What Does “FFA” Mean in Rock Climbing?

FFA – First Free Ascent and First Female Ascent (Rock Climbing)
FFA – First Free Ascent and First Female Ascent (Rock Climbing)

There are two completely different things that “FFA” refers to in the rock climbing world.

The first is first free ascent. This is the original meaning of FFA, and I say that because I believe it has been used in this context longer then the second usage below. What does first free ascent mean? It means the fist time a route was climbed without aid. FFA is used in this context generally to refer to 1) big walls or 2) very difficult cracks or other routes that were previously aid climbs.

So take the route The Nose on Yosemite’s El Capitan. Its first ascent was done by Warren Harding et al. in 1958. This ascent and every single other ascent up till 1993 was an aid-assisted ascent. But in 1993, Lynn Hill free climbed the route; that is, she climbed it without having to use any aid. This was the FFA or first free ascent of the route, though it is still almost always climbed as an aid route.

The second meaning that FFA can have is first female ascent. This means the first time that a particular route was climbed by a woman. This is generally used only in reference to extremely difficult routes or boulder problems.  The reason that “first female ascent” is a thing is that it is much more common for men to climb difficult routes than it is for women to climb difficult routes, and so it is newsworthy or at least noteworthy when a woman climbs a difficult route that has been climbed previously but never by a woman. Examples of noteworthy first female ascents as covered by the climbing press can be found here, here, and here.

Not everyone is thrilled with the concept of first female ascents, and this article does a great job of looking at the issue.