routes?

[climberwannabe]

I dont understand this 'routes' thing. Dont you make your own while ice climbing... therefore having an unlimited route choice? (I'm sure this quesiton makes me sound very novice, so dont hold back with sarcasam... I wouldnt!!!!). Oh and what is referred to when saying 'problem' in regards climbing?

[mitchleblanc]

Yo.

Let me be the first to say: Ice climbing sucks. Nah, just kidding, I just like saying that.

Seriously, yes, you can go anywhere in ice climbing, but there are natural "lines" that will form. That is to say, maybe a gully holds water consistently every winter, or a big icicle forms, or some other random deadly formation leading the suicidal to participate in self-destructive activities that... But I digress. A "route" for rope climbing is similar. It's just "the way to go". I think you'd be surprised how consistent ice climbs are from year to year (or, over a long period of time) and how each different "route" can have a certain feeling/difficulty about it. Of course, we're talking about ice climbing here, so I dunno, maybe "route" is what the ice climbers do to keep warm between attempts, but I think it's spelled "root" in that case....

As for "problems", now you're talkin'! Problems is for bouldering man. That is to say, if you're not using a rope, and you're climbing a relatively short number of moves, you're doing a boulder problem. You'll sometimes here people say "That's not a problem, that's more like a route", when a problem starts to be exceedingly long or exceedingly high-ball (i.e. high and scary).