Discussion: theCrag has recently introduced a first version of its [Climbing Terms Glossary](https://www.thecra

theCrag has recently introduced a first version of its Climbing Terms Glossary, currently only available in English.

We kindly ask you for your contributions and corrections using this forum.

Thanks for your contributions!

Ulfi just a quick glance shows that someone chose to include figure-eight knot and fisherman`s knot but not a bowline (with which many climbers tie in), or an overhand knot (for joining ropes).

Some terms that are missing:

• slab
• arête
• roof
• offwidth
• to deck

Also, as Jon said, some common knots are missing, in particular the clove hitch.

I am thrilled to see this! Looking forward to be able to add the terms of for other languages, which would b of great help when reading foreign guidebooks.

some suggestions, please check if I got them right:

splinter crack = fine crack

spur (2) = heel-side extra spike at crampons

booty = abandoned gear found in a route and retrieved

tricam = tree-lobed spring loaded camming device or semi-active crescent shape stopper

arete - prominent protruding edge

col - saddle or pass

stopper, rocks = trade names of trad gear (passive metal protection=

Melwin Quacke should be "splitter crack" and "arête", and I've never seen or heard about active spring-loaded tricams (there might be three-lobed SLCDs, but I wouldn't call them tricams), but I agree that all those terms should be in the glossary.

Thanks for the corrections, Christoph. Here's more to review:

harness = belting system for attaching the rope to a climber

gear = climbing equipment

gear loop = loops at the harness for storing climbing gear

buildering = climbing on buildings

chicken wings = crack climbing technique for climbing offwidths; elbow is inserted into the crack first, palm facing outwards

chicken head = protruding rock structure

flake = planar, thin rock structure

roof = ceiling-like rock structure

crash pad = mat used in bouldering to dampen falls

figure-five-move = (Exotic ice) climbing move similar to figure-fur-move, but with leg of the same side put over the arm.

foot hook = general term for heel hook and toe hook

headpointing = lead of a (often dangerous) trad route after rehearsal (and gear placement?)

highball = boulder with potentially high falls

ledge = rock platform

smearing = very delicate friction moves ?

ring lock = finger jamming technique using the bent finger to jam the first joint into a fine crack

taping = applying adhesive tape to fingers and back of hands to prevent injuries

thin hands = thin hand crack

double ropes = use of two ropes in leading, pro is clipped alternatively (opposed to twin ropes)

nut tool = metal tool for easier removal of pieces traditional protection (nuts, cams)

flapper = finger injury involving a larger piece of partially detached skin

Great list, Melwin!

1. To what extent do we want to collect terms that are actually brand names but may have become an expression for a category (e.g. snarg, big bro, grigri, quicklock, friend)? I'd support these examples, but rather not add less important ones (camalot, eddy, ATC, Revolver, ...)

2. Hoping this eventually leads to a multi-language list helping to understand foreign guidebooks, also more general terms (mountain, pinnacle, spire, buttress, wall, face, north,east,west,south left, right, helmet, rope) would help. On the other hand, this would bloat the list, and these would likely also be covered by standard dictionaries.

What do you think?

Thanks to all of you for your contributions. We will add them from time to time. Melwin Quacke and Christoph Rauch some of yours are already in the glossary (eg off-width, highball) but we will ad whats' missing.

As for the brand names we have added some like Grigri - the line will be blurry so throw them in here and we might not include some of them...

And yes, multi-language will come in the future...

Keep going

ascender = piece of gear grabbing a rope allowing ascending to ascend it

cord = low diameter rope used for slings or auxiliary tasks

dynamic rope = (standard) climbing rope with some stretch to absorb falls, opposed to static ropes

french-free = climbing style, in which the leader free climbs a pitch, while the second can also grab gear to speed up the ascent

bivvy = bivuouac sack; waterproof liner protecting one or two persons in a bivouac

bivuouac; (unintended) overnight stay in the mountains or at the wall, can be improved

bergschrund = uppermost zone of a glacier detaching from the rock. Often a severe obstacle to pass

firn = compacted, old snow

leg loop = part of a harness accommodating the legs

(alpine) butterfly knot = loop creating knot often used in the middle of a rope for glacier travel

cliffhanger = see skyhook

bolting kit = (often minimalistic) set of tools for manually placing bolts

lycra = skin-tight pants of elastic fabric, the ultimate weapon in the 80ies

Nylon = brand name of polyamide; standard fibre used in ropes and webbings

Kevlar = brand name of Aramid fibres; used in the core some cords, strong and heat resistant, but more susceptible to bending

Dyneema = brand name of a high-density polyethylene fibre used in some webbings and cords. Lighweight and strong, but less heat resistant

Thanks for all the great contributions - most will be available in the next version of the glossary. Keep contributing!!

Some technique suggestions:

Flag - To point the foot in order allow counter balance during a hand movement- see also back flag.

Back flag - To counter balance the body by pointing the foot behind the weighted leg as an alternative to switching feet - see also flag.

A new version was published. Check it out here

The definition of bergschrund is wrong. The term for what is described here is randkluft.

Randkluft = gap between a glacier or snowfield and the adjacent rock.

Bergschrund = moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above.

Thanks, we will fix that in the next version!

Very good collection! I miss the the term 'corner'. As far as I know it is used in the same sense as 'dihedral', but some people in germany use it instead of 'arete'. Which one is right?

Already a great list and for sure helping in communication here at theCrag I am looking forward to multi language support, especially seeing two languages side-by-side so I can at least understand keywords of guidebooks in languages I don't know well enough. While Melwin has a point in telling standard dictionaries may contain some terms, it's not enough the terms are contained - they must explain the "climbing sense/use", elsewise it's not helpful. What I mean? Think about "chicken wings"

IMHO all words of our structured tags shall be in the list and with their exact spelling, e.g. searching "offwidth" in glossary does not find the explanation "off-width" - and how shall a non-native EN speaker know that there are different accepted spellings? Also, the difference between tags greasy (DE glitschig, aalglatt, schlüpfrig,..) and polished (DE poliert, glänzend,...) is again and again unclear to me - both would match too much climbed limestone. I always need to compare EN+DE help page to understand the intended meaning.

The topo drawing point type "belay" is not covered by elanation of "belay" in glossary. "Jump off" and "thread/Sanduhr" are not found in glossary.

IMHO we shall add all typical rope commands. Because it's saving the time to collect terms scattered across the long list, I'd strongly favor one glossary entry "rope commands" containing a list of commands and either their definitions XOR links to the single, dedicated glossary entries. For example, in current list, I found "lower off" but do not know the commands before i.e. the EN term for CH/DE command block/zu - I doubt it's "close" or "block".

I often forget the EN word for the place/terrain where you start climbing sport routes and do belay; usually near the bottom of the rock face. In German, it's "Standbereich" (by intention not just "Stand" so we can distinguish from the rope command "Stand"). I was not able to find it in current glossary - is it contained?

Probably, a sketch or an illustrative photo would ease understanding the parts of things that are made up of many parts,e.g. a cliff, a harness, a quickdraw (including a carabiner's parts), etc. This avoids recursive re-directs because the explanation of the unknown word uses other words you don't know and need look up, which use... If such a sketch is existing at Wikimedia or the like, we could also re-use and/or link there. What do you think?

IMHO, we shall add the wide spread belay device classes tuber and auto-tuber,

along with names of some popular products - helping users to quickly understand the difference by example.

IMHO we shall add Tricam and Abalak

as these are AFAIK the only products of their class, the class is mostly known by the product names, and the class has relevance as it differs from other nuts in that they also work in round holes and very irregular cracks. Like Christian Rauch, I don't know about a spring loaded variant of tricams/abalaks, while they are often called & advertised as active, because they can turn and by that can become much wider than initial width (important when a flare bends away from the cliff).

Thanks again for your comments and additions - most of them will be added in the next version. As for GeorgD 's comment. While some of the features are plkanned (eg translation) some are out of scope. For the meantime it would be best to add terms you are missing here please. Categorizing some of the terms will certainly help (eg commands) but this will be on text basis only by now.

Text based categorizing is IMHO also nice - let's go with whatever is easier to implement.

"List entries"

like "rope commands", so glossary entries containing a list of the single commands have the advantage we can show the list entries in their natural order (e.g. the timeline sequence or spatial arrangement) which also serves as a brief overview - in DE "Sportklettern: Seil, zu, ab. Mehrseilrouten: zu, Stand, [Seil frei,] Seil aus, nachkommen". Later, when the feature scope of glossary is widened, we may extend from list entries to sketch/illustration entries mentioned above or other "special entry types".

Categories

are very universal & flexible, thus open a lot of possibilities in the long run - like filtering only glossary entries belonging to 2 different categories/hierarchies. As a start, we could have a single glossary entry followed by zero, one or many categories as plain text, e.g. "rope command" or "natural feature" or "climbing style". This gives users the rough context of the glossary term in very short form and by browser search, uses can easily jump between all entries being e.g. rope commands. Later, we could use tags in technical sense and offer a website feature to filter. Open question: How can we easily transport the natural order? I anticipate textual descriptions like "Possible earlier rope commands are X or Y, possible following commands Z and X" are tedious for users because of the many links they have to follow, go back, follow the next link, go back,... in order to get the overall picture of rope commands.

Do we want "detailed" gear types like e.g. "Bühler" or "Plättchen" in the glossary?

Personally, I'd say yes but in a short way, e.g. by extending the bolt glossary entry by "Examples for bolt types: Bühler, Schraube mit Plättchen,...".

Pro:

• People stumble across the terms as they appear in guides, discussions, etc.
• It's difficult to find information elsewhere: They are too climbing specific to be explained in general dictionaries. Because of giving generic terms a climbing specific meaning, WWW searches provide bad signal-to-noise-ratio.
• It would be fair, as e.g. carrot bolt is in the glossary and also "just one specific type of bolt" like Bühler.
• Similar to products (see above), many climbers will understand a glossary entry much better by reading concrete examples.

Contra

• They are often specific to some region(s)/laguage(s). But that's also true for quite a number of existing glossary entries like "carrot bolt" or "Ewbanks".
• Many gear types exist, so listing all bloats the glossary. This could be massively reduced by not giving each gear type its own glossary entry, but only shortly listing them in the higher level entry (in this example, "bolt").

Natives are welcome to answer 😉. My guess is "the belay".