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IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics 2007 72(5):570-576; doi:10.1093/imamat/hxm029
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved.

A mathematical theory of climbing

Piero Villaggio

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Via Diotisalvi, 2, I-56126 Pisa, Italy

Received on September 1, 2006; Accepted on January 22, 2007

Is it possible to develop a theory of climbing? The answer is no. Mountains are so different in quality of rock and geometry of their faces that any wall would require a specific theory on the best strategy for being climbed. For this reason, climbing schools, so precise in teaching belaying, rappelling and prusiking, are instead vague in instructing how one must progress along an irregular wall. This paper suggests a rough model for grasping this complex problem.

Keywords: Newtonian mechanics; friction.


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