Climbing is one great outdoor sport that doesn't harm the nature. Rock climbers do not, after all, damage the ecology of cliffs and routes they scale!

Research has repeatedly shown that climbing routes have half the plant richness of unclimbed cliffs. These studies have given climbers a bad rap and led many reserves to put their cliffs off limits. Two canadian reserchers Kathryn Kuntz and Doug Larson from the University of Guelph have sampeled data concerning cliffs vegetation.


Probably the most exposed crag of the world 
foto by© JirkaS

Kuntz and Larson deduced that the plants are looking for is what climbers don't want. Plant roots break up the rock, making climbing perilous. So rather than climbers damaging the ecology of the rock face, they select bare cliffs in the first place.

Despite the probe of science, in order to define climbers Eco-friendly and to say that their impact is minimal on the environment the key word is

RESPECT!

In fact we should consider the litter that some of us leave at the bottom of the crags, wild camping etc.

Therefore... a good purpose for summer holydays is to live the environment where we climb (and not only that!) better than how we found it!

Let's start giving the right example in order to make climbers respected in the general opinion and preserve our right to climb our lovely clifs and boulders!


Wilde nature of the Berounka River
foto by © JirkaS


Rock climbers not guilty of destroying plant life

From issue 2558 of New Scientist magazine, 01 July 2006, page 7

Source:
Here is the article from the magazine issue 2558,  01 July 2006, page 7: New Scientist