Safety

Let's start with safety. Of course, I'm not the first to talk about this subject. In fact, I'm not even the first in Professor Newman's Physics 211 to talk about it. So, for our first source here, we'll use Samantha Davis, a student who made her web project on "The Physics of Climbing Anchors" in the Fall 2010 semester. Thanks Samantha!

There are two main types of climbing, top roping and lead climbing. Top roping, perhaps the safest form of climbing, involves climbing on a rope that is clipped or looped at the top of the wall, and then comes down to a belayer. In this method, you never fall far before your belayer catches you, (assuming they're attentive) and always have lots of line out to absorb any falls (see fall factor coming up). Lead climbing on the other hand involves clipping the rope into bolted anchors as you climb. In this form of climbing, your clip is usually beneath you, as you work towards the next clipping point. In this scenario, you will fall twice as far as the amount of rope you have to the clip below you. Worse yet, if you are close to your belayer, you won't have much line out to absorb the fall.

Leaving Samantha for a moment, climbingtechniques.org provides an excellent article on something called fall factor. Fall factor is simple: it's the ratio of the height of the fall to the amount of rope available to absorb the fall, or mathematically:

Fall Factor = (Height of Fall)/(Length of Rope)

This is visualized in the image below, where h is the height of the fall and L is length of the rope. Note that the case on the left has a worse (larger) fall factor.


Image from Wikipedia Commons

The worst case scenario is known as a factor two fall. This occurs when there are no clips or other gear between the climber and the belayer. If the climber falls, they will fall twice the distance as the length of the rope available to absorb the fall. See the image below.


Image from climbingtechniques.org

For more information on fall factor and how to reduce it, check out South East's article "Understanding Fall Factors". For information on safe anchor building and hundreds of other valuable climbing tips, check out the climbing techniques website. Both are linked in the Resources.

Climbing Ratings
Climbing routes are labeled by difficultly. There's a lot of different systems for rating, mostly based on location. Below is a table showing common rating systems.


Image credit: "Reporting climbing grades and grouping categories for rock climbing." Draper, et al.

The rating is generally based on the most difficult move in the route, along with the required endurance.

I've given various climbing tips throughout the rest of the website, and I won't restate them all here. I actually want you to read the rest of this, sorry to say. Read on.