Sport climbing vs. "Cragging"

Okay, so I may sound naive (at least to someone (MP always seems to have a way of attracting people who think all the questions are naive))... but I seem to be having trouble deciphering the difference between sport climbing and cragging.

I 'know' cragging has to do with convenience of bailing, single pitch trad/sport(?), being a cliff outcrop of some kind (from British origin), etc... Yeah, I saw the other thread kinda related to this. But I wasn't satisfied.

I had started to get the impression that "cragging" mostly had to do with location.

But then I saw the recent Rock & Ice article on the American road trip, and they would list one location as having both sport climbing and cragging...

Can someone explain what difference they are referring to?

Not sure what the official definition for it is but generally if I hear someone say crag that normally just means a wall with single pitch climbs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloss…

Crag - A small area with climbing routes, often just a small cliff face or a few boulders.

^this^ the two are not mutually exclusive. Sounds like the R&I article meant that there is cragging there AND there are sport routes. They likely weren't trying to imply that somehow "cragging" is different than "sport climbing".

I've been climbing lot of years...and am not too sure myself! However, here's what I think is generally considered the definitions.

First, I think "Sport climbs" and "Crag / cragging" climbs are a bit like apples and oranges...not quite the same. You can have sport climbs on a crag, and you can have trad climbs on a crag. I don't believe there is any defining limit on the height of the cliff, or therefor the length of the climb. I've heard "Cragging" applied to Cannon Mtn in NH, a 1000' face, and also to 100 ft high Echo Crag (it's actual name) only 1 mile away.

My understanding is that "Crag", or "cragging", is (or was?) used to distinguish between Alpine Climbing (on "big, bad, snow-and-ice mountains" with multi-hour to multi-day approaches) and climbing that might be on smaller faces, usually with less-than-multi-hour approaches. Usually, but not necessarily, "cragging" would mean trad-clibing, although certainly there are multi-pitch climbs that are predominantly bolted, and there are trad climbs that have a bolt or two.

Sport climbs, and an area developed for sport climbing, will have mostly totally bolted climbs. In addition, a sport climb would generally be considered to have the bolts closer together than on a "crag".

BUT...this all might be changing. Words mean different things to different people, or even to the same people at different times. It very well may be that today many climbers use the word(s) "crag" and "craggin" to mean 1/2 to 1 pitch climbs (where one lowers off).

That, however, would leave a gap between "crag" and "alpine".

I think of "cragging" as having two features:

1) Short approach, close to the car
2) Short climbs, 1-2 pitches (trad or sport)

Cragging is climbing single (maybe two) pitches--sport or trad--at a relatively accessible place where you can quickly access numerous routes. Although you don't have to be in a group, a cragging location implies that you could have several parties climbing on numerous nearby routes and still chat/hang together. The key is that you can get on several routes in a given outing.

This last point is more of my opinion, but I think cragging also refers to climbing locally. I can go cragging after work or on my casual Saturday. I don't fly across the country to go cragging at a destination climbing location.

I generally think of "cragging" as climbing that is logistically simple. It could be trad or sport, but the climbs are between one and a few pitches. The approach is shortish. I can return to my bag to drink and snack. The living is easy.

All this could be totally wrong.

I agree with that last post. Different people use terms differently. I think of cragging as including any routes that, because of combination of location, length and the ease of rappelling from anywhere on the route (even if it means leaving some gear) are relatively low commitment affairs. They can be routes of one, two, three or four pitches. Some can have mid length approaches, but they are easy to navigate. I think of cragging as being those sorts of areas and routes that I can usually go and start even if the weather is questionable, because I will be able to get to the ground and out to the car without huge risks due to having to bail if I just have some layers in the pack I leave at the base.

"Sport climbing" just refers to bolted pitches that minimize fall risk injury so that you can focus on movement. They are rare, but some multi pitch sport climbing routes are so long, committing and remote that I don't think of them as "cragging" outings.

Thanks guys!

This is similar to the thoughts I was formulating about the difference.