Climbing as a sport has come a long way. World Cup competitions for sport climbing occurred for decades internationally and received little press in the U.S. More recently, Utah climber Nathaniel Coleman took the silver medal for Team USA when climbing debuted as an olympic sport at the Tokyo 2020 games.
The term, “sport climbing” refers to using protective bolts that are fixed into the rock to ensure falls are not too dangerous. The increased safety margin allows climbers to push their limits on more difficult routes knowing the risk of injury is reduced by shorter falls on reliable protection. While not necessarily competition-based, sport climbing is a component of world cup and olympic climbing competitions.
Bolts are installed on rock faces to create climbing routes—usually they’re spaced five to fifteen feet apart. Climbers use quickdraws to clip the bolts and capture their progress as they ascend the route. Quickdraws have two carabiners attached to nylon or dyneema webbing; the top clips the bolt hanger and the bottom clips the climber’s rope.
A climber leading a route is held on belay by their partner. As the leader ascends, the belayer pays out more slack so the climber can continue upward and clip the bolts as they go. If the leader falls, then they will fall at least twice the distance from their high point to the last bolt they clipped.
Early sport climbers butted heads with traditionalists who opposed the excessive use of bolts. Traditional ethics call for placing bolts on lead. This meant bolts were installed where the climber could stand long enough to drill rather than the best spot to protect a fall. Also, the traditional value of using as few bolts as possible leads to routes having longer spaces between clips, which increases the risk of longer falls.
Sport climbing pioneers realized they could push their abilities into harder difficulty grades by breaking from some of the traditional rules like ground-up bolting. By rappelling from the top, a route setter can place more bolts and make sure they’re in the best locations to protect difficult moves or dangerous falls.
With bolts more closely spaced together, sport climbers can work on parts of a climb while only risking short falls. This allows climbers to learn the specific challenging moves for a route and practice different sections individually until they can link them together to complete the climb. These tactics enable sport climbers to tackle exceedingly more difficult routes.
Sport climbing has become extremely popular—partially because it’s the safest form of outdoor climbing, and also it’s really fun! Hanging out at a sport crag can be a very social atmosphere with climbers watching and supporting each other as they try different routes. Visiting popular destination climbing areas offers the opportunity to meet climbers from around the world and build connections within the community.
It’s important to remember that the existence of bolts on a route does not eliminate the risk. Anyone practicing sport climbing is responsible for assessing risk and choosing for themselves what they want to climb. Keep climbing areas safe and inclusive places for all to enjoy. The Access Fund has great information on best practices for the crag. And if you’re interested in trying rock climbing with an experienced professional, then check out our guided climbing trips below.