Dimarock 08

THE SPORT CLIMBING

Sport climbing it is actually quite new in its kind, we can find first traces of it ending the 19th century when Oskar Shuster achieved, for the first time, in Elbssandstein (Germany) free climbing with a rope and without artificial aids Soon in 1912 , is published the first guide for the area by Rudolf Fehrmann, a guide that contains a bunch of important rules still useful nowadays. If we go forwards in the time we find the very difficult free climbing in which Emilio Comici is known for to be one of the fathers, yet on the 40s he used to do solo climbing rated today as 6c+/7a grades. Was in the 50s when the American John Gill brought the use of magnesium to the climbing, he , also, opened the first boulders which involved jumps and dynamic movements.

It was in the 70s when it took place the free wall climbing boom, and, of course, it happened in the Yosemite Valley, a place gifted with quite big walls, perfect for this type of climbing. Meanwhile, in France it was starting a new technique for to get rid of useless holders, they were marking them with yellow paint, this technique has been called rotpunk or red point Kurt Albert, a German climber, used to paint in red all the ways chained together without any rest.

It is finally in the 80s when sport climbing is born as it is today. The setting up of the first espits and the new rating systems took place in France, classic VI was turned into the 6a sport category, that change led to a very important revolution in the sport climbing rating systems. The future is on with the first 8a’s and many climbers wanted to get into it as Patrick Edlinger, Jean-Baptiste Tribout, Jacky Godoffe, Stefan Glowacz, Tony Yaniro, Ron Kauk, Ben Moon, Simon Nadin, Wolfgang Gulich and Maurizio Zanolla ‘Manolo’, this supposes really the beginning of a new dimension on this sport.

Furthermore, the first eight rated in the world was achieved by the American Yaniro with Grand Ilusion (8a+), the german Gulich got an 8b in Kanal in rucken, 8b+ punk in the gym, 8c wall street, and 9a Action ditect, the English Moon himself put the wedge of the 8c+ with Hubble. While all the above facts has been verified , that means they have been repeated, the 9b and 9b+ are still pending, as not even one climber have been able to repeat them since the French Fred Rouhling made the 9b Akira, and the Spanish Bernabe Fernancez the 9b+ chilam Balam.

All those facts happened on pre-tested fields. In ‘a sight’ we have a new story. Briefly and as advance just let you know that the first 8a was done by the French Marc le Menestrel with Smizdat and the 8b and 8b+ were achieved by the Suisse Elie Chevieux with the liaisons dangerouses and Massey Fergursson respectively. In 2004 the Japanese Hirayama clinched the first 8c at “sight” in Baltzola.

Indoors climbing wall

Climbing walls were created just to emulate the real climbing conditions, in an artificial environment. At the beginning they were used just for training purposes but soon it became a sport itself. The International Council For Climbing Competitions (ICC) dependent of the International Alpinist Union , is the organization responsible for the regulations in climbing competitions. There are three levels of difficulty established: Difficult, speed and boulder. Dima Rockmaster 2005 is into the first level-difficult.

The sport it is absolutely regulated and it has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee, being included in the program of ‘World Game’, this event is organized by the above committee and it brings together all the non Olympic Games.

The games took place in Germany on July 2005 and the winner was the Basque climber Patxi Usubiaga, it is being tried to raise the sport climbing to an olimpyc sport as it meets all the requirements needed for it, competition by levels, players from at least 25 different countries, and well regulated anti-drugs controls.