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Tools, such as fall protection devices, specific contact implements, clothing, or an entire kit. They serve to extend, protect, or cover the body (). Clothing, for example, maintains social acceptability or protects skin from sun and abrasion. Fundamentally, tools increase the range of possibilities ("") available to the user.

This principle is evident in cases like the documentary The Alpinist, where a climber seamlessly alternates between an ice axe, a glove, and a bare hand based on what the given surface affords. The use of certain tools can drastically alter the environment; for dry tooling, the contact points (sites) needed can be less than one centimeter in diameter. However, some climbing areas restrict certain tools from the intended method ("Beta"), such as kneepads, chalk, or mechanical cams. Other tools are used only during failure states, such as a fall or being lowered to the ground.

Each tool dictates specific actions (). Placing a cam, which involves navigating a physical path (), is one such action afforded by the tool and the rock features (hangers afford clipping, for example). Selecting the correct cam size requires careful perception of the environment's affordances. Tools themselves can break if overloaded physically ().

Some technical use of tools constitutes "adjacent Beta," not exactly pure climbing but necessary.

Landing on specialized padding during a fall involves specific absorption actions. In short, protection tools constrain a method, while contact tools expand a climber’s possibilities and redefine the itself.

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