Climbing terminology 101

It can be intimidating stepping into a climbing gym for the first time, there's so much you're yet to learn, there's even a whole other language! (well sorta).
To give you a head-start, here's five common terms you'll hear when climbing.
 
 

Beta - 'Whats the Beta?!'

This refers to the instructions or 'secrets' for how to complete a route. The Beta is how the route is intended to be climbed by the route-setter.

When asking someone for the Beta, they may tell you which holds to use, body positioning, or even the techniques for certain moves.

Everyone climbs in different ways, sometimes you may 'break the beta' and find an even better way to climb! Don't feel limited by what is the 'propper way'.

Flash - Climbing like a pro

Completing a climbing route on the very first try, with prior knowledge or beta. If you flash a route, it’s a brag-worthy moment, especially if it’s a challenging one!

Send - 'Damn, I finally sent that climb, took long enough'

To 'send' is to complete a route successfully from start to finish without falling. When you “send” something, you’ve made it to the top without any breaks or restarts.

Unlike a 'flash' you can 'send' a route on any attempt, not just your first.

Dyno - 'That's a big ol' dyno..'

Short for 'dynamic move', a dyno is when you launch yourself to reach a hold that’s too far to grab while keeping both feet or hands on the wall. It’s a powerful, explosive move. Dyno's are scary, you have to commit to the move, no backing out!

You can also have a 'static dyno', this takes the explosiveness of a regular dyno but you can keep you feet on the holds. Typically when it's a static dyno it's for taller climbers... but not our shorter friends (sorry!).

Flag/ Back-flag - The eponimous technique

Although it's not as common to say, it's our namesake so needed to be included.

Flagging and backflagging are techniques that help conserve energy, maintain balance, and make more efficient moves.

In a regular flag, you'd extend one leg out to the side or behind you to counteract the weight on the other side of your body. A backflag is instead where you cross one leg behind the other to counterbalence the other direction.

This a basic technique that can drastically improve your climbing. Learning to balence your bodweight correctly is an absolute gamechanger!

How about a quick bonus term!

Beta Sprayer - The know-it-all

A 'Beta Sprayer' is someone you should never aspire to be...
Without asking for the beta, they'll come up to you and start giving unsolicited advice, sometimes masking it as banta.

The reason they suck is because as a climber it's important to learn how to read routes. As routes get more technical you need to think more technical. If someone keeps ruining the learning process it stop you improving... it's esepcially annoying when you've almost cracked it!



Now you're up to speed on about 10% of climbing vocab... yeah there's quite a lot more to cover. We'll be back to share more terms and techniques with you all soon but for now, climb with confidence and speak with your fellow climbers, they'll help you pick up the vocab in no time!


The Back-flag team :)