Different Types of Rock Climbing Explained

“What’s free climbing? Is it the same as free soloing?” “Are sport climbing and lead climbing the same thing?” “What are trad climbers and why do they think they are better than everyone else?” There are a lot of questions you might have about the different types of rock climbing. Some we can answer (yes, trad climbers actually are better) and some, like “why do boulderers wear beanies but no shirt?” no one will ever be able to answer.

Humor - a key ingredient to outdoor adventure — A boulderer in his natural state: Hipster beanie without a shirt. Seen here: Mad Rock R3 crash pad and Evolv Shaman climbing shoes.

Short History of Climbing

Rock climbing began as early as the 1700’s, mostly as training for larger alpine and mountaineering goals. Eventually it was seen as a sport in its own right. At first the goal of rock climbing was simply to ascend to the top of a rock face through any means necessary. This included hanging or pulling on gear that was drilled or hammered into the rock. As climbing gear improved, climbers began focusing on using only their hands and feet on natural features of the rock to move upwards. Over the past 3 centuries, different types of rock climbing have begun to emerge—including trad climbing, sport climbing, top roping, free soloing, and bouldering.

These newer styles of climbing are mainly differentiated by the unique forms of protection from falling that they employ. Here’s a summary of the major different types of rock climbing, first broken into the two main categories: Aid climbing and free climbing. The chart below shows an overview of the relationships between the different types of rock climbing. Read on for explanations and examples of each.

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Aid Climbing

Aid climbing incorporates permanent or removable protection that’s placed into the rock to help the climber make upward progress. It’s usually reserved for climbs that are too difficult for the lead climber to complete using only the natural rock surfaces. The climber attaches a ladder made of webbing (called an aider) to a protection piece, then stands or pulls herself up on the ladder, then repeats the process. Aid climbers used to hammer pitons (wedge-shaped pieces of metal) into the rock for protection, which permanently damaged the rock. Today most aid climbers practice “clean aid”, meaning they use removable protection (cams, nuts, etc.) or permanent bolts that are pre-drilled into the rock. The best way to understand aid climbing is to see it. Here’s a simple video from SuperTopo explaining how to aid climb. Skip to the 1 minute mark for his demo:

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Free Climbing

Free climbing encompasses every other type of rock climbing other than aid climbing. It refers to climbing using only your hands and feet on natural features of the rock to move upwards. Depending on the specific style, various types of gear are used to protect against falling—but never to help the climber move upward. Free climbing breaks down into two categories: roped and unroped.

Roped Free Climbing

Roped free climbing is climbing with a rope attached to a harness to protect against falls. It has three main categories: traditional (or “trad”), sport, and top rope. Top rope climbing involves building an anchor above the climb before climbing it. Trad and sport climbing are forms of lead climbing, where the climber starts at the bottom of the climb and places protection to clip their rope to as they go up. The type of protection used is the main difference between trad and sport climbing.

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Trad Climbing

Different Types of Rock Climbing - Trad Placement — An example of one type of trad gear, called a cam. For more on this, check out our article on trad gear.

In Trad climbing the lead climber carries and places all gear necessary to protect against falls. Generally, a following climber will then remove the gear once a section of climbing (commonly called a “pitch”) is completed by the lead climber. Before the advent of sport climbing in the 1980’s, pretty much all free climbing was trad climbing. While the gear and ethics have changed over time, the basic premise remains the same: the climber ascends a rock face carrying all their own protective gear. As they climb they place pieces of protection into a crack or hole in the rock. Then they attach a carabiner to the protection piece and then their rope clips through the carabiner. This way, if they were to fall, their last piece of protection would stop them from falling to the ground.

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Different Types of Rock Climbing - Trad Climbing — A trad climber has placed a piece of protection in the rock and clipped his rope into the attached carabiner. He will now continue climbing above this piece of protection until he places another piece. Photo Credit: Ryan Tuttle Photography

Looking for trad gear? Check out: A Guide to Building Your Trad Rack

Sport Climbing

Sport Climbing is a type of climbing that involves clipping your rope into permanent bolts that are drilled into the rock as protection against falling. Sport climbing focuses on climbing move sequences across rock that couldn’t be protected with removable trad gear because of a lack of cracks, holes, etc. in which to place removable (trad) protection. Because the bolts are pre-drilled, sport climbers only need to carry quickdraws (a piece of webbing connecting two carabiners) to attach their rope to the bolts.

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Top Rope Climbing

Different Types of Rock climbing - Top Rope — An example of top roping. You can see the rope coming from the belayer on the left. It goes up to an anchor at the top of the rock, and back down to the climber on the right. Photo Credit: Ryan Tuttle Photography

Top Rope climbing involves setting up an anchor at the top of a climb and running the climbing rope through the anchor and back to the ground. A belayer holds one side of the rope and takes up slack as the climber, attached to the other side of the rope, moves upward. The climber can safely let go of the rock at any point and the rope will catch them, assuming the belayer is doing their job properly. Building a top rope anchor can incorporate bolts, trad gear, or even trees and boulders. It’s a safe way for beginners to experience climbing while more advanced climbers might top rope in order to practice a route they want to lead climb. Top roping is very popular at indoor gyms and is a great introduction to roped climbing.

Unroped Free Climbing

Unroped free climbing is climbing without ropes to protect against falls. It comes in two main categories: bouldering and free soloing.

Bouldering

Bouldering is unroped free climbing that takes place on rocks and walls that are low to the ground, so that the risk from falls is minimal. Whether practiced outdoors or indoors at a climbing gym, there are usually soft pads called “crash pads” at the base of the climb to protect climbers if they fall. Especially when climbing outdoors, boulderers also have other people (called “spotters”) help guide them onto the crash pads in case of a fall. It’s probably the most popular style of climbing today because of the minimal amount of gear it requires.

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Free Soloing

Alex Honnold Free Solo — Alex Honnold free soloing El Capitan

Free Soloing has recently been made famous by climbers like Alex Honnold, although it’s been practiced among climbers for a long time. During a free solo ascent, a climber uses only their hands and feet on the rock as protection against falls. Because free soloing is so dangerous, most practitioners only free solo climbs that they’ve practiced while roped many times.