orality in climbing.

I've been thinking a lot lately about rock climbing. It is still too snowy and wet to go outside, but soon the weather will improve and the climbing will commence. The thought just crossed my mind that in certain circumstances climbing commands are more and less a part of the oral tradition.

Communication between climbing partners is essential especially when the only thing separating you, your partner, and a long fall to the ground is some man made equipment and the knowledge of how to use it. So, climbers engage in certain commands that allow one to know objectively what the other is doing.

example:
P1: You're on belay
P2: Climbing
P1: Climb

later...
P2: Off Belay
P1: Belay off

Ok, these commands are very simple and efficient. In each circumstance each person knows exactly what the other is doing or going to do. If any of these commands were misinterpreted, serious injury could result.

However, there are many times (especially on wandering Montana routes) where the partners cannot hear one another even when shouting. Therefore, they have to come up with a system of rope tugs that correspond to different commands. For example, two sharp tugs mean 'off belay' and three sharp tugs back means 'belay off.' Here we have a sort of gesture language.

However, if it is a gesture language, it is the least advanced kind. The human to human gesture that characterizes the oral tradition is extremely advanced, and complementary to the language itself. Gesture doesn't stand in for language, it adds to it. Therefore, just as Wise Wandering Shannon mentioned in her presentation, sign language (and rope tugs) are not a kind of kick back to the oral tradition, but rather a product of the literate tradition.

This picture is from a couple years ago when my friend Kyle and I had a particularly awful epic at Humbug Spires. That is the Wedge behind us in the photo, and at this point we were both shaking so bad from the cold that I couldn't untie my shoes or take off my harness. If our communication had been any worse during the hour before this picture was taken, things could have turned out very very bad.

climb safe.