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  BIRDBEAK. See Beak.

  BIVY BAG. Gore-Tex sleeping-bag cover.

  BOLT. An expansion bolt fixed permanently into the rock face to protect a climb or form a belay.

  BREAK. A horizontal crack.

  BULGE. A small rounded overhang.

  CAM. A complex expanding nut with three or four opposing camming lobes, used in cracks of all sizes.

  CHALK. Magnesium carbonate used to dry the hands when climbing.

  CHICKENHEAD. American term for a small lump of intrusive rock which sticks out of a slab.

  CHIMNEY. A crack wide enough to fit your whole body into.

  CHOCKSTONE. A piece of rock which is jammed immovably in a crack.

  CHOSS. Soil, dirt, rubble, stones, vegetation, in fact anything other than good clean stable rock.

  CLEANING. The act of removing protection placed by the leader, performed by the second as he/she follows.

  COPPERHEAD. Alloy or copper nut that can be hammered to fit in seams and flared cracks allowing progress but not protection.

  CRUX. The hardest move on a pitch or the hardest pitch on a climb.

  DAISY CHAIN. Long sling with multiple places to clip into, and used in conjunction with aiders.

  DEADHEAD. Fixed copperhead with broken clip cable.

  DESCENDER. A friction device used when abseiling, such as a figure of eight or a belay plate.

  ÉTRIER. See Aider.

  EXPANDING FLAKE. A flake that moves when pulled on, or which looks as if it might move or even detach completely if pulled hard enough.

  FIGURE OF EIGHT. The most commonly used knot to attach a climber to the rope.

  FIXED. See In situ.

  FLAKE. A partially detached section of rock which will often yield good holds along its detached edge.

  FREE CLIMBING. Progressing up a route by using your body rather than the gear.

  HAMMER. Wooden-shafted hammer used to place pegs.

  HAUL BAG. Large heavy-duty rucksack (150+ litres) used to hold all your big-wall gear on the climb.

  HAULING. The process of dragging up your haul bags after each pitch.

  HEAD. Short for copperhead.

  HEX. A large alloy nut. Sizes range from finger to fist.

  HOOK. See Skyhook.

  IN SITU. Latin for ‘in place’. Used for protection that is found on the climb, placed by a previous climbers including pegs and bolts.

  JAMMING. The technique of inserting part (or all) of the body into a crack to make progress.

  JUG. An excellent hand hold.

  JUMARING. The technique of climbing a rope using jumar clamps.

  KARABINER. An oval metal hoop with a springloaded ‘gate’. Rope and protection are attached to karabiners. Also known as a ‘krab’. Karabiners come in many forms, and arguments about which is best occupy many hours in gear shops.

  KNIFEBLADE PEG. See Peg.

  LEADER. The person going up the route first; the one who solves the conundrum of ‘how do you get the rope up there then?’ Hence ‘lead a route’ and ‘leading a route’. Is followed by the second.

  MANTLE. Short for mantleshelf.

  MANTLESHELF. Technique used to establish yourself on a ledge below a blank piece of rock.

  MICRO WIRE. The tiniest of climbing nuts, being the size of a large pinhead, with an equal amount of strength.

  NUT. The simplest form of protection. A metal wedge threaded on steel wires, intended to go into cracks and stay there. The name comes from the practice of 1950s climbers, who used motorcycle nuts.

  OFFWIDTH. The most awkward width of crack: too wide for fist jamming, but too narrow to chimney.

  PEG A simple length of steel, either U-shaped (angle peg) or flat (knifeblade) with an eye in one end for clipping the rope to. Hammered in place.

  PENDULUM. Swinging on a length of rope in order to obtain a distant hold.

  PITCH A section of a climb, usually close to a rope length (45 metres).

  PITON. A peg or spike hammered into a crack to support a climber on a rope.

  PLACEMENT. The place in the rock face where protection is actually positioned.

  PORTALEDGE. Folding bed made from alloy tubing and nylon and used on a big wall.

  PRO. Abbreviation of protection.

  PROTECTION. Also known as gear. The devices that climbers use to prevent themselves from decking out.

  PULLEY. Metal wheel used to increase the mechanical advantage when hauling.

  QUICKDRAW. Two snap-gate karabiners linked by a short sling equal one quickdraw.

  RACK. A collection of gear, usually attached to loops on a harness.

  RAPPEL. Another word for Abseil.

  RIVET. A 5 mm x 50 mm machine bolt hammered into a drilled hole on blank sections of rock.

  SCREAMER SLING. A shock-absorbing sling.

  SCREWGATE. A locking karabiner.

  SEAM. A very thin crack, one too small for any protection wider than a knifeblade piton.

  SECOND. The person who belays the leader, and gets the fun of taking out their protection on the way up. Being the second is generally less dangerous than leading, because you have a rope above you – except on traverses, when it can open you up to big swings if you fall off and the leader has not put in enough protection.

  SHIT-TUBE. Plastic tube used to store bodily waste when climbing on El Cap.

  SKYHOOK. Small steel hook that will hold a climber’s weight when placed on a small flake or flat edge.

  SLING. Loop of rope or tape, useful for racking gear or looping around chockstones for protection.

  SOLO. To climb without ropes, or to climb alone with ropes.

  STATIC ROPE. Compared with a dynamic rope, a static rope does not stretch significantly when loaded.

  TORQUE. Technique whereby a climber places the pick of an ice axe in a crack and twists it.

  WIRE. Short for a nut on wire.

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  Epub ISBN 9781407009445

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  Published by Arrow Books 2009

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  Copyright © Andy Kirkpatrick 2008

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  First published in the United Kingdom in 2008 by Hutchinson

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