Research suggests that lead climbing is both physiologically and psychologically more stressful than top rope climbing for intermediate performers. This observation may not be true for advanced climbers, who train regularly on lead routes and are accustomed to leader falls. The aim of this study was to compare the psychophysiological stresses of lead and top rope on-sight ascents in advanced ro...

Abstract Mindfulness is a meditative practice that has received increasing attention within positive psychology as an effective tool to increase wellbeing and decrease anxiety. Previous research demonstrated rock-climbers have higher endorsement of mindfulness life satisfaction than the general population; yet date, no empirically explored relationship between rock-climbing. In current study fi...

Reaching and grasping movements have been studied mostly in seated contexts. There are several tasks, however, that also impose speci®c postural constraints that may a€ect the organization of these movements. For example, in rock climbing, a successful grasp is conditional of an accurate static and dynamic postural control. The purpose of our study was to analyze if postural constraints, impose...

This paper presents a new four-limbed robot, LEMUR IIb (Legged Excursion Mechanical Utility Rover), that can free-climb vertical rock surfaces. This robot was designed to have a number of capabilities in addition to climbing (e.g., assembly, inspection, maintenance, transport, intervention) and to be able to traverse a variety of other types of terrain (e.g., roads, talus, dirt, urban rubble). ...

The Everest climbing season that has just ended was marred by the worst accident in the mountain’s history. On 18 April 2014, 16 Nepalese sherpas died in an avalanche, and subsequent climbing expeditions were cancelled. 2 The deaths of men from poor communities, hired to perform dangerous tasks for the sake of mountain climbing, provoked controversy. I used data on deaths above base camps from ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether rock climbing type exercise would be of value in rehabilitating ankle injuries to improve ankle stability and coordination. [figure: see text] METHODS A group of 25 rock climbers was compared with a group of 26 soccer players. All were male, uninjured, and exercised three to four times a week. Active ankle stability was evaluated by one leg stand stabilometry (me...

Abstract Outdoor education has a long tradition of using adventurous activities like rock climbing to achieve learning outcomes. Concepts adventure, perceived risk, and flow have been used justify the inclusion these activities. However, arguments for their eroded in recent decades, leading authors this paper ask: How do students actually experience an activity rockclimbing? In addition, outdoo...