Protection (climbing) in the context of "Quickdraw"

Sport climbing (or bolted climbing) is a type of free climbing in the sport of rock climbing where the lead climber clips their rope—via a quickdraw—into pre-drilled in-situ bolts on the rockface for their protection as they ascend the route. Sport climbing differs from the riskier and more demanding format of traditional climbing where the lead climber—as they ascend the route—must also find places into which temporary and removable protection equipment (e.g. spring-loaded camming devices) can be inserted for their safety.

Sport climbing dates from the early 1980s when leading French rock climbers wanted to climb blanker face climbing routes that offered none of the cracks or fissures into which temporary protection equipment could be safely inserted. While bolting natural rock faces was controversial—and remains a focus of debate in climbing ethics—the safer format of sport climbing grew rapidly in popularity both for novice and advanced climbers. All subsequent technical grade milestones in rock climbing would come from sport climbing.

A bouldering mat or crashpad (also originally called the sketchpad) is a nylon-enclosed multi-layer foam pad used to give the climber a degree of protection when bouldering. Bouldering mats help prevent climbers from injuring themselves from the continuous and repeated falls onto hard or uneven surfaces that are associated with projecting a bouldering problem.

Some modern bouldering pads include a hinge so that the pad can be folded over into a more compact form for transportation (a 'hinge mat'), and some also come with shoulder straps, and even waist straps, for easier carrying of the mat to and from the bouldering area. The first commercially available bouldering mat, the "Kinnaloa Sketchpad", was designed and produced in 1992.