Answer

By Anonymous

Learning about route descriptions is an essential skill for safe travel in the mountains – if you don’t understand a given description of your chosen route, you could end up in over your head.

Crux
Another word for the most difficult part of the climb. The technical crux is the hardest physical move and the psychological crux is the more worrying section to lead. These may not necessarily be in the same place on a route.

Crack
A fissure in the rock that can range from a small hairline to one wide enough to take a scrambler’s body. Most descriptions will specify if it’s thin or wide.

Dièdre
A French word for corner that’s used internationally.

Escapable
Describes a climb or route which can easily be abandoned for less difficult terrain.

Exposure
A term used to describe space below your feet, your height above the ground and the steepness of the rock.

Flake
A flake is a thin slab of rock, often detached from the main rock face. This can vary from a huge feature to a tiny piece of rock.

Girdle traverse
A route that crosses a cliff or face from one side to the other.

Groove
An open feature very similar to a corner, but could be at a more acute angle, as in a V groove.

Gully
A large fault up a cliff.

Hanging stance
A belay location where there is no ledge to stand or sit on, so the belayer must hang from the anchors.

Layback
A method of climbing a crack or an edge in which your hands grip and pull in one direction while your feet press against the rock in the opposite, setting up opposing forces.

Ledge
A flat area of any size on a cliff face.

Niche
A recess (generally quite small).

Nose
A protruding mass of rock which can range from something very small to a few hundred metres in size.

Offwidth
The term used to describe a crack that’s wider than your fist but too narrow to allow the whole body. Normally this kind of feature is strenuous and awkward to climb.

Overgraded
If a route has been overgraded it means it’s actually easier than its given grade.

Overhang
A piece of rock beyond the vertical or even a sudden protrusion. They are sometimes very hard, or even impossible, to climb. However, some are surprisingly easy to negotiate.

Overlap
An overhang that is not horizontal but very well defined. Overlaps are most common on granite slabs.

Ramp
A diagonal slab running at an angle across a face.

Recess
A small shallow cave, whereas a sentry box is a narrower recess in a rock face.

Ridge
The crest where two rock faces meet. A knife-edge is simply a sharp ridge.

Rib
A slender neck of rock.

Roof
An overhang that juts out more or less horizontally.

Shelf
A small platform or ledge.

Stance
The place on a climb where it is possible to sit or stand with reasonable comfort.

Terrace
A long, wide ledge on a rock face.