Free climbing

Free climbing can be performed in several different rock-climbing formats that vary with the type of climbing protection which the free-climber used. For example, free climbing can be done as lead climbing in either a traditional climbing style (temporary and removable climbing protection) or a sport climbing style (permanently fixed in-situ climbing protection). Free climbing can also be performed as bouldering or as free solo climbing—both of which use no climbing protection whatsoever. Free climbing is sometimes misunderstood as relating only to the formats of free-solo climbing or of solo climbing, which is not correct.

History

The free climbing movement was an important development in the history of rock climbing. In 1911, Austrian climber Paul Preuss started what became known as the Mauerhakenstreit (or "piton dispute"), by advocating for a transition to "free climbing" via a series of essays and articles in the German Alpine Journal where he defined "artificial aid" and proposed 6 rules of free climbing including the important rule 4: "The piton is an emergency aid and not the basis of a system of mountaineering". In 1913, German climber Rudolf Fehrmann published the second edition of Der Bergsteiger in der Sächsischen Schweiz (or The Climber in Saxon Switzerland), which included the first binding rules for climbing in the area to protect the soft sandstone rock. The rules said that only natural holds were allowed, and those "rules for free climbing" are in still use today.

In 1975, German climber Kurt Albert painted his first "Rotpunkt" (or redpoint) on the base of the aid climb Adolf Rott Ged.-Weg (V+/A1), in the Frankenjura, signifying he had "free climbed" it as a redpoint (i.e., after many failed attempts); the redpoint became the accepted definition of what constituted a "first free ascent".

First free ascent

The first "free climb" of a climbing route is known as the first free ascent, or FFA, and is chronicled by climbing journals and guide books. They also chronicle whether the "free climb" was done onsight (i.e. first try without any prior information), flashed (i.e., first try with prior information), or redpointed (i.e., completed after a first failed attempt). FFAs that create new grade milestones are important events in climbing history.

French free climbing

The derived term French free climbing, refers to the French lead climbing technique of "pulling upward" on pieces of in-situ climbing protection equipment (e.g., quickdraws on bolted routes or SLCDs on traditional climbing routes), as a source of aid in ascending the climbing route. It is equivalent to an A0-graded aid climbing technique and is typically used on longer big wall climbing or alpine climbing routes where it is important that the climber(s) progress efficiently and not get overly delayed on a specific section.

Despite the name, 'French free climbing' is not considered 'free climbing' per se, and a climber that uses the technique could not claim a 'first free ascent' of a new route.