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ABSTRACT
This article explores the transformation of rock climbing in a North-Western Italian region, paying attention to the need for 'keeping it natural' in the process of authentication of the practice among a sample of climbers. Like other nature sports such as rafting, skydiving and surfing, rock climbing has been affected by processes of indoorization and sportivization, moving practice sites from mountain rocks to artificial walls. Mixing a post-subcultural perspective with the tourism and leisure studies debate on authentication, and drawing upon in-depth interviews with novices, experts and professional climbers and upon participant observation in climbing sites (both natural and artificial walls, contests, gatherings, etc.), this article focusses on how practitioners construct their authenticity as climbers and establish intra-group hierarchies by using, and giving meaning to, the naturalness of their practice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto is Associate Professor in Sociology of Culture at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin. Among her research interests, she worked on lifestyle sports and emerging bodily cultures.
Davide Marcelli obtained his Master Degree by discussing a dissertation on skateboarding. He continues to investigate lifestyle sports and the use of (indoor and outdoor) space as an independent researcher.
Notes
1 Another example of an authenticity claim in climbing is provided by Clayton and Coates’s (Citation2015) analysis of narratives of parents who still climb 'seriously'.
2 Dupont (Citation2014) provides an analysis of the different forms of participation in skateboarding. For an exploration of the new forms of multi-layered professionalism in rock climbing, see Dumont (Citation2016, Citation2017).
3 Robinson (Citation2008) distinguishes four types of rock climbing: traditional, sport, aid climbing and bouldering.
4 For an analysis of the authentication process, in Italy, of a recently emerged lifestyle sport, parkour, see Sterchele and Ferrero Camoletto (Citation2017).
5 Similarly, Senda-Cook (Citation2012) analyses the rhetorical practices through which “real” outdoor recreation is produced.
6 We want to thank Chiara Canova (interviews 15–36) and Matteo De Costanzi (interviews 1–14), the two Master's students who made their empirical material available to us and authorized our analysis for this article.
7 Despite the different lists of questions used as guideline in the three research projects, there were many shared topics under investigation.
8 http://blog.earthtreksclimbing.com/volumes-the-new-dimensions-of-indoor-climbing. See also http://blog.momentumclimbing.com/innovations-in-climbing-volumes/. (both accessed 15 September 2017).
9 http://blog.earthtreksclimbing.com/volumes-the-new-dimensions-of-indoor-climbing (accessed 15 September 2017).
10 A crimp is a hold which is only just big enough to be grasped with the tips of the fingers. Crimping is the process of holding onto a crimp. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_climbing_terms#C (accessed 12 December 2018).
11 Multi-pitching means climbing on routes that are too long for a single belay rope. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_climbing_terms#C (accessed 12 December 2018).