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, for 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.
Climbing protection are mechanical man-made devices employed to reduce the risk and effect of a fall to climbers while on rock or ice. It includes such items as nylon webbing and metal nuts, cams, bolts, and pitons.
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. On steep terrain it is swung by its handle and embedded in snow or ice for security and an aid to traction. It can also be buried pick down, the rope tied around the shaft to form a secure anchor on which to bring up a second climber, or buried vertically to form a stomp belay. The adze is used to cut footholds, as well as scoop out compacted snow to bury the axe as a belay anchor.
Glossary of climbing terms relates to rock climbing, mountaineering, and to ice climbing.
Ice climbing involves ascending routes that consist only of frozen water. To ascend the route, 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.
Abseiling, also known as rappelling, is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down the rope, in contrast to lowering off, in which the rope attached to the person descending is paid out by their belayer.
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.
The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. The BMC are also recognised by government as the national governing body for competition climbing.
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with mental control. Knowledge of proper climbing techniques and the use of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes.
Ian McNaught-Davis was a British television presenter best known for presenting the BBC television series The Computer Programme, Making the Most of the Micro and Micro Live in the 1980s. He was also a mountaineer and alpinist. He was managing director of the British subsidiary of Comshare Inc.
Competition climbing is a type of rock climbing held indoors on purpose-built artificial climbing walls, although earlier versions were held on external natural rock surfaces. The three standalone competition climbing disciplines are: lead climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing. A fourth discipline of "combined" is based on combinations of results in the three main disciplines. Competition climbing is sometimes called "sport climbing", which is the type of lead climbing performed in competition climbing.
A dynamic rope is a specially constructed, somewhat elastic rope used primarily in rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering. This elasticity, or stretch, is the property that makes the rope dynamic—in contrast to a static rope that has only slight elongation under load. Greater elasticity allows a dynamic rope to more slowly absorb the energy of a sudden load, such from arresting a climber's fall, by reducing the peak force on the rope and thus the probability of the rope's catastrophic failure. A kernmantle rope is the most common type of dynamic rope now used. Since 1945, nylon has, because of its superior durability and strength, replaced all natural materials in climbing rope.
An ice screw is a threaded tubular screw used as a running belay or anchor by climbers on steep ice surface such as steep waterfall ice or alpine ice during ice climbing or crevasse rescue, to hold the climber in the event of a fall, and at belays as anchor points.
The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) is a non governmental sports organisation for the promotion of mountaineering, climbing and other mountain-related adventure activities in Pakistan. In addition to this, the club serves as the national sports governing body for the sport of mountaineering and climbing in Pakistan.
Artimes Farshad Yeganeh is an Iranian rock climber who has been climbing for 30 years of experiences as a professional climber, members of Iran sport climbing National Team for many years, as route setter in many national, continental and world cups and championships, and head coach of Iran Sport Climbing National Team for 6 years. He also participates in sport climbing and bouldering competitions and is one of the most famous Iranian climbers.
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 all of their own equipment, and do all of the climbing.
Pit Schubert is a German non-fiction author, climber and mountaineer. He is the founder and former head of the safety commission of the German Alpine Club (DAV).
The Ice Climbing World Cup is an annual ice climbing competition organized by the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), who has regulated and governed the sport of competition ice climbing since the first IWC in 2002.
The Ice Climbing World Youth Championships is an annual international competition of ice climbing. The competition is organized by the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, who regulate and govern competition ice climbing and consists of two events: lead and speed climbing.
