"It lets you use your feet more like you use your hands on the rock" : a haptic geography of bouldering

Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of an exploratory study of the ways boulderers have developed unique haptic skills during the practice of bouldering at Castle Hill/Kura Tawhiti, 100 km west of Christchurch, New Zealand. The research is grounded in phenomenology and ecological perception and takes as its starting points the importance of movement to perception, and that the whole body is necessarily involved in haptic perception. The research highlights the ways that boulderers cultivate particular skills of haptic perception that are related to the whole body, the hands and the feet, and elaborates the role of technology as a mediator between the feet and the rock. The study concludes that feet are as important as hands for haptic perception while climbing at Castle Hill/Kura Tawhiti.