Rock Climbing Beta

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Corinne from San Diego.

Hi, Corinne. Welcome.

Hi, Corinne.

Thank you.

What’s going on?

Well, I’ve had a question for a while. I was wondering about the origin of the word beta. We use it in rock climbing to refer to any information you receive about a route prior to climbing the route. And I was wondering if it had any association to information people receive about software products when they have beta versions of software.

Well, now tell us how you’d use that in a sentence.

Well, one thing is when you’re on the route, you could scream to someone, please give me beta when you’re in trouble. Or people, before they ascend the route, if they want to do it perfectly, they say, I would rather not have any beta. I want to on-site this route, which means you do it without any information, all on your own, using just your guts and your glory.

So beta is kind of a synonym for information, right?

Yes.

And that’s B-E-T-A.

Correct.

And it’s used as a mass noun, so you don’t say, don’t give me a beta, you say give me some beta. You can say any beta, some beta. You wouldn’t say the beta.

So you’re speculating that it might have something to do with beta software, which is software that’s kind of unfinished but ready to be used and tested.

Right. When they gather information about it and then make the product better.

I don’t think that it is. I don’t think that it’s connected, and here’s why. I did an entry for this a few years ago on my Double Tongue Dictionary website. And in digging into this, I turned up an article by Neil Cannon that was in Climbing Magazine in 1985. And it’s kind of a jokey article, I believe, where he uses Betamax to refer to the information that people get about a trail or a specific ascent.

And what it turns out is that this article was very influential to refer to people who will do things like videotape the route, like stand on the ground and zoom in with a beta camera to videotape all the different places where you might put your foot or your hand or your bolt or whatever you’re doing.

Oh, cheers.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, there definitely has been over the years some derogatory kind of subtext to the use of the term beta, but it comes directly from the word Betamax, which is a video format that’s not used by anyone anymore except for professional video editors. It’s not something you’ll find in the house anymore, but you will find beta is very common still in professional video. That’s the story. It’s a pretty solid, let’s say 90% solid etymology for that word.

Wow.

Thank you.

How interesting.

Now I know. I’m going to pull that out of the crag and let people know.

Pull it out of the crag.

Nice.

Nice.

Wait a minute. Fill me in. What does that mean, pull it out of the crag?

The crag just means any place where there are rocks that you would climb. It’s just referred to as the crag. So when you pull something out of the crag, you’re just talking about it when you’re there.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So people, let’s go back to beta a second, though. People use beta. There’s not really a pejorative sense or derogatory sense about it right now, right?

Well, it depends. On your style of climbing. Some people think any beta that people use is just terrible and sullies the whole idea of rock climbing.

Right. Most people, though, love beta and don’t mind if they receive a little bit of information. But those hardcore people, even if they read the route description in a climbing guide, they’ll consider that beta, and that’s illegal.

Well, thank you so much for your call, Corinne. I hope we’ve been some help with the answer to beta.

Oh, it’s been great. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

How do you say happy climbing, or how do climbers take their leave of each other?

Generally, they just say goodbye.

Goodbye, then.

Well, that works, too. Take care of yourself, Corinne.

Bye.

Check your ropes.

Well, if you’ve got a question about some inside language for the hobby that you follow, give us a call if you want to tell us about it or ask about it, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.