Rock-climbing equipment

Rock-climbing equipment varies with the specific type of climbing that is being undertaken by the climber. Bouldering needs the least equipment: climbing shoes, climbing chalk and optional crash pads. Sport climbing adds ropes, harnesses, belay devices, and quickdraws which clip into pre-drilled permanently-fixed bolts on the rock face. Traditional climbing adds the need to carry a "rack" of temporary and removable passive and active [|protection devices]. Multi-pitch climbing, and the related big wall climbing, adds devices to assist in ascending and descending static fixed ropes. Finally, aid climbing uses unique equipment to give mechanical assistance to the climber in their upward movement.
Advances in rock-climbing equipment design and manufacture are a key part of the rock climbing history, starting with the climbing rope. Modern rock-climbing devices enable climbers to perform tasks that were previously done manually, but with greater control – in all conditions – and with less effort. Examples of such replacements include the harness, the carabiner, the descender/abseil device, the ascender, the belay device, and nuts/hexes.
Modern rock-climbing equipment includes dynamic ropes, plyometric training tools, advanced spring-loaded camming devices for protection, and advanced rope control devices such as self-locking devices, progress capture devices, and assisted braking devices. Modern equipment uses advanced materials that are increasingly more durable, stronger, and weigh less than traditional equipment. The equipment must meet specific quantitative standards for strength, durability, and reliability, and must be certified and tested against such standards with individual pieces of equipment carrying such certification marks.

Use and certification

Type of climbing

The rock-climbing equipment needed varies materially depending on the type of rock climbing being undertaken. Starting from the least equipment-intensive type of climbing, the general equipment needs are as follows:

Free solo climbing, and its deep-water soloing variant, require the least equipment as no climbing protection or ropes are used. Equipment is generally limited to climbing shoes and chalk with a chalk bag.
Bouldering, and its competition bouldering variant, uses the same basic equipment of free soloing but with the optional addition of bouldering mats, which are also called crash mats or crash pads.
Top rope climbing, and its competition speed climbing variant, adds a rope, harness, and belay device. The rope is hung prior to the climb from the anchor point at the top, typically by carabiners, slings, or cord, or some combination thereof.
Sport climbing, and its competition lead climbing variant, adds quickdraws that are clipped into the pre-drilled on-site bolts while the climber is lead climbing the route. No additional climbing protection is needed.
Traditional climbing requires most of the equipment of the above disciplines but with the addition of extensive climbing protection equipment, which the climber will insert while lead climbing the route. The weight of the extra protection may require a stronger harness or a [|gear sling].
Multi-pitch climbing, which can be done in sport or traditional formats, requires added rope devices like ascenders and descenders for moving up and down fixed-ropes. The big wall variant requires heavy-duty rope devices for carrying more gear such as portaledges and provisions, which are carried in [|haul bags].
Rope solo climbing is done in many formats, and needs an extensive range of rope devices as every pitch needs to be solo climbed, descended back down, and then re-ascended. The simpler variant of top rope solo climbing, only requires the SLDs.
Aid climbing, and its clean aid climbing variant, is usually done in a traditional format and also more likely on multi-pitch and big wall routes. In addition to the standard equipment for such routes, aid climbing uses specialist equipment such as aiders and [|daisy chains], as well as hammers for pitons and copperheads.
Certification

Rock-climbing equipment is broadly classed as Personal Protective Equipment. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation was an important early body—and the only body pre-1995—in setting standards for climbing equipment. The UIAA Safety Commission continues to play a central worldwide role in this area. The European Committee for Standardization is also an important major regulatory body for PPE, and which works closely with the UIAA Safety Commission through its CEN Working Group for Mountaineering Equipment.
North America has fewer specific regulations as rock-climbing equipment is not classed as military or professional PPE and thus does not fall under the American Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations; in effect, the UIAA and CEN have become the most important bodies for setting standards and regulating rock-climbing equipment worldwide, and most major manufacturers, and distributors, produce equipment certified and stamped with UIAA and CE marking. After the United Kingdom left the European Union, it adopted the UKCA certification in place of the CEN.

Ropes and slings

Ropes

Modern climbing ropes are in length—the longer versions are for multi-pitch climbing—and have a kernmantle construction consisting of a core kern of twisted nylon fibers and an outer sheath mantle of woven colored coarse nylon fibers. They are either dynamic ropes, which can stretch to absorb the energy of a falling climber, or are the less expensive but more hard-wearing static ropes, which are only for use in constant-load situations such as descending and ascending.
Some climbers will use a single full-thickness climbing rope with a diameter of approximately, and some will use double ropes, or "half-ropes", to reduce rope drag, which have a reduced thickness of approximately to limit the weight of the extra rope. Twin roping uses two thinner ropes, typically in thickness, which are both clipped into each protection point. Twin roping is thus not used for reducing rope drag, but to have a backup rope on long climbs.

Slings

Modern webbing is made of strong tubular nylon or the even stronger spectra/dyneema material. Climbers use webbing that has been sewn using a certified standard of reinforced stitching into various lengths of closed loops called "slings". They can be used in a wide range of situations, including wrapping around sections of rock for abseiling, creating belay anchors, or as passive protection, or tied to other equipment—often via carabiners—to create a longer version of a quickdraw or a makeshift lanyard.
Slings can be made into more complex pieces of equipment such as the [|daisy chain], which is used in aid climbing, and the personal anchor system, which is used in securing a climber to a fixed anchor point.

Cords

While lengths of webbing can be tied via a knot, such as a water knot, to create custom-length loops instead of the pre-sewn fixed-length slings, their load-bearing capacity can be materially reduced making them less safe. Climbers instead use cord, which is a length of thinner approximately static kernmantle rope, tied via a double fisherman's knot into closed loops of any size.
Cord loops serve a wide variety of functions in rock climbing. Uses include creating friction prusik knots for ascending or gripping fixed climbing ropes, usually using thinner approximately cord, or for attaching to, and equalizing forces across, multiple fixed anchors points, such as when setting up abseil or belay anchors on multi-pitch climbing routes, usually using thicker approximately cord.

Rope connectors

Several modern pieces of rope connecting equipment help climbers to securely attach items to the climbing rope, such as themselves via a modern climbing harness, or their various protection devices via modern carabiners and quickdraws. Before the invention of these pieces of rope-connecting equipment, climbers used alternative techniques such as looping the rope around the body instead of a harness and looping the rope around various rocks as a form of protection. In addition to these early techniques, climbers also used various climbing knots to tie ropes and anchor points together, which are now all replaced by rope-connecting equipment such as carabiners.

Carabiners

are closed metal clips with spring-loaded gates that are used as connectors between the rope and various devices. Modern carabiners are made from a lightweight but strong aluminum alloy that can withstand the load of a fall. Carabiners come in various shapes, with the asymmetric/offset D-shape being the most common, and gate styles. A particular variation is whether the gate is locking, which gives extra security when belaying but makes the carabiner heavier and slightly tricker to clip into, or non-locking, which is the easiest to clip into and out of for example when leading a bolted sport climbing route but with the risk that the gate may unintentionally open.

Harnesses

es are used for connecting the rope to the climber via a "belay loop" on the harness. Harnesses are made of strong materials to specific strength guidelines that can withstand the load of a major fall. There are many types of harness designs and materials used depending on the type of climbing undertaken. Examples include minimal "sit" harnesses for sport climbing as they require little in the way of gear-carrying loops, lightweight and detachable leg-loop harnesses for alpine climbing that fit around heaving winter clothing, padded harnesses for big wall climbing that give comfort for hanging belays and abseils, and chest/full-body harnesses for children or carrying heavy loads.

Lanyards

s are much longer versions of quickdraws that attach from a harness to a rope. The difference is that lanyards are much stronger than quickdraws and are capable of withstanding fall factors of 2 as found on via ferrata or on multi-pitch climbing routes. They are often made from materials that can absorb dynamic energy and often come with additional optional fall energy absorption devices, and lanyards that have had heavy falls often have to be discarded. Lanyards are also constructed to be sufficiently flexible to resist being twisted.