Overhang (climbing) in the context of "Rock climbing"

A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is often termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constructions but on modern walls, the material most often used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled into it. Recently, manufactured steel and aluminum have also been used. The wall may have places to attach belay ropes, but may also be used to practice lead climbing or bouldering.

Each hole contains a specially formed t-nut to allow modular climbing holds to be screwed onto the wall. With manufactured steel or aluminum walls, an engineered industrial fastener is used to secure climbing holds. The face of the multiplex board climbing surface is covered with textured products including concrete and paint or polyurethane loaded with sand. In addition to the textured surface and hand holds the wall may contain surface structures such as indentions (in cuts) and protrusions (bulges), or take the form of an overhang, underhang or crack. Some grips or handholds are formed to mimic the conditions of outdoor rock, including some that are oversized and can have other grips bolted onto them.

Separate Reality is a 66-foot (20 m) traditional climbing route in Yosemite National Park in California. The route is known for its exposed and dramatic crux that consists of a 20-foot (6.1 m) long crack in its horizontal roof. When it was first free-climbed by Ron Kauk in 1978, it was one of the first climbs in the world to have a grade of 7a+ (5.12a) (it was temporarily downgraded one notch when a hold broke in the mid-1980s). In 1986, German climber Wolfgang Güllich free soloed the route, and the photographs by Austrian Heinz Zak [de] became iconic in rock climbing history.

Aid climbing is a form of rock climbing that uses mechanical devices and equipment, such as aiders (also called 'ladders'), to assist in generating upward momentum. Aid climbing is contrasted with free climbing (in both its traditional or sport free-climbing formats), which can use mechanical equipment only for climbing protection, not to assist in any upward momentum. Aid climbing can involve hammering in permanent pitons and bolts, into which the aiders are clipped, but there is also 'clean aid climbing', which avoids any hammering and uses only temporary removable placements such as spring-loaded camming devices.

While aid climbing traces its origins to the start of all climbing when ladders and pitons were common, its use in single-pitch climbing waned in the early 20th century with the rise of free climbing. At the same time, the Dolomites saw the start of modern "big wall aid climbing", where pioneers like Emilio Comici developed new tools and techniques. Aid climbing's "golden age" was in the 1960s and 1970s on Yosemite's granite big walls led by pioneers such as Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, and later Jim Bridwell, and was where Robbins' ethos of minimal-aid, and Yvon Chouinard's ethos of clean aid climbing, became dominant.