Have you ever wondered, what is mountaineering? Not sure how to avoid altitude sickness or how to melt snow on a mountain? You’re not alone, that is why we are here to share facts with you and answer the internet’s most frequently asked questions about mountaineering.

What is mountaineering?

It’s nearing a mountain, it’s just the art and science of how to climb large mountains. The differentiation between hiking and mountaineering is when you start to use mountaineering-specific tools and outfits. 

How do you train for mountaineering?

You have to mimic the activity that you are going to do, so mountaineering is just walking uphill slowly, so try to mimic that conditions by walking uphill in smaller zones, even in the gym on a step-mill or a local hill or like stadium steps, with a weighted pack. And that’s sort of just the physical-conditioning side of mountaineering training. One of the most important parts of mountaineering training is figuring out the difference between discomfort and danger. So, that requires making yourself feel uncomfortable and getting intimate with what that feeling is so that you know where the difference is.

How should mountaineering boots fit?

Your boots shouldn't fit like your ski boots. A lot of people put on the mountaineering boot their first time and they think it should be stiff, tight, and potentially a little bit uncomfortable. You’re gonna be spending a ton of time and you need agility in your ankles and feet, so you want it to fit comfortably, pretty much right away. 

What’s the difference between mountaineering boots and hiking boots? 

A lot of hiking boots can be used as mountaineering boots. There is often a part of the sole that allows for a crampon to be snapped onto the boot. And that’s one of the biggest differentiators and then the overall stiffness and warmth of the boot.

How are mountaineering climbs ranked?

Mountaineering is kind of an outside combination of a bunch of different types of climbing. So, sometimes, inside of a mountaineering route, you’ll have rock climbing, you’ll have ice climbing, you’ll have glacier ice-climbing or you’ll just have a very long climb. So there are a couple of different ways that you might see mountaineering ranked and graded. 

What food to take mountaineering?

The food you like to eat. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is to bring trendy, expensive, nutrition-replacement food into the mountains. Like, high-calorie bars and like complex-protein-carb situations, those things can be really good but they also can be a little tough to eat. And so, if you don’t love it at sea level, you’re not gonna love it when you’re working hard up high. The primary food of choice is high-nutrient foods that you just really like. 

How dangerous is mountaineering?

One of the most common answers to any question you have about mountaineering is, “It depends.” There are two things, objective danger, and subjective danger. In the environment you’re climbing in, is there a rock fall, is there ice-fall, is it steep, is there a fast-moving weather system that you can’t control them? And then there are your abilities. And so, you can make any climb very dangerous, and potentially, with skill and training, you can make a lot of climbs safe, except for that objective hazard. So it varies depending on where you’re climbing.

How to prevent altitude sickness, and mountaineering?

Altitude sickness is something that happens physiologically and there’s no sort of ringer of predisposition. It’s not like your fitness predicates whether you get altitude sickness. Anybody can get altitude sickness, even people who haven’t had it previously. One of the best ways to prevent altitude sickness when you’re mountaineering is to ascend slowly. And our sort of golden rule is to not increase your sleeping elevation by more than 3000 feet per night. So you can climb up higher in the daytime and let your body start to do all the things physiologically that help you adjust altitude, but then you go back and sleep down at a lower elevation and slowly move up and incorporate a lot of rest days to allow your body to catch up.

How many liters of water a day for high-altitude mountaineering?

It depends, like most answers to mountaineering, on your output and your efficiency and sort of what you’re doing. But it is important to be replacing what you’re putting out and one of the things that you don’t realize when you’re mountaineering, try never to go out on a long day without at least one or two liters of water.

What is the death zone in mountaineering?

The death zone is any elevation above 26,000 feet and it is called “the death zone” because our bodies, physiologically, cannot survive a prolonged period of time without supplemental oxygen or interventions like drugs, at that altitude. 

What do you wear for mountaineering?

There’s a huge range of this depending on the elevations and the temperatures that you’re gonna experience. Start with either a wool or synthetic base layer that’s gonna be a long sleeve so it can protect all the surfaces of your body and keep you warm. Also, a layer on top that with wind and other weather protection items and pants, fleece, down, synthetic insulation, options just for changing environments. When you’re mountaineering either you can expect that you’re typically out for a long time in the day and so you’re maybe gonna see sunrise and sunset and you’re gonna have a huge temperature range and possibly a lot of weather in those different environments. So, it’s not so much about what you wear, exactly, but what you can wear and what you’re carrying with you.

What types of ropes are used for mountaineering?

Though there are two basic types of rope, you have what used to call static ropes or now, more appropriately, low-stretch ropes. And then you have a dynamic rope that’s specific to climbing. And so, dynamic ropes can act like a bungee cord, if you’re lead climbing and you may fall, you’re placing intermediate protection along the way, you’re gonna fall past that before the rope catches you and you want that rope to stretch and absorb the shock. But if you’re gonna hang ropes, fix them on a mountain and climb up and down repeatedly while you’re acclimatizing then you want ones that don’t stretch as much when you pull. And for rescues, it’s nice to have ropes that don’t stretch.

Why are glacier sunglasses needed for high-altitude mountaineering?

Your eye protection is so important when you’re doing high-altitude mountaineering because one, you’re getting closer to sort of our general solar spot, the sun and those UV rays are getting more and more intense the higher you go. And then, typically, you also have glaciers where they’re reflecting a lot of UV into your face and it’s really easy to damage your eyes, and sunburn can lead to snow blindness on your eyes and be super painful and dangerous.

People that have lighter-colored eyes tend to suffer a little bit more, but if you go high enough and the sun’s bright enough then everybody can become snow blind and it’s sunburning the inside of your eyes. It’s painful and bad for you.

How does hydration keep you warm when mountaineering?

When you become dehydrated, your blood vessels essentially constrict and your body’s not able to perfuse blood through, yeah, the rest of your body, out to your extremities. Dehydration just saps your strength and makes it harder for you to stay warm just because you can’t get adequate blood flow.

How to properly melt ice when mountaineering?

One of the things that are key for actually melting snow to make water when you’re mountaineering, is to start with a little bit of water in the pot. When you are gonna get into camp, you need to make sure you have just a little splash for the bottom of the pot cause, this sounds weird, but you can just burn water you can burn that ice in the bottom of the pot and it just starts kinda turning to vapor and it’s hard to make water then. 

What is self-arrest when mountaineering?

It’s the act of using your ice-ax or whatever tools you have available, to stop a fall. So if you slip and fall while mountaineering and you’re sliding down the slope, you need to stop that immediately because no matter what’s below you, you probably don’t wanna go there.

How old is too old for mountaineering?

You can pick up young and it’s something that can do for all of your life and you can just adjust your playground to your abilities.