Bouldering – Wikipedia

The bouldering O messy ^[first] It is a climbing activity on boulders, natural or artificial, born around the seventies. ^[2] The English name derives from English boulder , that is, a boulder that can have different sizes and that offers climbable walls.

The bouldering It consists in climbing (up to a maximum of about 7-8 meters) to solve particular sequences of concatenated and dynamic movements, generally few (8-10), but extremely difficult. THE boulder particularly high are called highball and they can be considered practically free solo .

Among the forerunners of the bouldering There is Oscar Eckenstein (1859-1921), an English rock with extraordinary athletic skills, ^[3] And it is precisely to the British that we owe the term bouldering .

In addition to the United Kingdom, at the end of the nineteenth century there are notes of activities of bouldering also in France and Italy. ^[3] For many years this activity was considered as a sort of training for mountaineers.

In the 1930s and 1940s Pierre Allain (the creator of the smooth shoes PA) began to practice the bouldering End of himself in Fontainebleau, now by many considered as the homeland of this activity.

The first rock that made its primary activity (in the 1950s) was John Gill, a sportsman who applied the principles of gymnastics to rock climbing. ^[4]

Starting from the 70s the bouldering It became a mature and strongly practiced activity, helping to create and solve problems of considerable level and helping to push the difficulty scale forward. One of the best known supporters of this sporting practice was Gian Carlo Grassi in those years, who in his book Sassism space for fantasy Censì and described many streets on the erratic boulders of the low Susa valley. ^[5]

Today the bouldering It is a specific discipline of sport climbing and there are many events that include both indoor and outdoor races.

In addition, in recent years the practice of Buildering has arisen, a word that derives from English building , construction; In fact, this variant is nothing more than bouldering practiced on structures built by man such as bridges, buildings and other artificial structures.

The technique used for the bouldering It is basically the same as sports climbing. The climbing style is based on small sequences of dynamic moves and strength, while traditional climbing is based on greater lengths and therefore more on the resistance. The very short routes on the boulders are generally defined as “problems”. The act of solving a “problem” is also carried out as training. These short lengths are faced by some as training to increase strength and resistance. Often the “problem” is repeated, even many times, to get the body used to certain automatisms.

The difference with classic climbing consists in the fact that, missing an insurance, mattresses are used (called crash pad ) to cushion the falls.
Crash pads can be built with different materials and may have different measures. The most common are in rigid gums and have a thickness ranging from 8 to 10 centimeters and, when open, they cover a fall space of about 1 meter per 1 meter and a half. Usually there are a more rigid and thin layer, oriented upwards, whose task is to distribute the energy of the impact on a larger surface possible, and a relatively soft layer whose task is to dissipate the forces transmitted by First layer.
They are often equipped with shoulder straps so that they can be transported to a backpack.

It is positioned below the block that must be addressed by the athlete, to partially cushion a possible fall of the same. Very often multiple crash pads are used at the same time, especially when the ground below the boulder from boulder is particularly rough and therefore dangerous in case of fall.

It is essential to take into account the fact that the use of this tool, although in many cases effective, is not absolutely sufficient to guarantee the total safety of the boulderists. In fact, it is essential, next to the use of crash pad , the role of spotter , people specially positioned under the block ready to parry the possible fall prevent the climber from ending up impacting the ground outside the mattresses.

The case of the highball , huge boulders above 8 meters high whose climbs almost more resemble free only. For example Ambrosia 15 m. she 29 dots of 14. ^[6]

The bouldering It has its own difficulties of difficulty: the most used are Hueco and Fontainebleau (the latter used in Italy) ^[7] . The Fontainebleau scale uses names similar to the degrees of the French sports climbing scale (numbers followed by letters) but compared to this the difficulty are greater (an 8th of boulder It is much more difficult than an 8th street). To underline the difference, the Fontainebleau scale uses capital letters.

The following table indicates the degrees of difficulty of the Fontainebleau and Hueco stairs, and in the last column a comparison value with the French sports climbing scale.

Comparative table of difficulties
Bouldering		Sports climbing
Fontainebleau	Gap	French
4	V0	6a
4+	V0+	6B
5	V1	6C
5+	V2	6C+
6a	V3	7A
6a+	V3/4	7A/7A+
6B	V4	7A+/7B
6B+	V4/5	7B
6C	V5	7B/7B+
6C+	V5/6	7B+
7A	V6	7B+/7C
7A+	V7	7c
7B	V8	7c+/8a
7B+	V8 / 9	8a+
7c	V9	8b/8b+
7c+	V10	8c
8A	V11	8C+
8A+	V12	9A
8B	V13	9A+
8B+	V14	9B
8c	V15	9B+
8C+	V16	9c
9A	V17

The competitions of boulder They take place on artificial structures that resemble natural boulders, but usually reproduce only one side, that facing the public. The regulation provides for the departure and arrival on compulsory sockets:

• it start are the departure sockets
• The top are the arrival sockets
• the zone are the intermediate sockets for a further score

Competitions take place at national, European and world level. We play:

In the world [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Among the largest sites of bouldering in the world:

• Australia
• Austria
• Canada
• France
• Great Britain
• India
• Spain
• United States of America
• South Africa
• Swiss

In Italy [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Among the largest sites of bouldering in Italy: