ABSTRACT
Rock climbing is an increasingly popular recreational sport and as a recreational activity it is historically closely linked with romanticism (and colonialism and nationalism). From the early mountaineers onwards it has drawn people to mountains and crags in a quest for adventure and risk, and increasingly, although not for the first time, seen as an escape from the mundane and safe world of contemporary western society. Two key features are seen to define rock climbing. The first is its idealistic origins in romanticism and the quest for sublime experiences via ‘wilderness’ and nature as both beautiful and dangerous: a romanticism still alive today (De Leseleuc et al. 2002). The second is the sub-cultural and locally specific experience of climbing as a practical sports activity where the focus is on skill, fitness and completion of increasingly difficult grades and routes (with names often reflecting their difficulty e.g., ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’ or pain e.g., ‘Weeping Fingers’). In climbing, routes completed and their difficulty (and danger) – which have official grades – are markers of the individual climber’s ability, for both themselves and others, and their ‘standing’ as climbers. Although these two features are not necessarily mutually exclusive, this chapter will focus the later activities, i.e. the practical activities of rock climbing ‘games’.
