Traditional climbing

Traditional climbing (or trad climbing) is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber places the protection equipment while ascending the route; when the lead climber has completed the route, the second climber (or belayer) then removes the protection equipment as they climb the route.^[1] Traditional climbing differs from sport climbing where the protection equipment is pre-drilled into the rock in the form of bolts.^[2]

Traditional climbing carries a much higher level of risk than bolted sport climbing as the climber may not have placed the protection equipment correctly as they try to ascend the route, or there may be few opportunities to insert satisfactory protection (e.g. on very difficult routes). Traditional climbing was once the dominant form of free climbing but since the mid-1980s, sport climbing — and its related form of competition climbing — became more popular, and all subsequent grade milestones from 8a+ (5.13c) onwards were on sport climbing routes.

From the early 2000s, there was a resurgence in interest in traditional climbing as climbers began greenpointing sport routes (e.g. Greenspit and The Path at 8b+), and setting new milestones for traditional routes (e.g. Cobra Crack at 8c (5.14b) by Sonnie Trotter, and Rhapsody at 8c+ (5.14c) by Dave MacLeod). Female climber Beth Rodden created a new traditional route at the same level as the men with Meltdown also at 8c+ (5.14c). In 2019, Jacopo Larcher created what is considered the first 9a (5.14d) graded traditional route with Tribe.