Climbing Vernacular
“Whipper”

Kayla Lieuw
Hanover, New Hampshire
May 22, 2019

Informant Data:

Kayla Lieuw is a 22 year-old senior at Dartmouth College from Potomac, Maryland. She is a middle class Asian American woman. Her father was part of the military. Kayla started climbing when she was only eight years old. Her mother was looking for something for her brother and her to do while her father was deployed, and they came across rock climbing. Since then, climbing has become a big part of her life. Before college, she has regularly competed in regional and national competitions. When she came to Dartmouth, she joined the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club (DMC), and has been climbing for all four years of her time here. She also competes regularly at regional and national competitions with the rest of the competitive climbers at DMC.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The vernacular term “whipper” is used during conversations between climbers to describe the events that have happened during the climb. The term can refer to climbing events both indoors and outdoors. Kayla shared that she often uses it in conversation to recount climbs to other climbers. An example of the way “whipper” can be used is: “Do you remember when she took a huge whipper during our last session? It was epic.”The purpose of vernacular folklore in climbing is to bolster a sense of community between climbers. Having unique vernacular terms defines an in-group identity for the people who know, understand, and use the term. In the case of climbing, it also serves to distinguish people as members of the counter-culture established by climbers. Vernacular also helps capture ideas that would otherwise be communicated in multiple words in just one word. In addition to verbal efficiency, it also emphasizes the importance of the idea in climbing culture since the folk group has dedicated an entire new term to capture its essence.

• Cultural Context: There are two types of outdoor belayed climbs: top roping and lead climbing. Top roping refers to when there is an anchor at the top of the of the climb, and a rope is run through the anchor, forming a sort of pulley system that keeps the climber safe in case he or she loses grip and falls while climbing. Lead climbing, on the other hand, refers to when the rope is clipped to bolts along the climb. For lead climbing, there are bolts regularly drilled into the climbing wall that are essentially metal loops. Each time the climber reaches a bolt, he or she clips the rope onto the bolt to secure his or herself so that in case of a fall, the bolt catches climber. It is like another pulley system, but with smaller intervals. Thus, the distance of the fall is equal to the distant the climber has covered after securing the rope to the last bolt. If the climber climbs two feet above the last bolt and falls, the climber will fall four feet before being stopped by the bolt.

Text:

[I have recorded “whipper” as closely as I could to the way Kayla told it to me. The following descriptions were collected from the notes I took during the interview, and are paraphrases of what she shared during the interview.]

The term “whipper” in climbing refers to when a climber falls while lead climbing. As mentioned above, the fall is a function of how far above the bolt the climber is when he or she falls. The term usually refers to a big fall, but can also refer to smaller falls. A climber can get rope burn when he or she goes through a whipper, especially if it is a big one. Climbers describe the whipper as usually being pretty fun, though if the fall is big, hitting the climbing wall can be painful.

Angela Liu, aged 21
2 North Park St., Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2019