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A Lifetime of training, ten seconds of glory.  Michael Johnson, Olympian

Climbing Lingo

Lieback - climbing move where the hands pull on one side of a crack and the feet push against the other.  Very useful for climbing corners

Letter -Box - a deep rectangle pocket with a narrow opening.  Also called a mail slot

Lead - to climb a route from bottom to top with out weighting the rope (misused when said "I lead a route" but you weighted the rope

Manky - almost worthless

Mantle - from "mantle shelf" to grab a hold above your head and press down on it as you lever your body upward

Match - to grasp the same hold with both hands

Mono - a pocket that only accepts one finger

Natural gear - non permanent protection that you place yourself

Nuts - nuts are small  wedged shaped metal devices that are temporarily placed in cracks in the rock to provide protection

Offwidth - a crack wider than a fist width but narrower than a squeeze chimney

Onsight - when a route is climbed with no falls and absolutely no prior information about the route other than the grade . You only get one chance to onsight a route

Paste - to indiscriminately slap afoot wherever it is needed for upward progress

Pile - a unappealing rock or route

Pinch - a hold that is grasped with your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other

Pocket - a hole in the rock

Pop - a short dynamic move or a fall

Pro - short for protection. removable or permanent equipment placed in the rock which keeps you from hitting the ground

Radtastic - Combining  radical and fantastic

Redpoint - climbing a route from bottom to top in one push placing your own pro or quickdraws, and not being supported by anything other than the rock.  Coined by Kurt Albert, he would place a red dot at the beginning of every route that he had climbed in this manner

Rope gun - a partner who is a much better climber than you and can consequently lead routes that you would like to do but lack the skill or courage for

Rose move - an extreme cross-through; the climbers body is rotated to the point where he is almost facing out from the rock

Screamer - a long fall

Scumming - a tenuous, ill-defined method of gaining purchase on the rock

Sharp end - the end of the rope used by the leader

Sinker - a very deep pocket or hold

Slab - rock that is less than vertical

Sloper - a rounded hold adhered to mainly by skin friction

Smearing - climbing with obscure footholds where climbers "smear" the soles of their shoes over as much rock surface as possible to get optimal adhesion

Snag - to struggle for and just barely grab a hold

Spotter - a person attempting to keep a boulders body from hitting the ground in the event of a fall

Stick-clip - to clip an out of reach bolt with a stick

Super-cash - a route or move that is super easy.  As in super casual

Take - the code word that tells the belayer to reel in rope and hold the climber

Toss - to dynamically reach for a hold with a slight overtone of out of control climbing

Trad - a climber who prefers climbing on protection that he places himself 

Trundle - to send rocks down off a route or hillside

Tweak , Tweaked - injury or damage to something like a rope or a tendon

V - grade - an open ended system for rating boulder problems.  Named after John "the Verman" Sherman

Vitamin A - ibuprofen (Advil product)

Whipper - a long or violent fall where the climber hits the end of the rope and is snapped like the head on a whip

Wire - a wired nut

​Wired - to have it totally figured out

Aggro - short for aggressive

Aid - use of gear to support all or 

        part of a climbers weight

Barndoor - by losing your balance ,

one side of your body will swing into

space

Belay slave - someone who is motivated to belay you out of devotion or guilt

Beta - information about a route , ranging from gear to movement sequences 

Bomber - great placement or great handhold

Campus board - a training device consisting of pockets rounded edges and crimps mounted ladder-like on a piece of wood or some other composite

Cash - easy route or move.  As in casual 

Choss - loose rock

Cleaning - removal of loose rock , debris , vegetation , or lichen on a route

​Cling grip - hand position midway between a crimp and an open hand, where the fingers are bent at 90 degrees

Cord - rope

Crank - to pull very hard

Crimper - a hold requires you to crimp your fingers in order to use it. To crimp a piece of steel is to bend it back on itself

Cross through - put both hands above your head , then reach one across your body so your arm is against your chest.

Crux - the hardest part or move of a climb

Dead hang - to hang straight arms so the weight comes on the skeleton rather than muscles

Dead point - at the apex of every dynamic move there is a moment when all motion stops , a dead point in space

Dicey - dangerously sketchy

Dollys - two round handholds close in proximity.  Named after Dolly Parton

Draw monkey - a person you can convince to lead a route and place the gear

​Drop knee - a position where one knee points towards the ground and the other towards the sky

Dyno - short for "dynamic move" basically a jump for a hold

Elvis leg - when a climber stands on usually a small hold too long and their leg starts shaking , also known as sewing machine leg

Finger lock - a portion of a crack that tappers sufficiently to accommodate a climbers fingers with some or no effort and locks in place

Fixed pro - any gear that is left in the rock for future use, including nuts , bolts 

Flapper - a piece of detached skin

Flash - to climb a route first try without physically touching it 

Gaston - try pulling open a elevator door with your bare hands, now try it on a route. Can be done with one or two hands. Named after the climbing stud Gaston Rebuffat

Ghetto - unpleasant, foul , weird

Grades - an attempt to quantify a large amount of information into one small package

Greasy - slimy or slippery

Gripped - extremely scary

Hand crack - an opening in a rock that is either horizontal or vertical 

Hand traverse - climbing laterally on rock 

Hang - to hang one's body weight on the rope

Hanging belay - a belay stance with no place to stand which means the belayer has to hang off gear

​Heel hook - hooking your heel on a protrusion to take weight off your arms

Hooking - a type of aid climbing where the climber hangs a small metal hook on a rock edge then hangs from it and prays it will hold

Hosed - screwed

​Hueco - a pocket or hole in the rock

Jamming ​- a technique for climbing cracks where the hands/or feet are stuffed inside the crack to facilitate upward progress.

Knee bar - sometimes its possible to get a no hands rest by jamming a knee against something with counter pressure against your foot