Types of Rock Climbing | REI Expert Advice

If there's one thing climbers could learn from the media coverage of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's climb of the Dawn Wall, it's that climbing is really hard to explain to non-climbers. Even if you're a climber, it's hard to get across the different methods, equipment and lingo involved. So we've put together a quick, as-simple-as-possible guide to the basic types of climbing. Free soloing is the easiest type of rock climbing to understand: No ropes are involved, and if you fall while climbing, you will fall all the way to the ground. If you climbed trees as a child (or still do), you were technically free soloing. Example: Alex Honnold is the world's most famous free soloist. Although he climbs using a rope more often than he free solos, the films you've most likely seen about him—such as on "Free Solo"—are about his free solo climbs. Free climbing is the type most climbers do: climbing using your hands and feet to find handholds and footholds in order to move yourself upward on

If there's one thing climbers could learn from the media coverage of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's climb of the Dawn Wall, it's that climbing is really hard to explain to non-climbers. Even if you're a climber, it's hard to get across the different methods, equipment and lingo involved. So we've put together a quick, as-simple-as-possible guide to the basic types of climbing. Free soloing is the easiest type of rock climbing to understand: No ropes are involved, and if you fall while climbing, you will fall all the way to the ground. If you climbed trees as a child (or still do), you wer