What Is a Foot Traverse?

What a Foot Traverse Is

Normally when you rock climb you are traveling in a vertical direction. You start at the base of a rock wall, which could just be a steep climb on a boulder or hill. If you run into an area you cannot navigate past by going upward, you begin to travel horizontally; this is a foot traverse.

Another type of traverse is a rope traverse, requiring navigating over a gap of some sort. This traverse is not a foot traverse because you use ropes and pulleys to move horizontally, instead of your own feet. You also can traverse on skis or a snowboard between trails. Basically any sport that is vertical in nature uses traversing when you must move from side to side instead of up and down.

Sometimes during a foot traverse, you might have the aid of a rope laid out by a lead climber. If they feel an area is tricky, with too few handholds, they can leave behind a rope to help guide your way across the rock. This is just a guide rope and not the same as a rope traverse because in a rope traverse, your feet do not touch the ground or rock at all, you actually hang to cross a gap. A famous, permanently laid rope guide lies at Half Dome in Yosemite. As you travel this particular hike, they have laid a traversing line you can secure yourself on as you head to the top for the view. While avid rock climbers will come up the steeper way, this line allows for those less experienced to enjoy the beauty of the top.

In combination with hiking, traversing can also be considered going across a mountain range. This could include areas where you would just hike where other areas would be more like rock climbing in order to get across steeper grades or passing through streams or areas of extremely uneven ground. Both the hiking section and the rock wall areas are considered foot traverses due to your use of feet as your main means of propulsion.

Practicing foot traversing in a climbing gym can help you when out climbing real rock. When you stop thinking of the wall as simply vertical, you open up the possibilities and can work around difficult parts of the rock. While you might choose to challenge yourself by going straight up, sometimes a foot traverse can help you save your legs and arms for the rest of the climb. Many rock-climbing gyms offer walls specifically designed to help with bettering your skills.