Outdoor sports terminology: Dial (in)

Dial (in)

Definition

In the climbing jargon, to dial in a route, sequence or movement is learning all the movements, body position, handholds and footholds by heart, so you achieve the top without falling. You dial in a line, pitch, sequence or boulder by repeating it until you do all the movements perfectly and without hesitation.

To have a movement dialled means to know how to perform a movement with no mistakes.

Additional info

Grammatical category: verb
Field: climbing
Spelling: letter «l» doubles» except in American English: dialled, dialling / dialed, dialing.
Source of the definition: Explore Translations

The word in use. Examples

«Before Free Solo, you could view Honnold as a funny, intellectual, well-adjusted guy who just happens to take great pleasure in the occasional onsight solo and in working big routes until he has them so dialed that they are, to some degree, “safe” pursuits to then do ropeless.»
Source of the example: Climbing Magazine

«Elite climbers often refine sequences to the point of high efficiency in just a few attempts, whereas non-elite climbers may need many more attempts before gains in efficiency become negligible. The bottom line: if you’ve dialed in the sequence and become about as efficient as you can be (~10 attempts) and you still can’t send the route, then you likely need to get stronger in order to bag the redpoint.»
Source of the example: Nicros

Other languages (ES)

Spanish: matizar. See definition

Do you know this word in other languages?
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Photo: Pavel Blazek