Indoor rock climbing is becoming more popular for people of all ages. Despite the tremendous interest in this competitive sport, participants are made aware of the dangers associated with participating. The authors present the first reported case of a clay-shoveler's fracture at the T1 spinous process during indoor rock climbing. They describe the management and natural history of this fracture...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the injury risk associated with indoor rock climbing competition. METHODS All injuries reported to medical personnel at the 2005 World Championships in Rock Climbing were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS Four hundred forty-three climbers (273 men, 170 women) from 55 countries participated in 3 separate disciplines totaling 520 climbing days. Only 4 of 18 acute medical pr...

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and nature of rock-climbing injuries, and the factors associated with these injuries. DESIGN A retrospective cross-sectional study. SETTING Rock climbers were recruited at five outdoor and six indoor climbing venues in the UK. PARTICIPANTS 201 active rock climbers (163 male, 38 female climbers) aged 16-62 years. ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS Rock clim...

Rock climbing is among the outdoor activities that have undergone the highest growth since the second half of the 20th century. As a result, cliff habitats, historically one of the least disturbed by human colonization worldwide, are facing more intense human pressure than ever before. However, there is little data on the impact of this activity in plant-communities, and such information is ind...

The objective of this study was to compare patterns of injury found in traditional rock climbing with those found in sport climbing. A questionnaire was administered to rock climbers by mail, in person, and via the World Wide Web. Injuries that occurred while rope-protected climbing on rock were analyzed regarding the anatomical location and the mechanism and activity at the time of injury. Nin...

OBJECTIVES To study the rate, causes, and nature of rock climbing injuries presenting to an accident and emergency (A&E) department. METHODS Patients presenting with rock climbing injuries to an urban A&E department were studied prospectively for one year. RESULTS 19 rock climbers presented during the year, at a rate of one per 2774 A&E attendances. Fourteen climbers were injured on outdoor...

In this paper we apply chaotic systems to the task of sequence variation for the purpose of aiding humans in setting indoor rock climbing routes. This work expands on prior work where similar variations were used to assist in dance choreography and music composition. We present a formalization for transcription of rock climbing problems and a variation generator which is tuned for our domain an...

In this paper we apply chaotic systems to the task of sequence variation for the purpose of aiding humans in setting indoor rock climbing routes. This work expands on prior work where similar variations were used to assist in dance choreography and music composition. We present a formalization for transcription of rock climbing problems and a variation generator which is tuned for our domain an...

BACKGROUND The aim of this article is to report the findings of a secondary analysis of a previous injury study to consider previous injury as a risk factor for reinjury in rock climbing. METHODS We completed a secondary analysis of 201 questionnaires that were gathered as part of a retrospective cross-sectional cohort survey that investigated the epidemiology of injuries in a representative ...

OBJECTIVES To report the physiological responses of indoor rock climbing. METHODS Fourteen experienced climbers (nine men, five women) performed three climbing trials on an indoor climbing wall. Subjects performed three trials of increasing difficulty: (a) an easy 90 degrees vertical wall, (b) a moderately difficult negatively angled wall (106 degrees), and (c) a difficult horizontal overhang...