Alpine climbing

Alpine climbing (German: Alpinklettern) is a type of mountaineering that uses any of a broad range of advanced climbing techniques, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large climbing routes (e.g. multi-pitch or big wall climbs) in mountainous environments. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is now used to refer to such climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine-climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry all their equipment (e.g. no porters are used), and do all of the climbing themselves (e.g. no sherpas or reserve teams).

In addition to the specific risks of rock, ice, and mixed climbing, alpinists face a wide range of serious additional risks. This includes the risks of rockfalls (common with rock faces in alpine environments), of avalanches (especially in couloirs), of seracs and crevasses, of violent storms hitting climbers on exposed mountain faces, of altitude effects (dehydration, edema, frostbite), of complex navigation and route finding, of long dangerous abseils, and of the difficulty of rescue and/or retreat due to the remoteness of the setting. Due to the large scale of the routes, alpine climbers need to be able to move simultaneously together at time for speed (e.g. simul climbing or as rope teams), which brings another source of serious risk.

The first "golden age" of modern alpine-climbing was the first free ascents – in summer, in winter, and as solo – of the great north faces of the Alps by pioneers such as Walter Bonatti, Riccardo Cassin and Gaston Rebuffat. The subsequent era, which is still ongoing, focused on the equivalent ascents and enchainments, of the ice and snow-covered faces and ridges of major Himalayan peaks (e.g. the eight-thousanders, Latok, The Ogre) and Patagonian peaks (e.g. Cerro Torre Group, Fitz Roy Group) in "alpine style" by pioneers such as Hermann Buhl, Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott, and latterly by alpinists such as Ueli Steck, Mick Fowler, Paul Ramsden, and Marko Prezelj. The annual Piolets d'Or – the "Oscars of mountaineering" – are awarded for the best achievements in alpine climbing during the previous year.