Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains to small boulders. Climbing is done for locomotion, sporting recreation, for competition, and is also done in trades that rely on ascension, such as rescue and military operations. Climbing is done indoors and outdoors, on natural surfaces, and on artificial surfaces
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.
Jim Wickwire is the first American to summit K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Wickwire is also known for surviving an overnight solo bivouac on K2 at an elevation above 27,000 ft or 8,200 m; considered "one of the most notorious bivouacs in mountaineering history".
A crampon is a traction device attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and icefields, ascending snow slopes, and scaling ice-covered rock.
An ice axe is a multi-purpose hiking and climbing tool used by mountaineers in both the ascent and descent of routes that involve snow, ice, or frozen conditions. Its use depends on the terrain: in its simplest role it is used like a walking stick, with the mountaineer holding the head in the center of their uphill hand.
Glossary of climbing terms relates to rock climbing, mountaineering, and to ice climbing.
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is often considered the standard textbook for mountaineering and climbing in North America. The book was first published in 1960 by The Mountaineers of Seattle, Washington. The book was written by a team of over 40 experts in the field.
Ice climbing is a climbing discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of frozen water. To ascend, the ice climber uses specialist equipment, particularly double ice axes and rigid crampons. To protect the route, the ice climber uses steel ice screws that require skill to employ safely and rely on the ice holding firm in any fall. Ice climbing routes can vary significantly by type, and include seasonally frozen waterfalls, high permanently frozen alpine couloirs, and large hanging icicles.
Ski mountaineering is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipment used, free-heel Telemark skis and skis based on Alpine skis, where the heel is free for ascents, but is fixed during descent. The discipline may be practiced recreationally or as a competitive sport.
Crevasse rescue is a set of techniques in mountaineering where climbers use their equipment to pull a climber, who has just fallen into a crevasse, to safety. Crevasse rescue is considered a core skill set in alpine climbing, but difficult to do efficiently. It is typically encountered by rope teams on glaciers.
Front-pointing is a technique used in mountaineering and ice climbing where a climber embeds, usually by a kicking action, the sharp metal 'front-point(s)' of their modern metal rigid crampon into the ice or hard packed snow to gain a secure foothold to assist their upward momentum on the climbing route.
The Haute Route is the name given to a route undertaken on foot or by ski touring between the Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France, and the Matterhorn, in Zermatt, Switzerland.
Mount Timpanogos, often referred to as Timp, is the second-highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range. Timpanogos rises to an elevation of 11,752 ft (3,582 m) above sea level in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With 5,270 ft (1,610 m) of topographic prominence, Timpanogos is the 47th-most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States.
The self-arrest is a climbing technique mostly used in mountaineering and alpine climbing where a climber who has fallen and is sliding uncontrollably down a snow or ice-covered slope 'arrests' their fall by themselves by using their ice axe and their crampons.
Mountaineering, expedition or high altitude boots are a type of footwear used in mountain climbing. They are designed specifically for moving over harsh terrain.
Mount Hood climbing accidents are incidents related to mountain climbing or hiking on Oregon's Mount Hood. As of 2007, about 10,000 people attempt to climb the mountain each year. As of May 2002, more than 130 people are known to have died climbing Mount Hood since records have been kept. One of the worst climbing accidents occurred in 1986, when seven high school students and two teachers froze to death while attempting to retreat from a storm.
Self-rescue is a group of techniques in climbing and mountaineering where the climber(s) – sometimes having just been severely injured – use their equipment to retreat from dangerous or difficult situations on a given climbing route without calling on third party search and rescue (SAR) or mountain rescue services for help.
A rope team is a climbing technique where two or more climbers who are attached to a single climbing rope move simultaneously together along easy-angled terrain that does not require points of fixed climbing protection to be inserted along the route. Rope teams contrast with simul-climbing, which involves only two climbers and where they are ascending steep terrain that will require many points of protection to be inserted along the route. A specific variant of a rope team is the technique of short-roping, which is used by mountain guides to help weaker clients, and which also does not employ fixed climbing protection points.
Alpine climbing is a type of mountaineering that involves using any of a broad range of advanced climbing skills, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large routes in an alpine environment. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is used to refer to climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and in Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry their own equipment, and do all of the climbing.
The Tour Ronde is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps, situated on the border between France and Italy. It is a prominent mountain, some 3.5 km north-east of Mont Blanc, but is effectively part of a continuation of the south eastern spur of Mont Maudit which forms a frontier ridge between the two countries. It is easily accessible to mountaineers and provides not only a very good viewpoint from its summit of the Brenva face and the major peaks on the southern side of Mont Blanc, but it also offers a popular introduction to alpine climbing of all grades, including a north face ascent.
