Rock Climbing

Rock Climbing is a sport that can be enjoyed indoors at the Elkin Recreation Center or outdoors on cliffs a little over an hour away. In conventional climbing the climber is linked by a rope, pairs of climbers wearing harnesses scale a rock-face hauling racks of specialized equipment. As they climb, they place wedges, nuts and other forms of safety devises from their racks into fissures in the rock. The rope is hooked to these articles of protection so that, if a climber falls, the rope catches them.

Sport climbing is like conventional climbing in most respects, except that the safety devises are permanently bolted into the rock-face. The climber does not have to haul specialized equipment with them or position it along the approach. This makes sport climbing safer, quicker and less expensive than conventional climbing.

Free solo climbing is like sport climbing except no rope is used. This is the most dangerous type of rock climbing, if you fall, you die.

Indoor climbing is like sport climbing, except that climbers scale indoor climbing structures and hold onto simulated hand and footholds bolted onto the climbing wall. The fact that it is indoors means that the height of the structure is limited by the height of the space. However, there are no weather troubles and it is easy to unbolt the handholds and footholds to reconfigure the climbing wall.