Rock climbing began as early as the 1700’s, mostly as training for larger alpine and mountaineering goals. Eventually it was seen as a sport in its own right. At first the goal of rock climbing was simply to ascend to the top of a rock face through any means necessary. This included hanging or pulling on gear that was drilled or hammered into the rock. As climbing gear improved, climbers began focusing on using only their hands and feet on natural features of the rock to move upwards. Over the past 3 centuries, different types of rock climbing have begun to emerge—including trad climbing, sport climbing, top roping, free soloing, and bouldering.
to learn more about climbing...Traditional climbing, or trad climbing, as it has come to be known, is effectively the oldest form of competitive climbing, which began to separate from the emerging sports climbing scene sometime in the 80s. While there are several different forms of the discipline, trad climbing generally refers to climbing where all of the protective gear is placed while climbing on lead, instead of while rappelling which is more common in sports climbing.
Trad Climbing 101