Clean Climbing

History, materials and techniques of crack climbing, with profiles of 26 spots in Europe and 30 "clean" champions.

“Remember the rock, the other climbers — climb clean”
Yvon Chouinard and Tom Frost, 1972

These are the last words of the article that Yvon Chouinard and his friend and business partner Tom Frost published in the Chouinard catalog in 1972 Equipment. The article, entitled “One word”, encouraged the use of nuts instead of pegs. This article, a true manifesto, the true origin of the free climbing revolution, changed the habits of climbers. For years friends and nuts have been convenient tools for integrating protections already on site, often with bolts, on multi-pitch routes and only in some areas such as Val di Mello and Valle dell'Orco were they, and still are, an essential part of the climb. For some years, either due to the redevelopment of some areas of non-bolted single pitches in Valle dell'Orco, or due to the birth of paradises for clean climbing such as Cadarese and Yosesigo in Val d'Ossola, the passion for these tools has exploded, among the other increasingly safe and functional thanks to the studies of the main manufacturing companies. This manual focuses on clean climbing techniques for single pitches, aware that a good protection technique in natural gyms then easily leads to the use of interlocking tools even on long routes, for those who are already able to move on protected multipitch walls traditionally. But it is not just a technical manual, because, in line with the Performa series, Maurizio Oviglia and Michele Caminati are convinced that a good knowledge of the history and culture of mountaineering contributes in an essential way to the dimension of the dream and to multiplying the emotions every climber is constantly searching: an itinerary is a line on the rock, but if you know who climbed it, when, how and why, each route acquires a different, special and unique flavor for each of us. For this reason, a large introductory chapter narrates the evolution that this discipline has had in space and time and a part of the manual presents 31 biographical notes of the main champions of this activity. Finally, so that these theoretical teachings do not remain inactive in a drawer of our minds, the book proposes a series of locations in Italy and Europe - from the closest and most affordable to the most distant and demanding ones - where we can apply these lessons.