Free Climbing

Free climbing is a type of rock climbing in which the climber uses only hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend, employing ropes and forms of climbing protection to prevent falls only.

In contrast, free soloing uses no aids of any kind for protection or ascent while aid climbing employs ropes, protection, and direct aids to pull or stand upon such as jumars to make upward progress on extremely sheer vertical surfaces.

Used as an umbrella term, "free climbing" spans four subsets of climbing styles: traditional, sport, free soloing and bouldering.

Read more about Free Climbing:  Methods and Techniques, Style, Common Misunderstandings of The Term

Famous quotes containing the words free and/or climbing:

    If I had not come to America, where I felt free to formulate tentatively insights at which I had empathically arrived, I would have accomplished very little. I would never have begun to publish, to teach, to undertake research. Because if one does not find an assenting echo to one’s ideas, if one is passed over, as I was in Vienna, then one cannot create. To create, after all, is to believe that what one says will count.
    Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)

    After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
    Nelson Mandela (b. 1918)