rope left attached to an anchor so it can be readily used for ascending or descending. Used to avoid re-leading part of a climb or to enable a relatively quick, safe descent during storm or darkness.

Flag - A move, in which a foot is placed off to one side, not necessarily on a hold, in order to prevent barn dooring.

Flash - redpoint ascent, first try on lead, utilising prior inspection, information or beta from others.

Follow - After one climber leads a pitch, a second (or third or fourth, ad inf.) will climb it while the leader belays them from above.

Free climbing - Using only natural features to support the climber's weight during an ascent.

Free-solo - To free-climb without a rope and therefore without needing a partner.

Friends - The original spring-loaded camming device with a trigger to retract the cams.

Gaston - Pulling with both hands in opposite directions and away from each other.

God-Save-Me - (Australian) A type of hold, usually large. When a climber is completely gripped and lunges wildly for an unknown hold, only to find that it is so good that they couldn't possibly fall off it, it is referred to as a "god-save-me." The term refers to the emotional plea made just as the climber commits to the move.

Goldline Rope - The brand name of a laid (twisted), sheathless nylon rope. It was the most widely used climbing rope in the US in the '60s.

Grade - The difficulty rating attached to a climb.

Greenpoint - To flash a route on toprope.

Gripped - Scared.

Hanging belay - To belay hanging from bolts or gear placed in cracks, without a substantial ledge on which to stand or sit.

Head Farm - A section of an aid climb that contains numerous fixed copperheads.

Heel Hooking - Placing your heel on a hold while climbing and using it for leverage or balance. You can use this manoeuvre effectively to rest or pull off of with holds that are above a roof or overhang.

Heinous - An extremely difficult or dangerous.

Hex - Short for Hexentric. A hollow, nut-like, hexagonal-shaped type of protection.

Jam - To place a body part in a crack and use it to gain leverage.

Jiggery-Pokery - Shady tactics used to complete a climb, such as stick-clipping or pre-placing gear.

Jug - A large hold. "To jug" means to jumar.

Knee-bar - Knee-foot counter pressure (with one leg), such as between two stalactites on an overhanging climb, that may allow the climber to let go with both hands and rest.

Knee Clamp - Using the knee instead of the foot to climb. If I witness you doing it, you owe me a beer.

Lead climbing - Style in which the first climber (the leader) places protection as he/she climbs and is belayed from below.

Lithuanian Elbow Clamp - A rest position used just before committing to a strenuous mantel, developed by Jonas Grina at Rotary Park, Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Colins, Co. The upper arm is placed on the ledge and the hand of that arm is wedged under the chin to establish this wonderful rest position.

Lock Me Off! - The phrase a climber uses to tell the belayer to lock the belay device off before the climber lets go of the rock.

Manky - A piece of protection that is questionable; it may or may not hold a fall.

Mantle - A manoeuvre, in which the climber uses a hold to press up onto straightened arms, then brings his/her feet up to match on the same hold.

Nut - A chock. The first artificial chockstones were threaded hexagonal nuts picked up along railway tracks on the way to crags. A sling was put through the hole and a karabiner attached to the sling.

Off-width - A crack that is too large for fist jams yet too small to accommodate the whole body and be climbed like a chimney.

Onsight - Redpoint ascent of a route, pitch or boulder problem with no beta or prior knowledge of the moves.

Over-the-shoulder - See Sling.

Pinkpoint - Same as a redpoint, but with pre-placed protection or draws.

Pitch - One rope length, from the ground or one belay station to the next belay.

Pin - A piton.

Protection - The gear that a climber attaches the rope to as he/she climbs.

Prusik knot - A loop of cord or webbing is wound around a rope of larger diameter. When the knot is properly tied and weighted, it should not slip; when unweighted, it can slide up or down the rope.

Quickdraw - A short piece of webbing and two karabiners, usually sewn in.

Rack - The collection of gear a lead climber takes up the climb, usually on a gear sling and/or attached to his/her harness.

Rage - A superlative description of a strong, well executed, powerful or any other good move. As in,"Woah, I thought that guy was gonna biff, but when he got to that super-slopey crux he walked it. Man, he raged."

Rappel - To self-lower from the top of a climb using a rope.

Redpoint - To lead a climb you have fallen or hung on before, placing protection, without falling or weighting any protection on the way up.

Ring-jam - Also know as a finger-stack or thumb-stack type of jam. Can you say "inch-and-a-quarter?"

Runners - Traditionally, a "running belay," so called because it extends the belay to each piece of protection (as long as the protection doesn't fail). American climbers often refer to any sling they carry for protection (or extending protection) as a "runner."

Runout - Description of a climb or section of a climb in which protection is spread out far enough to make the prospect of a fall long and especially frightening.

Sandbag - A climb that is technically more difficult than someone's stated numerical rating would imply.

Screamer - A long fall.

Scumming - Common crack-climbing technique of using some body part frictioned against the rock (i.e. hip scumming, butt scumming, etc.). Full-body scumming can be helpful when mantling onto a ledge with no useful holds above.

Scuz - The act of smearing a part of your body, other your hands or feet (shoes), against the rock.

Second - After the leader, the next person to climb a pitch. "To second" means to follow a pitch.

Send - To redpoint a route.

Sewed-Up - A reference to a climb in which the leader has placed protection extremely close together, usually every 5 feet or less.

Sewing-machine - When a tired climber's legs begin to shake up and down.

Sketchy - Featureless and therefore difficult and hard-to-protect rock.

Slack - Extra rope.

Slings - A sling of nylon or Spectra/nylon, webbing or cord. Usually carried over one's shoulder - single, doubled or tripled, depending on the length of the sling.

Sloper - A hold which is sloping, not incut.

Smearing - Technique in which the climber gains purchase on the rock using friction from the sole of the shoe.

Spectra - A type of rope or cord that is strong and not elastic.

Splash - To take a bloody ground fall.

Sport climbing - Climbing routes on which pre-placed bolts are used for protection.

Spot - To protect a climber by preparing to prevent their head from hitting the ground if they were to fall.

Static Rope - A kernmantle rope with no elasticity, e.g. a haul line.

Stemming - Technique in which the hands and/or feet are pressured in opposition far out to each side, as in a dihedral or wide chimney.

Stick-clip - Using a device to attach the rope to the first bolt of a climb from the ground. Doing so protects the climber from hitting the ground if they should fall before the first bolt.

Swinging leads - On a multi-pitch route, the pattern of alternating the roles of leader and follower.

Take - To hold the climber tightly with the rope.

Tension - To hold the climber tightly with the rope.

Testpiece - A climb that is representative of the hardest, best climbs in an area.

Thank God Ledge - A ledge found few and far between on an otherwise blank big wall. Thank God refers to the appreciation of the lead climber who reaches the ledge in desperation.

Toe Hooking - The same type of manoeuvre as a heel hook, only executed with the toe.

Toprope - Any situation in which the belay is above the climber.

Traditional climbing - Climbing routes on which removable gear is placed for protection by the leader as he/she ascends. The second removes the gear.

Trucker - An excellent pro placement. This piece is so bomber that you could drop a truck on it and it still wouldn't pull.

Walk - Climbing a route with such ease and finesse that you make it look quite easy. "After I came screaming off that route, a passing local sandbagged me and walked it."

Webbing - Flat profile nylon.

Whipper - A long lead fall in which the leader is jerked about on the end of the rope.

Wigged - The feeling of an extreme adrenaline rush that follows a tough ascent or long fall. "After the crux, I was wigged."

Winger - A long lead fall. See screamer.

Wired - Knowing a route so well that you can, without much thought or effort, complete it perfectly.

Y.D.S. - Yosemite Decimal System for rating climb difficulty (ranging from 5.0 to 5.14).

Z-Clip - Clipping the highest point of protection with a section of rope pulled up from below the last piece you clipped. This a dangerous practice, and should be avoided.

Zipper - A series of protection placements that pop out in sequence when the leader falls.