Mountaineering

[13] 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.

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.

[15] 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.

[16] 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.

In 1757 Swiss scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure made the first of several unsuccessful attempts on Mont Blanc in France.

[15] In the early years of the "golden age", scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall.

[21] The first president of the Alpine Club, John Ball, is considered to be the discoverer of the Dolomites, which for decades were the focus of climbers like Paul Grohmann and Angelo Dibona.

In 1895 Albert F. Mummery died while attempting Nanga Parbat, while in 1899 Douglas Freshfield took an expedition to the snowy regions of Sikkim.

A number of Gurkha sepoys were trained as expert mountaineers by Charles Granville Bruce, and a good deal of exploration was accomplished by them.

The 1924 expedition saw another height record achieved but still failed to reach the summit with confirmation when George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared on the final attempt.

[31] Just a few months later, Hermann Buhl made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat (8,125 m), on the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition, completing the last 1,300 meters walking alone, self-medicating with pervitin (based on the stimulant methamphetamine used by soldiers during World War II), the vasodilator padutin, and a stimulant tea made from coca leaves.

[33][34] Long the domain of the wealthy elite and their agents, the emergence of the middle-class in the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in mass interest in mountaineering.

In practice, the sport is defined by the safe and necessary use of technical skills in mountainous terrain: in particular, roped climbing and snow travel abilities.

This involves the use of equipment, such as ladders, fixed lines, and ascenders to help the climber push themself up the rock.

This means climbers may need to move efficiently from climbing glacier, to rock, to ice, back and forth in a number of variations.

These anchors are sometimes unreliable and include snow stakes or pickets, deadman devices called flukes, or buried equipment or rocks.

Often, mountaineers climbing steep snow or mixed snowy rock terrain will not use a fixed belay.

[38] In remote locations, mountaineers will set up a "base camp," which is an area used for staging attempts at nearby summits.

The mountain huts are of varying size and quality, but each is typically centred on a communal dining room and have dormitories equipped with mattresses, blankets or duvets, and pillows; guests are expected to bring and use their own sleeping bag liners.

The manager of the hut, termed a guardian or warden in Europe, will usually also sell refreshments and meals, both to those visiting only for the day and to those staying overnight.

Once made, the cancellation of a reservation is advised as a matter of courtesy – and, indeed, potentially of safety, as many huts keep a record of where climbers and walkers state they plan to walk to next.

In the Scottish Highlands small simple unstaffed shelters without cooking facilities known as "bothies" are maintained to break up cross country long routes and act as base camps to certain mountains.

The addition of a good quality bivouac bag and closed cell foam sleeping mat will also increase the warmth of the snow cave.

Climbers improve upon their ability to become a safe decision maker and recognize hazards by receiving proper education, training, practice, and experience as well as learning how to spot personal bias.

[46] Common symptoms of altitude sickness include severe headache, sleep problems, nausea, lack of appetite, lethargy and body ache.

Common symptoms of heat exhaustion include headaches, cool and clammy skin, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, thirst, and rapid pulse.

[38][50] Common symptoms of heat stroke can be an altered state of mind, rapid pulse and respiratory rate, headache, hot skin, loss of coordination, and possible seizures.

[51] Problems that can arise from the cold include wind chill, hypothermia, frost nip, frostbite, and immersion foot.

Other tips for preventing hypothermia include staying well fed and hydrated, putting on more clothes when feeling cold, and wearing adequate equipment to keep warm and dry.

With this style, climbers will carry large amounts of equipment and provisions up and down the mountain, slowly making upward progress.