Climbing protection

Climbing protection is equipment or fixed hardware used to limit a climber’s fall distance. It connects a climber to the rock or an anchor through a rope and related components.

Climbing rope: A kernmantle rope designed to absorb energy and connect climbers to protection. It links the climber to protection and stretches to reduce impact during a fall.
Passive protection: Removable climbing protection that holds through its shape and contact with rock rather than moving parts. Its wedging geometry resists outward movement when a fall loads the piece.
Traditional climbing: A style of rock climbing in which climbers place and remove their own protection as they ascend. Climbers rely on removable protection placed in cracks and features along the route.
Climbing fall: An unintended downward movement by a climber, arrested by a rope or other safety system. The fall is the event protection is intended to limit and arrest.
Carabiner: A metal connector with a spring-loaded gate, used to join climbing equipment. Carabiners connect ropes, slings, and protection pieces while allowing the system to be assembled.
Spring-loaded camming device: A removable climbing device whose spring-loaded cams expand against rock when pulled by its stem. Its cam lobes convert a downward pull into outward force against the rock.
Sport climbing: A style of rock climbing on routes equipped with permanent bolts for clipping the rope. Its fixed bolts replace most placements made by the climber in traditional climbing.
Climbing rope drag: Resistance caused when a climbing rope bends around protection or runs across rock. Poorly aligned protection can increase drag, making climbing harder and altering how the rope loads.
Climbing anchor: A secured point or system of points that holds a climbing rope or belay system. Protection ultimately transfers fall forces into an anchor or the rock itself.
Pitons: Metal spikes hammered into cracks to provide attachment points for climbing protection. A piton transfers load through its placement in a crack, often leaving fixed hardware behind.

Linked from 9 pages