“Sport climbing is neither!”

Last Updated on: 31st March 2023, 10:54 am

“Sport climbing is neither.” It’s something that used to be on t-shirts and bumper stickers (and probably still is). But what exactly does it mean?

It means that sport climbing is neither a sport nor climbing.

It originated in the early days of sport climbing (that is, using bolts drilled and hammered into the rock to protect a rock climb instead of using natural protection like cams and nuts placed and slotted into cracks). Some climbers thought that the use of bolts was sacrilege and hated the increased bolting trend. Someone from this group came up with “sport climbing is neither” as a jab at those participating in the activity.