Literary Investigation One

For our second class assignment we were asked to post a literary investigation describing one of our discourse communities and the language we used particularly in that community. Over the summer I was a camp counselor and taught a variety of students the fundamentals of rock climbing and adventure programs. Here is my reflection on the language used entirely within the climbing community:

As a camp counselor you form bonds not only with the kids you teach but also with peers your age whom you spend an abundant amount of time with. Although Kamp Kohut produced a variety of terms key known only by the counselors and campers who attended, there were many terms exclusive only to the outdoor education team. Over the summer I was an Adventure Lead Counselor, meaning I not only taught kids a variety if team and self esteem building exercises, but also key terms and phrases essential to their success. At the climbing wall one of the first requirements campers did was to correctly identify the name of all the materials they needed to climb the wall safely.

Helmet, rope, and harness where the easiest terms to identify yet as the lessons proceeded and the campers gradually got introduced to the climbing community, the language and word choice we asked them to learn got gradually more and more unique.

Level Two required students to define Gri-Gri and belay which are both fundamental aspects of climbing. A Gri-Gri is the device the belayer runs the rope through in order to safely allow someone to climb to the top of the wall; to belay is the action required by the person remaining on the ground to feed the rope through the Gri-Gri.

As the levels continued on, students explored the terminology behind the actual movements they were experiencing on the wall. A brief list of terms they had to understand and demonstrate is as follows:

-Dyno: Removing your entire body from the wall and jumping upwards in order to reach the next hold.

-Side-pull: Reaching across the wall to your arms full extent and using a side ways grip on a hold to reach the next destination.

-Heel-Hook: Using your heel on a hook in order to use it as a tool to push your body farther up the wall.

-Bouldering: Climbing a wall without the use of a belay device, usually from left to right instead of up and down.

-Mantle: To use a hold pressing your palm down and pushing up, instead of reaching for a higher hold with just your fingers.

-Crag: A small split in the opening of a rock face.

-Traverse: To successfully climb to the top of the wall moving continuously from left to right and right to left.

-Match: To place both of your hands or feet on the same hold.

-Carabiner: Clip used to safely attach equipment together.

-Switch: To move one hand from a hold only to replace it with