Rock Climbing- Brian Chamberlain

Brian Chamberlain
Ethnography Project- Rock Climbing
5/31/2011



Hello everyone! As I found out, rock climbing has very specific lingo and terminology, so have a look at this video I've composed that has pictures and videos from my trip to RockQuest in Cincinnati, as well as some of the terminology I learned from this discourse community! Enjoy!

Reaching the Top: Rock Climbing Ethnography Project

Brian Chamberlain

Climbing twelve stories above the ground, with a death grip on the closet jug, Mark looses his grip and shouts “FALLING!”. Instantly, this spoken word signals trouble to his belayer, and like a safety valve responding to a leak, Steven snapped the rope down, holding the rope tight to support Mark. Honestly, I think I was more shaken up from this experience than Mark and Steven combined. I had already felt a gap between myself, being an onlooker, and them, being involved in this discourse community. Only one word was needed to signal something had gone wrong, and because of the strong bond this discourse community has, Steven was able to react quickly and adequately to ensure the safety of his climber. For my ethnography project, I chose to examine the high-risk sport of Rock Climbing, and how the people inside this discourse community work with each other, respond to high stress situations, and the ways that one joins this community. Although a good majority of the specifics of this community happens behind the scenes, through interviews with local climbers at RockQuest in Cincinnati, I was able to gain much insight into this extreme sport.

The specific lingo, the types of knots you must learn, the practice sessions with trainers, and the waivers and releases are all part of the initiation into this discourse community. Taking a beginners class at RockQuest is not only required, but it also teaches you the necessary skills you need to not only keep yourself safe, but also keep everyone else in the facility safe. Just like with many extreme sports, the writing practices begin with the signing off of waivers, which invokes a feeling in the participant that what they are doing does come with an aspect of danger, and should be taken seriously. Heywood (2006), the author of “Climbing Monsters: Excess and Restraint in Contemporary Rock Climbing” agrees with this idea by stating, “While anyone can go and get themselves killed on steep rock, the social reality of high performance, high risk, climbing involves exacting physical and mental preparation, considerable knowledge, and careful calculation on the odds (p. 456). The physical and mental preparation of this sport separates an observer and a participant because without being involved in the action, the intense feelings and emotions are lacking, which is a crucial part to the communication of this discourse community. But how does this heightened sense of danger affect the climber? From my interviews with Mark and Steve Grace, brothers and climbing partners for 5 years, both cited the sense of fear and danger as, “what keeps everything together, without fear, it would just be chaos”. This statement really let me hit the ground running with an idea to find out all of the aspects of rock climbing that limited the variables in climbing.

The first aspect that I noticed was truly the most interesting to me. Unlike a majority of this discourse community, this was neither written or spoken, yet it was a system of checks between the two that ensured a safe climb. Before climbing, Mark tied the rope to his harness using the typical figure-8 knot, (See Below) the most common knot used in traditional climbing, which was then checked by Steven. After the check was complete, Steven attached himself to the anchor, and fed the rope through his belay device, which was then checked over by Mark. All of this communication was done without any spoken word, but merely with eye movement and an occasional head nod. And as Mark approached the wall, the asked, “Belayer ready?” Steven responded with, “Belay on” and as Mark began to climb he responded again with “Climbing”. This very specific ritual of checks and balances happened every time someone was going to climb, but Heywood (2006) stresses in her article that, “A chronic problem that climbing confronts, along with other adventure sports, is the tendency to become routine, normal, measure, predictable; a rationalized activity in which safety and success, and in general a largely commodified ‘adventure experience’ are virtually guaranteed by knowledge, preparation, training, and equipment” (p. 461).

The high stress situations in this discourse community seem to vary between each climber. Both Mark and Steve explained to me that they are both very comfortable with climbing, but they know one false move can result in serious injury. “But what keeps you from falling into a routine where someone can forget a safety precaution?” I asked. Steven fielded this question by elaborating on other rituals of their community. When he was elaborating, I found myself stopping him every few sentences to ask for clarification on the terms he was using, which I included in the short video clip before this essay. Rock climbers are very aware of the dangers that falling into a routine can cause, so they are always switching wall types, switching from traditional to lead climbing, switching climber and belayer roles, and taking substantial breaks to remove themselves from the activity. “You have to keep everything in perspective, there is a difference in ‘being on a role’ and ‘being in a rut,’ Mark explained. Mark explained to me an experience he had, where after 5 times running the same jug run while lead climbing, he was so concentrated on the part he kept failing on, he missed a check point, lost his grip, and fell twice as far as he should have. Although he did not fall to the ground, the distance he fell before the rope caught, caused him to suffer a hip injury keeping him from climbing for 2 months.

After talking with Steve and Mark, I moved over to the bouldering wall and met Tom. Tom had been climbing for over 8 years and was practicing his foot holds on the bouldering wall. Talking with Tom gave me the most insight into rock climbing’s discourse community in respect to written practices. He elaborated on a website he had found called Meetup.com, where you can post meetings with other people in surrounding areas that have the same interest as you. Although a lot of the literacy practices for rock climbing do not happen in written form in the gym, Tom spends a good deal of time writing on meetup.com with the event participants, and also has a few blogs he has joined where people post stories, pictures, and videos of rock climbing all over the world. Speaking with Tom, he was really excited about the response they have been getting over the past few years citing that, “Being able to write about these experiences and include pictures and post them on websites that everyone can view, really gets people excited and interested in our sport”. Nick Draper (2008) also states this increase in attention to rock climbing in his article when he writes, “The period from 1990-2006 saw a 37,514 person increase in membership of the British Mountaineering Council” (p. 492) and “There are more than 150,000 active climbers in the UK alone” (p. 492). The rock climbing discourse community, like many others today, have benefitted from the influence of social networking sites, video hosting sites, and internet blogging.

In conclusion, through my research and interviews with various climbers at RockQuest in Cincinnati, the rock climbing discourse community is by far one of the most complex I have been a part of. Rock climbing for the first time last year really gave me a feeling of belonging to a community because of all of the steps it takes just to begin climbing. From the beginning classes when you learn the ropes, the knots, the safety precautions, the terminology, and the different types of climbing, you develop a set of skills that enable you to interact with the members of this discourse community. Rock climbing shifts into a whole new mindset when actual climbing is taking place, because of the high stress of the situation, the communication becomes very routine and specific, where the climber would instantly be aware if something had gone awry. Whether it is talking with other climbers, organizing events, or blogging about recent rock climbing adventures, rock climbing has expanded its discourse community with the technological advances of the internet and social networking. With all of the technological means at their hands, the possibilities are endless for the advancement for this discourse community, as well other extreme sports and their communities.

Works Cited

Draper, N., Jones, G. A., Fryer, S., Hodgson, C. & Blackwell, G. (2008).

Effect of an on-sight lead on the physiological and psychological

responses to rock climbing. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.

7, 492-498

Heywood, Ian. (2006). Climbing Monsters: Excess and Restraint in

Contemporary Rock Climbing. Vol. 25, No. 4, 455-467.