Free climbing
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Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber can use rock-climbing equipment for their protection, but not as an artificial aid to help them in ascending a climbing route. Free climbing, therefore, cannot use any of the mechanical tools that are widely used in aid climbing to help the climber overcome the obstacles they encounter while ascending a route (e.g., aiders or skyhooks). The development of free climbing was a transformational moment in the history of rock climbing, including the concept and definition of what determined a first free ascent (or FFA) of a climbing route by a climber.
Free climbing can be performed in several different types of rock-climbing formats that vary with the type of climbing protection that the free-climber used. For example, free climbing can be done as lead climbing in either a traditional climbing (temporary and removable climbing protection) or a sport climbing style (permanently fixed in-situ climbing protection). Free climbing can also be performed as bouldering or as free solo climbing (no climbing protection whatsoever). Free climbing is sometimes misunderstood as relating only to the formats of free-solo climbing or of solo climbing, which is not correct.