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Rock Climbing: Climbing Steep Objects And Slopes
By Brad Jones

Rock climbing is the pursuit of climbing a steep object such as are found in mountains and the steep rocky surfaces are good examples which can be scaled with the help of ropes and other climbing equipment that are required to protect the rock climbers. Rock climbing is of different kinds and can be subdivided into free climbing and aid climbing activities. Free climbing involves ropes and gear that are used in strict conformity to safety measures to prevent accidental falls while aid climbing involves a passage up a rock piece which has been engineered and implies using equipment that has been set in the rock for helping the climber progress upwards.

Earliest Recorded Climb Took Place In 1492

The history of rock climbing goes way back and the earliest recorded climb was that made by Antoine de Ville in 1492 when he climbed the Mont Inaccessible and which was performed under orders from the royal court and he used techniques known and developed for sieging castles of the day. In Victorian mountaineering, the practice of rock climbing constituted an important component but it is widely thought that rock climbing as a sport began towards the end of the nineteenth century in Elbsandsteingebirge in Saxony near Dresden and in the Lake District of England.

With the maturing of rock climbing, grading systems were made to accurately compare the comparative difficulty of the climb and rock climbing equipment as well as techniques has greatly evolved with advances in technology as well as increased in interest in this activity. Rappelling is thought to be the single most dangerous part of rock climbing and available accident statistics amply provide proof of it, if such were needed to support such views. This may be attributed to people making mistakes while descending or totally having to rely on the equipment to support the climber rather than use the rope as a backup of the climber's rock climbing abilities.

It may also be noted that rock climbing may not be permitted on every rock formation and regulations vary from place to place with the greatest impediment to rock climbing being trespass laws which are enforced by owners of the land who often ban climbing during certain times of the year to protect wild life like for example, the nesting birds. However, it continues to be popular and has very often been featured in movies of which Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit are two good examples though mostly the depiction of it in such movies, with a few exceptions, is rather skewed.

Author Details:
Brad Jones, lover of all extreme sports & copywriter for various websites including, Rock Climbing and The A to Z of.

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