Rock climbing purists might argue that the only true climbing is done with a braided rope and pitons you hammered out yourself. For the more relaxed climber, this sport has developed into several clear subsections, with each type of climbing characterized by the specialized gear it requires, and the type of terrain it allows you to climb.
Bouldering and Free Soloing
In some ways, bouldering is the purest type of climbing because it involves nothing but you, a pair of rubber-soled climbing shoes, and the rock. Because they climb unbelayed, boulderers often tackle technically difficult but short problems. They use strategically placed crash pads, which resemble thick mattresses, to pad the ground beneath the route in case of a fall. Climbers who scale long routes -- the type you'd normally use a rope for -- without protection are free soloing. There's no strict dividing line between when a climb shifts from a boulder problem to a free solo, although climbing where a fall virtually guarantees your death is generally considered a free solo.
Top-Roping
You can top-rope indoors or outdoors. The rope passes from your belayer, up through an anchor near the ceiling or top of the route, then back down to you. Your belayer takes up slack in the rope as you climb, so that if you fall, you don't fall very far. To top-rope outdoors somebody has to get the rope to the anchor and rig it for climbing, by either walking to the top of the route or "leading" the rope up by sport or traditional means.
Sport Climbing
When sport climbing, you, your belayer and the rope all start at the bottom of the climb. As you ascend past bolts already drilled into the rock you clip a quickdraw to each bolt, then clip the rope into the quickdraw. If you fall, you'll fall down to the last bolt you clipped and then as far below it as the slack in the rope allows. Unhampered by the technical concerns of traditional or "trad" climbing, sport climbers often push the limits of hard climbing, using gymnastic or even acrobatic moves to work their way up the rock.
Traditional and Aid Climbing
When trad climbing, you place your own protective gear in features of the rock face, then clip into that gear instead of into pre-drilled bolts. Spring-loaded camming devices, tri-cams, nuts, hexes and Friends are all examples of protection you might place during a traditional climb. Because you place your own protection, you can climb almost anywhere; however, if you can't find a crack suitable for placing protective gear, you may have to "run it out," climbing without protection for a distance. If you hang or pull on the gear to get yourself up the route, instead of using only your body, you're aid climbing. A specialized array of equipment allows aid climbers to ascend rock faces that are otherwise too blank to climb.
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