Climbing Jargon Quiz

Multiple Choice:
1. What is an Arete?
A. The outside corner of real rock or a climbing wall.
B. The French word for your tie in points.
C. A city in Italy.
2. What is a climbing Anchor?
A. A point either fixed or removable generally at the top of your climb.
( Always clip the anchors wit the gates apposing.)
B. A heavy weight thrown off the side of a boat while deep water soloing.
(Gives you a point of reference of where to swim back to.)
C. The person at the end of the rope for a tug-a-war.
What does it mean to Backstep?
A. To flag behind your drive foot?
B. To press your shoes external edge onto a foothold.
C. A fancy dance move.
3. What is Belaying?
A. To be laying down while watching another climber ascend the wall.
B. To secure the rope while a partner is climbing using a device that
introduces friction into the rope system.
C. To climb with a partner.
4. What is Beta?
A. Specific description of a sequencing and or general information of a climb.
B. The type of fish Coach Becca has at her apartment.
C. The weakest climber in a group
5. What does it mean to Chicken Wing while climbing a route?
A. To do the chicken dance when you get to the finish of a route.
B. To jam your elbow horizontally or upward because you are so tired.
C. To flail your arms around when climbing
6. What is a Chimney?
A. A crack so wide and deep that your can crawl inside and climb between its
two walls.
B. A type of climbing where you spider-monkey the way up the wall.
7. What type of hold is a Crimp?
A. A type of hairstyle that girls wear to make them lighter when they climb.
B. A small edge that you may only be able to fit the pads of your fingers on.
8. What is the Crux of a route?
A. When a hold breaks off a route and is no longer climbable.
B. A route or problems most difficult sequence or harder sequences.
9. What does it mean to Deadpoint?
A. The point at the up most extension, which is achieved by a dynamic move
upward.
B. A magazine subscription.
C. The most comfortable spot on a really bad climbing hold.

10. What is a Dihedral?

A. A boulder shaped like an octagon.
B. The corner of the wall/ the same thing as an arte.
C. The inside corner of a wall/ an inside-out arte.
11. What type of climbing is Bouldering?
A. Lead climbing on a wall that is lower than 30 feet high.
B. Crack climbing in which the climber places their own gear.
C. Climbing low to the ground without a rope.
12. What is a Dyno?
A. A dynamic move in which the climbers hands and feet come off the wall.
B. A big move that can easily injure a climber.
C. The hardest move in a route.
13. What does it mean to Flag?
A. A technique used to get your belayers attention when climbing.
B. To place your foot out on the wall to help maintain balance.
C. To have too much slack out when belaying.
14. What does it mean to Flash a route?
A. Sending a route first try with no beta.
B. Sending a route for the first time with beta.
C. Completing a route with only one fall or take.
15. What is a Gaston?
A. A crimp turned upside down.
B. The bad guy in Beauty and the Beast.
C. Grabbing a hold with your palms out, thumbs down, and pushing instead of
pulling.
16. What is a Heel-Hook?
A. A climbing injury in which the ankle is turned out to the side.
B. A kind of climbing shoe that has extra protection in the heel of the shoe.
C. Placing your heel on a hold and pulling.
17. What does it mean to High-Step?
A. To accidentally kick your belayer when climbing.
B. To bring your foot high and stand up using your toe.
C. To climb above the anchors.
18. What is being Double-Backed?
A. A climber who climbs with two ropes.
B. A harness that has been secured manually (or automatically) to prevent the
harness from coming off.
C. A harness that has extra padding or webbing to prevent tearing.
19. What type of hold is a Jug?
A. A hold so incut and hand-friendly, its the easiest kind of hold to hang onto.
B. A hold so bad you want to throw a jug at it.
C. A hold that is shaped like a milk jug.

20. What does it mean to Kneebar?

A. To wear knee pads while you climb to protect your legs from scrapes and
scratches.
B. To use a leg hold made possible by cramming your knee up against another
hold or feature.
C. To grab your knee mid climb in order to gain balance.
21. What is a Lieback?
A. To lean horizontally off a hold and walk your feet up high in opposition.
B. To be able to lay down on a ledge while climbing outside.
C. To have to lean back while belaying to look at your climber.
22. What is Sport Climbing?
A. Climbing only crack systems.
B. Competition style climbing.
C. Free climbing while clipping your rope into fixed protection (bolts) on vertical,
or overhanging walls.
23. When do you use a Floor Anchor?
A. While toprope climbing with someone who weighs a lot more than you do.
B. When your lead climber is trying a really hard route.
C. When you want to look like the coolest climber in the gym.
24. When do you use a Sandbag?
A. When you want to prevent your toprope belayer from wandering around.
B. When you want to look like the coolest climber in the gym.
C. When your lead climber is heavier than you are.
25. What is a Mantel?
A. When you press specifically the heel of your palm down on a ledge or boulder
lip in order to rock over your foot.
B. When you press specifically with your fingertips to make it to the next hold.
C. When you climb something that looks like the shelf above your fireplace.
26. What does it mean to On-sight a route?
A. To see a route from a distance and call dibs to be the first one to climb.
B. To climb a route on your first try with no prior knowledge of the beta.
C. To climb a route on your second try with no prior knowledge of the beta.
27. What type of hold is a pocket?
A. A hold that you can fit into your pocket.
B. A hold that is hollowed out so that you can only fit a couple fingers into.
C. A giant whole in the wall that a climber can climb into and rest.
28. What does it mean to be Pumped?
A. The feeling a climber has when they wear shoes that are too small.
B. The tight feeling a climber experiences in their forearms after trying really
hard.
C. When a climber is super excited to send a project.

29. What is a Quickdraw?

A. A nylon runner with a loop on each end to accommodate a carabiner used to
clip the rope into protection.
B. When a climber pulls too much rope out when climbing.
C. The shortest amount of time it takes a climber to send a route.
30. What does it mean to Red-point a route?
A. To climb a route without falling after as many tries as it takes.
B. To mark all the hold on the route with a red dot.
C. To climb a route without falling after only three tries.
31. What type of hold is a Sloper?
A. A downsloping hold that relies on skin friction and an open hand grip.
B. Any hold that is on a slab route.
C. A wet hold.
32. What does it mean to Smear your feet?
A. To have sloppy footwork when climbing.
B. To get a whole in your climbing shoes.
C. To place your forefoot on the wall and not a specific hold.
33. What does it mean to Stem?
A. To use plants and branches as holds while climbing outside.
B. To splay your legs across both walls of a dihedral or to otherwise enter the
splits position while climbing.
C. To have the end of your rope be unsealed so you can see all the strands of the
core and sheath of your rope.
34. What type of hold is an Undercling?
A. Any hold that is underneath the climbers feet.
B. A hold that is hidden from view underneath a large feature.
C. A hold that is incut on the underside and grabbed with the palms up.
35. What is an Overhang?
A. A wall that is less than 90 degrees and extends out over the climber.
B. A hold found above the anchors.
C. A climber that is climbing above the quickdraw.
36. What is the difference between a route and a problem?
A. One is fun and the other is boring.
B. One is rope climbing and the other is bouldering.
C. One is difficult and the other is easy.
37. What is the V-Scale?
A. Model used to determine how difficult a boulder problem is.
B. Scale that evaluates how long a route is.
C. Scale that compares how difficult the approach to a specific climb is.
38. What is the Yosemite Decimal System?
A. A climbing gear brand.
B. System that mathematicians use in Yosemite.
C. System used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs.

39. *What does it mean to Backclip?

A. To clip the rope backwards in the draw so the climbers rope is closest to the
wall.
B. To clip the rope into the draw while facing away from the wall.
C. To belay with your carabiner upside down.
40. *What does it mean to Z-Clip?
A. Clipping with so much chalk on your hands, a Z mark is left on the wall.
B. Pulling up rope so fast the rope looks like a Z.
C. When the climber pulls up rope to clip, from underneath the last clipped
quickdraw, leaving the rope looking like a Z.
41. *What is an appropriate Clipping Stance?
A. Clipping from so far underneath the quickdraw, the climber cannot reach it.
B. Having at least 2 points of contact on the wall, feeling relaxed, secure, and
balanced.
C. Clipping from above the quickdraw.
42. *What is practicing good Rope Awareness?
A. Making sure the rope is not caught, tangled, or damaged while climbing and/or
belaying.
B. Purposefully placing the rope behind your foot while climbing.
C. Purposefully standing on the rope while belaying.
43. *What is practicing good Rope Maintenance?
A. Insuring the rope is in good condition prior to climbing, switching the ends,
and routinely checking for damaged spots.
B. Climbing and falling on the same end of the rope every time.
C. Throwing your rope in the washing machine with soap and letting it dry in
direct sunlight.
44. What does it mean to Take?
A. To take a whipper from the roof.
B. To take off running away from a climb because it looks so terrible.
C. What the climber asks for when they need to weight the rope without falling.
45. What does it mean to go In-Direct?
A. To go directly to Becca when you are done with this quiz.
B. To clip your belay loop into the next piece of protection in case of emergency.
C. To indirectly insult your climber by asking them if they want the first two
draws stick clipped.
Short Answer:
46. What does a proper Double Check include?

47. Why is it important to keep your break hand on the rope?