UKC

Hi everybody,

Both me and a friend are looking to get outdoors as the weather improves as we've been hitting the gym over the winter. Before we go out into the rocky world, I am browsing on UKC Logbook and have noticed a wide range of vocabulary around some of the notes for climbs such as o/s, pumpy, dog, good gear etc. If anybody could share some definitions or what these might mean that would be excellent. 

And secondly, we are only really interested in doing sport climbing and I'm unsure how much of these logbooks are sport climbing. I would love to know how to identify if there is a bolted route to lead or if it required protection. 

Any and all replies welcome! Thank you in advance.

Buckley103.

O/S - onsight. To climb something from the ground up, on lead, without falling, resting on gear, using the rope or gear to aid progress, or returning to the ground and without beta.
Beta - specific information about the route which helps you climb it.
Dog - to rest on gear, use the gear to aid progress or generally do anything that's not very sporting.

Gear - things which you place in the rock and clip the rope to to prevent you hitting the ground if you fall off.
Good gear - gear that's good! See also 'bomber'.
Poor gear - gear that is of dubious value in preventing you becoming reacquainted with the ground.
Bomber - gear that is very good. Very very good.
Run-out - climbing well above your gear, usually through necessity (ie nowhere to place anything).
Bold - not much gear, with the implication that falling off will be detrimental to your health.

Pumpy - climbing it will result in burning forearms.

All you need and much more is here.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/a_glossary_of_climbing_terms_f...

T.

If the climbing is in the UK, then the general rule is that sport climbs use the French grading system of a number, followed by a lowercase letter (e.g 5c, 6a, 6b etc.). Traditional climbs with leader placed protection such as nuts, hexes and cams use a two part system with the first letters being short hand for descriptions such as Difficult, Severe, Very Severe, Hard Very Severe or Extreme and are followed by a technical grade of a number and lower case letter. Examples: Diff, S 4a, VS 4b, HVS 5a, E1 6a. Note French and English grades don’t directly align and 6a sport is a very different kettle of fish to English tech grade 6a.

Rockfax gives a better overview here: https://www.rockfax.com/publications/grades/

Sport routes will generally be logged with just a 'technical' grade (eg 5, 6a, 6c+, 7b & so on)

Trad routes will have an overall 'adjectival' grade (eg Diff, Severe, VS, HVS, E1, & so on) coupled with a technical grade for the hardest move (usually only from 4a upwards)

Beware - the numerical grades accompanying trad routes are not from the same scale as the sport routes!! 5b is not always  5b!!!

5b trad tech grade is most akin to a 6b sport route. A 5b sport route is approx a 4b ish trad route. Confused? It becomes clearer as you gain experience.  Have fun 

Often a particular crag will tend to have either sport routes or trad routes (requiring protection). If you post where you are, locals might give you some ideas.