Ice climbing is an adventurous sport that is similar to rock climbing in many ways. One of the traits that are seen both in ice climbing and rock climbing is handling a vertical or nearly vertical ascent. Both the sports require great skills, concentration and most importantly, courage. They are literally a one-man show. In this article, we discuss about the basics of Ice climbing.

Generally, the ice climbers ascend ice falls or rocky surfaces over which water has frozen. They also climb frozen waterfalls, which is the most challenging of all the vertical ascends. The consistency of ice depends upon the weather and the type of ice which is being climbed. Ice is broadly categorized into two types- alpine ice (formed from the precipitation over a mountain) and water ice that comes from flowing water sources frozen during the winter.

Ice climbers use rope systems that are attached to a harness and hooked into a belaying system which releases the rope in a controlled manner. A variety of tools are used to firmly connect the rope system to the climbing surface.

Ice climbers prefer to wear boots with spikes on the bottom of the boots as to get better traction while walking across ice. This type of boots provides greater stability while climbing an ice surface.

Ice axe is another gear used by ice climbers. An ice axe helps the climbers to ascend with ease. The ice axe can also be used as a walking stick. When climbing, the ice axe can be used as a dagger. The ice climbers also use this gear to pull themselves farther up the side of the ice face. Ice climbers wear a greater degree of padding materials to keep themselves warm during the extreme cold weather.

If you thoroughly follow the basics of ice climbing, it can be one of the most extreme outdoor sports!

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Ice climbing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.