Climbing Fundamentals

To define modern rock climbing is both easy and impossible. If you look at all the people who climb and call them a group, then what the majority of that group is doing is modern rock climbing. By this mainstream affiliation, the definition of "modern" will lean toward bolt-protected face climbing. If you look at all the people who climb and call them individuals, then what each climber is doing is modern rock climbing. One million climbers practice one million versions of the activity. We will largely use the first definition of modern rock climbing, while recognizing the second as an example of the freedom that makes climbing so diverse and appealing.

The Basics of Technical Rock Climbing
Rock climbing is becoming a specialized sport. Crag climbing is no longer necessarily a method of training for the big walls or for the great epics in mountaineering. Rock climbing is a valid pursuit of its own. Some of the most difficult and most popular climbs in the world are less than 40 feet long. And climbers now often focus their energies only on pure power, almost with the intensity of Olympic athletics.