Mountaineering
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism[2] is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right.[3][4][5][6] Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some,[7][8] but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.
"Mountaineer" redirects here. For other uses, see Mountaineer (disambiguation).Unlike most sports, mountaineering lacks widely applied formal rules, regulations, and governance; mountaineers adhere to a large variety of techniques and philosophies (including grading and guidebooks) when climbing mountains.[8][9] Numerous local alpine clubs support mountaineers by hosting resources and social activities. A federation of alpine clubs, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), is the International Olympic Committee-recognized world organization for mountaineering and climbing.[10] The consequences of mountaineering on the natural environment can be seen in terms of individual components of the environment (land relief, soil, vegetation, fauna, and landscape) and the location/zone of mountaineering activity (hiking, trekking, or climbing zone).[11] Mountaineering impacts communities on economic, political, social and cultural levels, often leading to changes in people's worldviews influenced by globalization, specifically foreign cultures and lifestyles.[12]
History[edit]
Early mountaineering[edit]
Humans have been present in mountains since prehistory. The remains of Ötzi, who lived in the 4th millennium BC, were found in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps.[13] However, the highest mountains were rarely visited early on, and were often associated with supernatural or religious concepts.[14] Nonetheless, there are many documented examples of people climbing mountains prior to the formal development of the sport in the 19th century, although many of these stories are sometimes considered fictional or legendary.[8]
The famous poet Petrarch describes his 26 April 1336 ascent of Mount Ventoux (1,912 m (6,273 ft)) in one of his epistolae familiares, claiming to be inspired by Philip V of Macedon's ascent of Mount Haemo.[15][16]
For most of antiquity, climbing mountains was a practical or symbolic activity, usually undertaken for economic, political, or religious purposes. A commonly cited example is the 1492 ascent of Mont Aiguille (2,085 m (6,841 ft)) by Antoine de Ville, a French military officer and lord of Domjulien and Beaupré.[16] Because ropes, ladders and iron hooks were used, and because it was the first climb of any technical difficulty to be officially verified, this ascent is widely recognized as being the birth of mountaineering.[17]
Conrad Gessner, A mid-16th Century physician, botanist and naturalist from Switzerland, is widely recognized as being the first person to hike and climb for sheer pleasure.[17]
In the Andes, around the late 1400s and early 1500s many ascents were made of extremely high peaks by the Incas and their subjects. The highest they are known for certain to have climbed is 6739 m at the summit of Volcan Llullaillaco.[18]