The craft of rock climbing: exploring the implications of relational ontologies for learning to rock climb

Abstract

This paper explores how relational ontologies challenge the conception of skill development in rock climbing. Using especially the concepts of Tim Ingold and Phil Mullins, the paper suggests that pro-environmental behaviours, and relationships to place, can be fostered by direct involvement in skills development. This ontology is at odds with dualistic approaches that see climbing and pro-environmental behaviours as tensioned concepts. It is also contrary to historic practice theories that see climbing development as deriving from mastering oneself and conquering the climb. The paper proposes that climbing can be better understood as a craft and that each climb can be seen as co-created by the correspondence between the climber and the rock. This approach challenges the anthropocentric concept of the climb as a challenge to be overcome by skill and human endeavour, and instead suggests that a perspective of climbing as a craft better recognises the shared agency of the assemblage of rock and climber. Consequently, the paper suggests that completed rock climbs can be seen as co-evolved expressions of knowledge and action, and thus that climbing skills and pro-environmental behaviours derive from a creative process of engagement with the solid reality of the rock.