The article explores the transformation of rock-climbing in a NorthWestern Italian region, paying attention to need for "keeping it natural" (echoing Wheaton and Beal 2003) in the struggle for subcultural authenticity among climbers. Like other nature sports such as rafting, skydiving and surfing, rock-climbing has been affected by processes of indoorisation (Van Bottenburg and Salome 2010) and sportivisation (Aubel 2002; Suchet 2011), changing the sites for practising from mountain rocks to artificial walls. Adopting a post-subcultural analytical perspective (cfr. Wheaton 2007) on climbing as a nature sport, and drawing upon in-depth interviews with novices, experts and professional climbers and upon participant observation in some climbing sites (both natural and artificial walls, contests, gatherings, etc.), the article will focus on how practitioners construct their authenticity as climbers and establish intra-group hierarchies by using, and giving meaning to, the naturalness of their practice.

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