32

What is the difference between Sport Climbing and Traditional (Trad) Climbing? Is it just that Sport Climbing uses bolts?

Charlie Brumbaugh
  • 69,253
  • 35
  • 217
  • 423
Scotty.NET
  • 751
  • 1
  • 7
  • 9

1 Answers1

33

Both sport climbing and trad climbing are a form of lead climbing, which means the first climber to go up is not protected by a rope from above. A sport climber uses quickdraws which, as you mentioned, get clipped to bolts that have been placed in 10 to 15 foot intervals. At the end of the climb a sport climber can expect to find a belay anchor consisting of two to three bolts with rappel rings that he/she uses to build an anchor.

A trad climber carries not just quickdraws, but a whole rack of climbing gear consisting of cams, nuts and sometimes hexes that get placed into cracks in the wall. In difficult to protect places there might be a bolt that has been placed by the first ascent team. At the end of the climb or pitch (one rope length on a multi-rope length climb) a trad climber often has to build an anchor with the trad-gear, but sometimes, just like in sport climbing, routes have belay stations with two to three bolts.

Sometimes the classification of sport and trad climbs gets a little messy. In Joshua Tree National Park in California for example, guide books refer to some climbs as "bolted climbs." These climbs are by no means sport climbs, even though the only means of protection on these routes are bolts in the rock. The difference is that those bolts are spaced 30 to 60 feet apart, which means the leader might fall up to 120 feet.

Often sport climbs are rap-bolted, which means the first ascent party rappelled down the route, placing bolts on their way down. Traditional climbs get established from the bottom up, which means the first ascent party placed bolts they deemed necessary as they were climbing up.

RJFalconer
  • 103
  • 3
DudeOnRock
  • 7,491
  • 5
  • 38
  • 75
  • 4
    +1 - good for distinguishing between sport climbs and old-school bolted trad routes. – DavidR Sep 17 '13 at 13:46
  • 3
    Nice answer. Another way of stating the distinction is that trad is more of an outgrowth of mountaineering, and pretty much everything you do in a trad climb is potentially something you could do while mountaineering. Sport climbing, on the other hand, is more about gymnastic skill. –  Feb 28 '14 at 05:22
  • Could you add the difference to Freeclimbing, too? – Phab Sep 30 '15 at 05:43
  • Just so I understand: if the only protection are bolts 30 to 60 feet apart, how do people climb this route? How is this even protection? Surely a fall of 120 feet will utterly destroy all the gear involved and the person falling... – fgysin Sep 30 '15 at 07:40
  • @fgysin: Those routes are friction climbs, which means progress is made by making delicate foot-placements on a slab of granite which is less than vertical. If you fall on a slab climb, the forces involved are a little different, which has coined the pretty descriptive term a "cheese grater" fall. To try to avoid this, people will try to "run" down the slab when they fall, but as you can imagine, for these climbs the old mantra "the leader must not fall" is still very much alive. It's all about your level of comfort for a specific kind of climb. – DudeOnRock Sep 30 '15 at 16:17
  • @fgysin I think DudeOnRock isn't right. This rout aren't just friction routes you try to "run down". But the climbers built their own anchors between these wide bolts with cams, nuts and hexes (just asit is said in the answer). – Phab Oct 01 '15 at 06:28
  • 2
    @fgysin: with modern dynamic climbing rope, a 120 feet fall is survivable (if you don't hit the ground or a ledge) and won't destroy gear (though depending on the fall factor, one might want to retire the rope). – Michael Borgwardt Oct 01 '15 at 08:47
  • 1
    @Phab: What you are talking about is a classic trad climb. There is a category of climbs, often referred to as "bolted climbs" which are not sport climbs and have large runout sections between bolts. Dike Route in Tuolumne is a good example: http://www.summitpost.org/dike-route-5-9/716885. As to your suggestion to add the difference to freeclimbing: both sport and trad climbing are forms of free climbing, which means you don't rely on gear for forward progress. Are you perhaps referring to "free soloing" (climbing without a rope)? – DudeOnRock Oct 01 '15 at 19:30
  • @DudeOnRock No, for me, the difference is absolutely clear. I just mentioned it because every time I talk to someone and say "yes, I'm doing freeclimbing", I got the answer "Oh, isn't that dangerous, without a rope!?" ;-) – Phab Oct 02 '15 at 05:34