Dry-tooling

Dry-tooling (or drytooling) is a form of mixed climbing that is performed on bare, ice-free, and snow-free, climbing routes. As with mixed-climbing, the dry-tooling climber uses a pair of ice tools and wears crampons to ascend the route. They will use normal rock climbing equipment for their protection on the route; many modern dry-tooling routes are now fully bolted as with sport climbing rock-climbing routes. Many indoor ice climbing competitions are held on bare non-iced surfaces and thus effectively dry-tooling events. Dry-tooling as a standalone activity developed from the mid-1990s as the standards of mixed-climbing rose dramatically, and the most difficult part of the new extreme M-graded mixed-climbing routes was often the dry-tooling component (e.g. a bare rock roof or a severe rock overhang). Some of the most extreme mixed-climbing routes will also quote a dry-tooling D-grade alongside the M-grade to signify whether there was any ice encountered (i.e. Iron Man in Switzerland is graded M14+/D14+). As dry-tooling uses the equipment and techniques of mixed climbing, it has followed its increased regulation of equipment to counter criticisms that it is a form of aid climbing. Dry-tooling has faced additional criticisms due to the damage it can do to natural rock surfaces (e.g the ice tools scraping and chipping at the bare rock face), and dry-tooling climbing areas are usually separate from rock climbing areas. Dry tooling has been advocated as a more accessible sport for women as the ice tools help with the physical strain.