Re-creating Recreation: Climbing Replicas and their Effects on the Sport

Rock climbing is a sport with a contentious relationship to technology. Technical innovation has improved safety for participants creating new styles of climbing. This allows for a wider range of climbs to be set up on natural rock that are also less invasive to the environment itself. Since it is a sport born of the outdoor movement with philosophical roots in Romanticism, technology is often regarded suspiciously. It detracts from the experience. But technology breeds innovation, and 3D scanning, and CNC technology means that increasingly, outdoor climbs are replicated out of indoor holds. A practice-based study, coupled with research into existing replica use, was undertaken with the goal of understanding how replicas are made as well as how they affect the experience of rock climbing. When climbing outdoors, participants interact with the rocks as the shape of the rock guides their movement. Through the act of climbing, they build a relationship to the rock, however brief that may be. As indoor climbing became more popular, indoor holds became abstract from natural stone. This means climbers interact much more with hold shapers and route setters. Through 3D scanning, and CNC technologies, we can now near perfectly recreate popular outdoor routes out of indoor holds, bringing outdoor rock back into the gym. Replicas can invite participants to consider the rock more thoughtfully but fall short of emulating the entire experience of climbing outdoors. Ultimately, nature can’t be faked, but the replica forces the climber to consider the real outdoor stone which can help guide them to a more authentic experience. However, replicas can still ease the transition from gym to crag, remove barriers to trying climbs that might be otherwise difficult to access, and preserve climbs that might be threatened by excessive erosion or rock fall.