It was in this heyday of mountaineering that rappelling was first invented. The fervour spread outwards, towards distant ranges such as the Himalayas and the Andes. Famous mountains like The Eiger and The Matterhorn were summited, government grants were given, and Alpinism societies started to keep formal registered of which peaks were being climbed. Over the next two hundred years, mountain climbing- sometimes called mountaineering or alpinism- took off in Europe. To this day, this stands as perhaps the most important moment in mountain climbing history. In 1786, two climbers names Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Pacard made the first ascent of Mount Blanc (the highest mountain in the Alps). That started to change around the 1500’s, when the enlightenment took over Europe and secularity started to become more common in society. Consequently, those living in these societies steered well clear of those summits. Many cultures, such as the Greeks, believed that the tops of mountains belonged to gods or other heavenly beings. Mountains were viewed as dangerous, sometimes sacred places, who’s summits often went untouched for thousands of years. The act of ascending a mountain or cliff face didn’t really exist in ancient times. To find out why this happened, I’ve written a brief history on mountain climbing below, along with my hypothesis as to why the two words exist. The definitions, however, don’t help to explain why one word is more common that another depending on what area of the world you’re in. I would guess that rappelling was then used to describe the act of lowering ones self off of a mountain, which could be seen as ‘withdrawing’ yourself from a climb. Instead (according to Google translate), to rappel means to recall or withdraw. Curiously, rappel doesn’t have the same literal definition as its German counterpart. Rappel, as stated above, is a French word. The term was likely used during the early days of mountaineering, which experienced its birth in Europe during the 1800’s. To abseil originally comes from the German word abseilen, which literally means ‘to lower on a rope’. Linguistic Heritageīoth words have European heritage, which makes sense because that’s where mountain climbing was first practiced. The important part is that you know what you’re doing as long as you’ve got proper form, no one will care too much about what you decide to call it. Most English written climbing books use the term rappelling, but a fair chunk of them still use abseiling.Īll in all, don’t stress too much about which version of the word you’re going to use.
In Australia, New Zealand, and France, for example, the two are used almost almost interchangeably. In other places, however, the distinction becomes less apparent.
In the UK and Europe- specifically Germany- abseiling is the go-to when describing someone lowering themselves via a piece of rope. In the US and Canada, the term rappelling is used almost exclusively, although any experienced climber will recognize the word abseiling for what it is. Geographical DifferencesĪs I said above, the only real difference between the two words are their varying popularity in different parts of the world.
I was curious about the origins of the words and why they’re different, so I did some searching on the history of climbing and summarized what I found below. Rappelling is the term most often heard in North American, whereas abseiling is commonplace in the UK and other European countries. Anyone experience in the lingo of climbing will recognize both terms for what they mean. Rappelling and abseiling both mean to use a piece of rope or cord, combined with some kind of control device, to lower yourself down. The main difference between the two terms involves their usage and history. So what’s the difference between rappelling and abseiling? Rappelling and abseiling are the same thing both activities involve lowering yourself in a controlled descent via a piece of rope. I’ve always heard rappelling and abseiling used interchangeably, but I wanted to know a little bit more about the words, so I did some research on the subject. Trying to memorize all the different climbing terms can sometimes feel like trying to learn a new language.
0 kommentar(er)
