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Brief History of Rock Climbing
In ancient times, very few people were interested to scale the high mountain peaks simply because a lot of them believed mountains were inhabited by the gods. To scale these mountains, therefore, could anger the gods and cause them to bring great disasters to the people below. As civilizations developed, the ideas of ancient folks faded and more and more people became interested to climb the mountains for varying reasons. Some went up there to hunt for food, gather fruits or simply out of a desire to see what's on the other side or enjoy the exhilaration of looking down into the valley from the highest peak of the mountain. It wasn't until 1760 that rock climbing was officially recognized as a sport. During this year, a group of people decided to scale the top of the highest mountain peak in Europe known as Mount Blanc in exchange for a cash reward. The years that followed saw an increase in interest in rock climbing. Sadly though the extreme nature of this sport has caused tremendous pain to a lot of people, some even losing their life. With love for the sport still reigning supreme, enthusiasts eventually found a way to temper the perils of rock climbing by moving its location from the wild open mountain ranges to the safe and controlled environment of a mall, a school, a gym, or a sports club. With much of the danger removed, the game was made more exciting by the thought that one could stretch one's climbing abilities without the risk of getting hurt. Rock climbing then became known as ‘sports climbing', and was one the most popular and fastest growing sports in the 1990s. |
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