What exactly is mountaineering?
Technically anybody could walk to the top of a mountain but this would not make them a mountaineer. Mountaineering can best be described as the ascent of any hill or mountain where the gradient and severity of the terrain requires some form of climbing and the sustained use of technical equipment. In summer this equipment can include a helmet, rope, harness, karabiner and protective climbing equipment, and in winter will include the addition of crampons, ice axe and protective ice-climbing equipment. Mountaineering will inevitably involve periods of hill walking but what distinguishes these two activities is whether you need to use technical equipment in order to reach your objective… the summit! How can you benefit from mountaineering? There are numerous benefits to mountaineering. The most obvious benefits are improving both your physical fitness and cardiovascular fitness levels as well as reducing body fat through aerobic exercise. Some other less obvious or ‘less tangible’ benefit
