Mountain climbing, also called Mountaineering or Alpinism, is the recreational climbing of high mountains. The sport dates back to the 1400's, but the most famous period occurred during the early 1900s. Today, it remains a popular sport throughout the world, with each continent or geographic region having at least one summit high enough to pose a physical and technical challenge.
History
The first recorded successful climb to a mountain's summit was on Mont Aiguille in 1492, an expedition lead by Antione de Ville. Along with a number of other explorative efforts, mountaineering efforts increased during the 18th century, but it wasn't until the mid 1800s that it really began to take off as a major concerted effort. This period of time saw the formation of the Alpine Club, the oldest mountain climbing organization in the world, in Britain and the summitting of most of the major mountains in the Alps, starting with the Wetterhorn by Sir Alfred Wills in 1854. This started the Golden Age of Alpinism, which lasted about 12 years, ending with the successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 by Edward Whymper.With all the home mountains conquered, European climbers began setting their sights abroad. In the United States, climbing had also been going on in the Rockies and Alaska. In Mexico and South America, US and European expeditions ventured up increasingly higher mountains in the Andes and Mexican ranges. Mountains in Australia, New Zealand and Africa were also climbed in the period from 1880 to 1900.
Finally, the only mountains left were in the Himalayas, which contained the highest peaks of all, including Mount Everest. The first attempts occurred in the 1890s, but it wasn't until the early 20th century that climbing began in earnest here. Expeditions began ascending many of these mountains and even began climbs on the eight-thousanders, the peaks that stand more than 8,000 meters above sea level. During this time, English climber Oscar Eckenstein began developing many of the tools and equipment that continue to be used in climbing to this day.
The drive into the Himalayas continued into the 1950s, and on May 29, 1953 the greatest of all, Everest was finally summited by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The final holdouts were climbed within the next 11 years. Ironically, the lowest of the eight-thousanders was the last to be climbed, due to being under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China, which had not allowed anyone on it.
Since then, a thriving community of climbers, guides and businesses has grown around the sport. Each year a large number of rank amateurs make the climb up Everest, to the point that permits to climb have become one of Nepal's major sources of revenue. A number of adventure companies will organize expeditions on mountains all over the world. The drawback is that inexperienced climbers can cause problems for themselves and others. Climbing is dangerous in general and the highest peaks have the added danger of not even being able to breathe for the most part.
Hazards
Hazards can come in a myriad of forms. Avalanches are common on mountains, particularly in areas known as icefalls, where huge chunks of ice can suddenly break off and fall without warning. Crevasses are also common in icefall areas, large gaps that have to be crossed with ladders. The Sherpa of the Himalayas sometimes say if you fall into one, you'll fall all the way to America. Snow and freezing cold temperatures are constant on high mountains, so freezing to death is likely if one is not careful. The very highest peaks are in what is known as the Death Zone, at altitudes approaching those used by commercial airliners where humans simply can't survive due to a combination of cold, high speed winds, and low oxygen.These are some of the more common dangers, but the mountains have plenty of surprises that can catch even experienced mountaineers off guard. The events of the 1996
season and 2014 avalanche on Mount Everest show what can happen, sometimes just by being around the mountain. And, of course, a number of popular climbing mountains also happen to be active volcanoes...
The most dangerous part is the descent, when climbers are more likely to be fatigued, or have impaired judgement. This is where most deaths occur.
Techniques
There are a couple of methods to tackling a mountain. One is known as Alpine climbing, and can be done by a single person toting their own equipment up and down the mountain. The aim is to get up and down quickly, or maybe just to enjoy some alone time with nature.The other method is the expedition. As it sounds, it involves a group of people, lots of equipment and supplies, and often local guides. This is generally the preferred means to climb larger mountains, especially ones that require acclimatizing. The usual procedure is to establish a main base camp near the foot of the mountain, then a series of smaller camps at progressively higher altitudes. Trekking back and forth between them for several week helps the body adjust to the lower oxygen before making a push for the summit.
Mountains have classifications based on their difficulty, though there are several rating systems, using different criteria, but generally the lowest difficulties are those that can be done in a day or two with little more than hiking, while the highest require days and a full load of equipment just to get partway up.
Notable Mountaineers
- Sir Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay: The first climbers to successfully ascend Mount Everest in 1953, and return safely. Norgay had been involved in several prior attempts for the summit and Hillary had been involved in polar expeditions. On the 50th anniversary of their achievement in 2003, their sons Jamling Norgay and Peter Hillary also ascended to the summit.
- George Mallory: Legendary British mountaineer, who participated in the first three attempts to climb Everest. It's considered the biggest debate in climbing if he reached the summit or not with his partner Sandy Irvine, but even if he did, most still credit Hillary and Tenzing since they successfully summited and returned safely. Mallory did not return from Everest and his fate was unknown until his mummified body was discovered in 1999 with a broken leg and injury about the waist, indicating he died in a fall.
- Barry Bishop: The first American to venture to the top of Mount Everest in 1963, known for his work with the National Geographic Society. His son, Brent Bishop, was also part of the aforementioned 2003 expedition.
- William Mathews: British climber who founded the Alpine Club, the oldest mountain climbing club in the world.
- Edwin James: American explorer of the Colorado Rockies, and first to successfully ascend Pikes Peak.
- Ed Viesturs: The only American to have ascended all 14 eight-thousanders. He was the leader of the 1996 IMAX expedition, which produced the film Everest (1998). A 2022 analysis concluded that he was actually the first climber to reach the true summit of all 14 peaks, not Reinhold Messner (below).Background
- Reinhold Messner: Italiannote climber with a huge list of firsts—first solo ascent of Everest; along with Austrian colleague Peter Habeler, the first to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen; and the first credited with summiting all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so in each case without supplemental oxygen. While Messner was beaten to the Seven Summits (see below) by Richard Bass, Patrick Morrow (see both below), and a couple of others, he was the first to do so without using supplemental oxygen on Everest.
- Richard Bass: An American businessman and amateur mountaineer, he was the first to climb the Seven Summits (see below). However, he used Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point of mainland Australia, as his "Australia" summit. Many in the mountaineering community, including the aforementioned Messner, pointed out that the island of New Guinea shares a continental shelf with Australia, making Puncak Jaya the proper "Australian" summit. Eventually, the Seven Summits list with Kosciuszko became known as the "Bass list", and the version with Puncak Jaya became the "Messner list" or the "Carstensz list" (from Puncak Jaya's alternate name of Carstensz Pyramid).
- Patrick Morrow: Canadian climber who was the first to complete the Carstensz version of the Seven Summits.
- Christian Stangl: Austrian climber who was the first to complete the Seven Second Summits (also below), climbing all possible candidates (including some New Guinea peaks not listed).
Mountain Groupings
Seven Summits
These are the highest mountains in various regions of the world. This can change depending on where one draws the boundaries for each region.
- Africa: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
- Antarctica: Mount Vinson
- Asia: Mount Everest (China / Nepal)
- Australia: Mount Kosciuszko (on the island of Australia itself) or Puncak Jaya (in the Indonesian portion of New Guinea)
- Europe: Mount Elbrus (in European Russia) or Mont Blanc (in France and Italy)
- North America: Denali note (Alaska, United States)
- South America: Aconcagua (Argentina)
There are also second and third summit lists which have the second- and third-highest peaks on their regions, as well as lists for the highest and second-highest volcanic summits in their regions. Kilimanjaro and (by most definitions) Elbrus are also among the Volcanic Seven Summits.
Seven Second Summits
These are the second-highest mountains in various regions of the world. As with the Seven Summits list, this can change depending on where one draws the boundaries for each region. Notably, most of the mountaineering community considers this a greater challenge than the Seven Summits themselves. Accordingly, we'll briefly compare the difficulty of the Second Summits to the Seven Summits proper.
- Africa: Mount Kenya
- Kilimanjaro requires no technical climbing skill, but Mount Kenya is a rock climb.
- Antarctica: Mount Tyree
- Mount Vinson presents little difficulty beyond normal Antarctic challenges, but Mount Tyree is a technical climb that (as of early 2023) has been summited by fewer than 20 people.
- Asia: K2 (China / Pakistan; claimed by India)
- K2 is a vastly more difficult technical climb than Everest, and experiences even more savage weather, being almost 8 degrees of latitude north of Everest.
- Australia: Mount Townsend (on the island of Australia itself) or Puncak Mandala (in the Indonesian portion of New Guinea)
- Townsend is slightly more challenging than Kosciuszko, but still a walk-up. Puncak Jaya is a more technically difficult climb than Puncak Mandala. However, the approach route is arguably a bigger issue with climbing the big New Guinea peaks, and Mandala has a far more difficult approach than Jaya—so much so that as of 2023, there have been only two successful approaches (and climbs).
- Europe: Dykh-Tau (in European Russia) or Monte Rosa (in Italy and Switzerland)
- Dykh-Tau is considerably more challenging than Elbrus. Monte Rosa and Mont Blanc are comparable in difficulty.
- North America: Mount Logan (Yukon, Canada)
- Denali and Mount Logan are reportedly comparable in technical difficulty. However, the latter is far more difficult to approach. Denali's base camp has regular air service, but climbers without the means to charter a plane must tow their supplies over 100 km to reach Mount Logan's base camp.
- South America: Ojos del Salado (Argentina / Chile)
- Aconcagua is a walk-up; Ojos del Salado requires a short scramble (i.e., using hands as well as feet). However, the base camp of Ojos del Salado is accessible by four-wheel drive vehicle to 5200 m, and climbing parties need only make one stop at a mountain hut before the final push to the summit. Aconcagua's base camp, accessible by mule, is 700 m lower in elevation, and climbers must carry their supplies to as many as three higher camps before the final ascent.
Volcanic Seven Summits
Similar to the Seven Summits, except that the peaks on this list must be of volcanic origin (though not necessarily currently active). That said, the summit must have been elevated to its current point by volcanism. Another complication in determining the qualifying peaks is the amount of topographic prominence needed.
- Africa: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
- Antarctica: Mount Sidley
- Asia: Mount Damavand (Iran)
- A group of volcanic vents known as the Kunlun Volcanic Group in the Chinese region of Tibet contains more than 70 peaks that are higher than Damavand. However, they are considered types of pyroclastic cone instead of true mountains, and it is disputed whether any have a prominence of more than 300 m, the most common prominence required to declare a true peak.
- Australia: Mount Giluwe (in Papua New Guinea)
- There are a few dormant and extinct volcanoes on the Australian mainland, but most lists accept Giluwe as the highest volcano in Australia. Geologists have confirmed it is an old volcano; all higher peaks on New Guinea are non-volcanic. Even if the continent is extended to include all of Oceania (including Hawaii), Giluwe is higher than Hawaii's high point of Mauna Kea and any volcano in New Zealand.
- Europe: Mount Elbrus (in European Russia)
- A minority of geologists consider the Kuma–Manych depression, which lies north of the Caucasus, as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Using this boundary would make Elbrus the highest volcano of Asia, and Mount Etna (Sicily, Italy) the highest volcano in Europe.
- North America: Pico de Orizaba, aka Citlaltépetl (Veracruz, Mexico)
- South America: Ojos del Salado (Argentina / Chile)
- While Aconcagua has a volcanic origin, its summit was raised to its current elevation by plate tectonics, not volcanic activity.
Eight Thousanders
The 14 peaks which rise more that 8,000 meters above sea level, at which point what is known as the Death Zone begins, the point at which human bodies begin to degrade. All of them are in the Himalayas.
- Shishapangma (China) 8027 m
- Gasherbrum II (China / Pakistan) 8035 m
- Broad Peak (China / Pakistan) 8051 m
- Gasherbrum I (China / Pakistan) 8080 m
- Annapurna I (Nepal) 8091 m
- Nanga Parbat (Pakistan) 8126 m
- Manaslu (Nepal) 8163 m
- Dhaulagiri I (Nepal) 8167 m
- Cho Oyu (China/Nepal) 8201 m
- Makalu (China / Nepal) 8485 m
- Lhotse (China / Nepal) 8516 m
- Kangchenjunga (India / Nepal) 8586 m
- K2 (China / Pakistan) 8611 m
- Mount Everest (China / Nepal) 8848 m (and growing!)
See Scaling the Summit for mountain climbing in fiction.
