ice climbing
Sign in to saveAlso known as WI climbing, alpine climbing, dry tooling, mixed climbing
type of climbing with ice tools
~26 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Xaver Bongard [de] on Crack Baby (350 metres, IV, WI6), Switzerland
Ice climbing is a climbing discipline that involves ascending routes consisting entirely of frozen water. To ascend, the ice climber uses specialist equipment, particularly double ice axes (or the more modern ice tools) 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ice climbing” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.