6 September 2016

The word 'chipped' is misused by 8a and the Climbing community

Julien Gasc has contacted us saying that we and many others in the Climbing community have a wrong definition of "chipped routes". "The verb 'to chip' comes from the idea of 'removing a chip'. In the world of climbing it was used to describe what was done traditionally with a hammer and a chisel. Actually most people use the word 'chipping' for routes incorrectly since they usually mean 'drilled'. The use of sika, in order to reinforce holds, is an entirely different thing. If you further use the words chip or chipping to refer to the use of sika, there will be a lot of misunderstanding. If you want to include all forms of alterations made to the rock to distinguish between a natural vs. non-natural route you should use the word 'manufactured': i.e. a route that was manufactured is not natural anymore, but that does not specify in which way. It could be drilling, glued with sika etc." If this is something the Community could agree upon, we will start using the word manufactured for the routes which have been either drilled, chipped or put sika on. We do not think you should use the term manufactured for the routes that have only been cleaned from loose rock. Clearly there is a fine line between natural routes that have only been cleaned and manufactured routes where chips have been removed.
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