Ways of expressing the difficulty of climbing routes in the sociolect of Polish mountaineers

Abstract

One of the most important aspects of climbing is the question of assessing the difficulty of the route being climbed. The way in which this category has been reflected in language is important. The repertoire of linguistic forms used to express a feeling of the difficulty of a route is rich, ranging from descriptive, highly individualised expressions, aimed mainly at conveying personal experiences (as was the case in the early days of mountaineering), to one-, two-word expressions, and eventually numbers. The aim of this article is to outline the evolution of linguistic ways of expressing the degree of difficulty of climbing routes, taking into account the perspective of view inherent in the climbers making the assessment (which is expressed in the awareness of their own psycho-physical condition linked to the ability to go beyond the individual experience) and the degree of development of the discipline being described.