Glossary
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.
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.
Jug - A large hold. "To jug" means to jumar.
Karabiner - An aluminium, steel or titanium snap-link used for holding the rope and connecting it to gear.
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.
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.
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.
Pitch - One rope length, from the ground or one belay station to the next belay.
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.
Redpoint - To lead a climb you have fallen or hung on before, placing protection, without falling or weighting any protection on the way up.
Shake out - The motion of a climber taking one hand off the rock and shaking it to remove lactic acid. Best done on large holds or during sections of easy climbing.