Chris from San Diego, California, asks about climbers’ chossy, meaning rock so crumbly or unsafe that it may break loose under a handhold, foothold, or piece of protective gear. A bad formation may be called a choss pile, and choss up means to wreck...
A rock climber in Omaha, Nebraska, wonders about the term beta, which her fellow climbers use to refer to information about a particular route. It comes from the old practice of using Betamax video to record information about a climb. A good source...
The Climbing Dictionary by Matt Samet includes a fantastic term that can be used by non-climbers as well: high gravity day, a day when all routes, even easy ones, seem impossible due to a seeming increase in gravity. This is part of a complete...
rap v.—Gloss: short for “rappel.” «He kept falling, flailing and failing to make the moves, eventually just hanging on the rope and begging me to lower him down to the last ledge. He was out of steam; we rapped back to the ground.» —“A Match Made...
bear n.— «My favorite cycling food is small, salted and boiled red potatoes, which this year were served at the rest area just before the three bears, three climbs that form a classic patch of cycling territory in the rolling hills east of Berkeley...
quinfecta n.— «Our goal today was to climb all five of the Flatirons that dot the east slope of Green Mountain.…Getting around and onto the Pullman Car was one of the hardest section of climbing in the Quinfecta.…he entire Quinfecta had taken us 9...
