Meaning of the term “crosley”?

I have come across this term a couple times recently, in reference to holds, but I don’t know what it means. From context I’m guessing small or sharp or something, but not sure. Can anyone explain?

Never seen it defined ( I think it originated in the UK). I’ve interpreted it as a fairly poor, rough, uneven hold, maybe of somewhat dubious attachment to the cliff—-but still a ‘hold’. I’ve seen it spelled as ‘crozzly’.

Sounds like a clumsy portmanteau of crimp and choss

Alan Rubin wrote:

Never seen it defined ( I think it originated in the UK). I’ve interpreted it as a fairly poor, rough, uneven hold, maybe of somewhat dubious attachment to the cliff—-but still a ‘hold’. I’ve seen it spelled as ‘crozzly’.

That's a good definition. Crozzle seems to be found most often on limestone, which by it's water soluble nature can weather to have a rough surface of somwhat-breakable spiky bits. Not the most pleasant surface to hold.

Though the term can also be applied to other rock types too. Volcanic tuff is also often crozzly.

Crozzle is a British English term for slag from old crucible steel furnaces. Most of the references are from Sheffield - the UK’s steel city - so perhaps it’s local dialect. Crozzle is like some lavas: rough, spikey, and brittle. It was used ornamentally to top stone walls in Sheffield so it’s a short step to local climbers using the term ‘crozzly’ to describe holds with this texture.

https://thelanguageofstone.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-walk-down-city-road-in-sheffield_16.html?m=1

duncan... wrote:

Crozzle is a British English term for slag from old crucible steel furnaces. Most of the references are from Sheffield - the UK’s steel city - so perhaps it’s local dialect. Crozzle is like some lavas: rough, spikey, and brittle. It was used ornamentally to top stone walls in Sheffield so it’s a short step to local climbers using the term ‘crozzly’ to describe holds with this texture.

https://thelanguageofstone.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-walk-down-city-road-in-sheffield_16.html?m=1

Great info! It's interesting to learn the historic, pre-climbing origin of many climbing terms. Similar to how "choss" is actually a very old term that predates climbing.

duncan... wrote:

Crozzle is a British English term for slag from old crucible steel furnaces. Most of the references are from Sheffield - the UK’s steel city - so perhaps it’s local dialect. Crozzle is like some lavas: rough, spikey, and brittle. It was used ornamentally to top stone walls in Sheffield so it’s a short step to local climbers using the term ‘crozzly’ to describe holds with this texture.

https://thelanguageofstone.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-walk-down-city-road-in-sheffield_16.html?m=1

Thanks Duncan! Very interesting etymology!

In non-british circles it doesn't have anything to do with rock quality or choss.  I've always understood it to be a hold that is generally uneven and unpleasant to hold, like 90% of crimpers at Smith Rock.  

CritConrad wrote:

In non-british circles it doesn't have anything to do with rock quality or choss.  I've always understood it to be a hold that is generally uneven and unpleasant to hold, like 90% of crimpers at Smith Rock.  

Smith is choss though, so the term still works out.

Read comments on this route.

My first and only exposure to this term was Mike Tucker mentioned in these comments. I didn't ask him for an exact definition, but from context understood it to be a bad small hold, like an awkwardly shaped crimper. The route in question has that kind of hold at the crux...

CritConrad wrote:

In non-british circles it doesn't have anything to do with rock quality or choss.  I've always understood it to be a hold that is generally uneven and unpleasant to hold, like 90% of crimpers at Smith Rock.  

Yeah, that makes sense, one of the places I heard the term was towards the end of this video, Shawn refers to the 2016 moon board set as "having a lot of crozzly  grips" 

raboutous on the moonboard

JCM wrote:

Smith is choss though, so the term still works out.

Ha!! Very true

Cross-ly? Like that dude looks cross (British: annoyed)... but applied to rock?

megumi gojo wrote:

When I said I didn't want judgement I meant that if you were going to just be rude to keep it to yourself if you don't want to actually help me figure out what's best for my records. Sorry I didn't realize that vinyl was an improper word to use on the VINYL subreddit.

We need more common sense like this here. Thank you for crystalizing the situation for us. Flagged.

FrankPS wrote:

We need more common sense like this here. Thank you for crystalizing the situation for us. Flagged.