Originating
in Scotland, rock climbing soon became one of the most popular adventure sports at the end
of the past century. The climber’s ultimate goal is not simply to reach the top but
to do so in a particular way. Following the right route, rather than a means to achieve a
final destination, has always been the ultimate goal of the climber’s endeavors..
Time and technology have drastically improved the equipment and safety devices needed for
this sport and made possible more and better ascents.
Rock climbing started its swift rise in popularity in the 1960s when the polished granite mountains of California became a sort of Mecca for extreme sports lovers. A decade later, the sport arrived in Peru, a land filled with ideal sites for the sport, in particular in the mountains of Lima, Cajamarca and Pasco.
Given
the many factors that determine the complexity of a route like soil type, slope and
length, it is hard to put together a classification for all the possible destinations.
However, the Yosemite Decimal System is widely recognized as a classification that takes
into account various levels of difficulty ranked from 5.0 to 5.14. As the level of
difficulty rises above 5.10, the ranking adds letters from A to D to the decimal score.
Thus, the most difficult ascent in the world -a cliff in southern Germany- is rated 5.14D,
while Peru’s most difficult climb, the Canchacalla route, is rated 5.12D.
Additionally, the routes are classified by risk. GP paths are open to all climbers; R paths are restricted and involve the risk of serious injury; climbs given an X rating imply a death risk while a double X ascent carries a death risk for climbers and their teams. Many walls in the narrow Rímac canyon in Lima or the polished rock walls in Tinajani in Puno are typical R- and X-rated climbs.