Smearing
Encyclopedia
Smearing in rock climbing
is the practice of using as much as possible of the surface of the sole of a shoe against a flat rock face. This is done to maximize the amount of friction between the rock and the shoe. Smearing can be one of the most insecure and technical techniques used in climbing, requiring a combination of leg/ankle tension, foot placement, and good balance. It is frequently used on slabs, and in other situations with sparse or sloping footholds.
Smearing can be one of the techniques with which novice climbers are least confident - however, it is crucial to learn how to smear properly at an early stage, as it tends to help in the development of a more elegant and less tiring style of climbing whereby a greater amount of weight is placed on the feet, and less on the arms and hands.
Types of rock on which smearing can prove particularly useful include gritstone
, granite
and sandstone
.
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
is the practice of using as much as possible of the surface of the sole of a shoe against a flat rock face. This is done to maximize the amount of friction between the rock and the shoe. Smearing can be one of the most insecure and technical techniques used in climbing, requiring a combination of leg/ankle tension, foot placement, and good balance. It is frequently used on slabs, and in other situations with sparse or sloping footholds.
Smearing can be one of the techniques with which novice climbers are least confident - however, it is crucial to learn how to smear properly at an early stage, as it tends to help in the development of a more elegant and less tiring style of climbing whereby a greater amount of weight is placed on the feet, and less on the arms and hands.
Types of rock on which smearing can prove particularly useful include gritstone
Gritstone
Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...
, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
.