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Types Of Climbing | |
Rock Climbing in New Zealand
The sport in New Zealand
has experienced an
almost exponential growth in popularity during it's relatively short
history. The increase
can in part be attributed to the availability of indoor rockclimbing walls and media coverage of New
Zealand Sportclimbing competitions.
Throughout the sport's history New Zealand Rock Climbing has earned an
international reputation, mainly because the country has some of the best Places
to Climb on the planet.
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Rock Climbing History
| The history of Rock Climbing in New Zealand stems from
Mountaineering where climber's desired to climb progressively more extreme
peaks and that in turn drove climbers to develop better safety equipment and new
rockclimbing techniques. In preparation to
for the next peak,
mountaineers would climb shorter but more extreme rockclimbing routes in
order to hone their skills. Initially this activity was considered as just another form of
training, however by about 1925 it began to evolved
into a sport in its own right. It was about that time climbers began to grade the
difficulty of each climb in order to measure their rockclimbing ability and to
gauge their performance against other climbers.
Because the sport spread to different countries before international
standards could be developed and accepted, many countries devised their
own route grading system. As a result there now a number of different
grading systems used throughout the world, which can be a little
confusing. New Zealand has adopted the
Australian "Ewbank" numerical grading system which uses a single
numerical value to indicate route difficulty.
The popularity of rockclimbing is growing, equipment continues to evolve and the grading systems
used to measure route difficulty are frequently extended as climbers
improve their capabilities.
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The Modern Sport Of Rockclimbing
The appeal of modern rockclimbing can in part be attributed
a change in public perception of the extreme sports. Even during it's
recent history the sport was perceived as an activity
that was likely to end in death, however opinions are changing to the
point where people think of the sport (as having some inherent dangers)
but where the risk could be controlled to an acceptable
level. This combined with peoples desire to challenge themselves and
experience the great outdoors all motivate people to learn to climb.
Another important factor influencing the sport's popularity is our access
to an increasing number of great places to climb, especially in New
Zealand. The
advent of
Indoor wall has contributed enormously to access and allows people to climb in
a more controlled environment than is generally available outdoors. Indoor
walls have also become favored by experienced traditional climbers seeking
a place to climb when the
weather precludes the the use of outdoor areas.
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