Ice climbing

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. Ice climbing originated as a subdiscipline of alpine climbing, where sections of scalable ice are encountered on alpine routes alongside segments that require rock or mixed climbing. Ice climbing arose as an independent sport in the 1970s. Modern ice climbing includes a difficulty grading system that peaks at WI6 to WI7, as ice tends to hang vertically at its most severe. WI7 is very rare and usually attributed to overhanging ice with serious risk issues (i.e. unstable ice, little protection, and a risk of death). Advancements in mixed climbing in the 1980s pushed the technical difficulty of ice-climbing routes by introducing rock overhangs and roofs that can entail dry-tooling, which is the use of ice tools on bare rock. Since 2002, the UIAA have regulated competition ice climbing, which is offered in a lead climbing format on an artificial bolted wall that employs dry-tooling techniques (e.g. stein pulls and figure-four moves), and in a speed climbing format that uses a standardized wall of real ice. Since 2010, ice climbers at Helmcken Falls in Canada have used the unique characteristics of the waterfall to create severely overhanging bolted ice climbing routes that are graded up to WI13, and are the hardest technical ice climbs in the world.

Description

Ice climbing uses specialized equipment, namely ice tools and crampons, to ascend routes consisting of frozen water ice, and/or frozen snow fields. As with rock climbing, ice climbing can be done as free climbing and performed in climbing pairs where the lead climber inserts climbing protection equipment into the ice route as they ascend for their safety. After the lead climber has reached the top, the second-climber (or belayer) then removes this protection as they ascend the route. The protection equipment that is used when leading ice routes are specialized steel ice screws. The ice screws require considerable experience to use properly and safely, and given that the underlying condition of the ice can change materially over time (including constantly breaking off), the seriousness of leading an ice climbing route is considered to be greater than that of a traditional rock climbing route. For example, while an intermediate ice climber could 'top rope' a WI4-graded ice climbing route, 'leadclimbing' WI4-graded route is a far more serious undertaking. In contrast to rock climbing, "the leader must not fall" ethos is a core part of ice climbing. Ice climbing can also be performed as free solo climbing, which is an even riskier undertaking (the climber uses their ice tools and crampons but has no climbing protection such as ice screws); or performed as top roping which is the safest form of ice climbing and the format used for novices being introduced to the sport. Ice climbing was developed as part of the broader climbing discipline of alpine climbing, where it is still a key component of the alpinist's skill set. Where the ice climbing route does not fully consist of ice and has elements of bare rock, it is known as mixed climbing. Where the route has no ice whatsoever, but the climber still uses the ice tools and crampons, it is known as dry-tooling. Because mixed climbing and dry-tooling routes can be fully bolted — just like sport climbing routes are in rock climbing (i.e because there is bare rock into which bolts can be drilled) — they have become popular as safer alternatives to traditional ice routes.

Types of routes

Ice climbing can take on a broad range of climbing routes. A common type of ice route is a frozen waterfall, particularly one that cascades down a mountain face or a down-mountain gully. Ice climbing routes can also take the form of high alpine snow-covered couloirs that are permanently frozen year-round. Giant icicles (also known as ice-daggers) have also been climbed as ice routes, and also as part of mixed routes; although such icicles can often dangerously break off and have been a source of several ice climber fatalities. Ice climbing routes normally don't move beyond the sheer vertical for sustained distances due to the nature of ice (i.e. ice rarely stays in an overhanging fashion for any length of time). This means that standard ice-climbing grades broadly peak at WI6-7 (i.e. WI7 being completely sheer vertical ice and with additional risk issues). In contrast, extreme mixed-climbing routes have been developed beyond the equivalent M7-grade as they can incorporate routes that cross overhanging bare rock roofs to get to the vertical hanging icicle such as Jeff Lowe's groundbreaking Octopussy WI6 M8 in Vail, Colorado. In Helmcken Falls in Canada, a situation arises where a perennially active waterfall keeps severely overhanging rock faces covered in thick ice, thus creating 'overhanging ice routes' of sorts. Ice climbers have established bolted routes (there is enough rock for the bolts) graded above WI7 (currently at WI13, as of 2023) in Helmcken.

History For decades, ice and mixed climbing were part of the alpine climbing skill set. During the 1960s, ambitious early ice climbers began to use pitons to climb harder ice routes but this was dangerous and very unstable. The breakthrough came in the 1960s when Yvon Chouinard designed a new wooden-handled ice axe with a curved serrated pick called the "Climax". This was followed in 1970, when Hamish MacInnes designed the all-metal aluminum alloy ice axe that had a radically dropped pick called the "Terrordactyl" (or Terror). These two ice axes revolutionized ice climbing and eventually became merged into the modern all-metal ice axe (later the ice tool) with its dropped pick but curved and serrated tip (the now familiar "banana shape").

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