A traverse is a lateral move or route when

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders), to small boulders. Climbing is done ...

or descending (including

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

); going mainly sideways rather than up or down. The general sense of 'a Traverse' is to cross, or cut across and in general mountaineering, a road or path traveled traverses the steep gradient of the face. In civil engineering, road bed cuttings (or 'traverses') dug by construction operations creating an navigable incline into a hillside traverse the slope, also cut across the gradient as does the skier, climber, or builder.

Climbing

In climbing, Traversing a

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used i ...

is a good warm-up exercise. When moving laterally, the technique of ''crossing through'' is more efficient than shuffling. In this, the limbs are crossed so that the moves are longer and more fluid. The longer extension requires coordination between the hands and the feet to avoid over-extension of the upper or lower part of the body. If two climbers are roped together for protection, the leader should secure the rope both before and after a difficult move when traversing. This enables the following climber to remove the anchorage before making the difficult move while still having good security from the anchor point which was placed after the move.

References

Climbing techniques {{climbing-stub