Ice climbing

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Ice climbing

Ice climbing is climbing ice formations such as frozen waterfalls and icicles. The climbers use crampons and ice axes (special ice axes ) to climb in the ice. Ice climbing is a special discipline of alpine climbing or mountaineering , as all knowledge of alpine climbing is necessary here. Therefore the same protective equipment is used as for alpine (winter) climbing.

Ice tour

Ice tour to the Zuckerhütl

An ice tour describes a high alpine climbing tour through an ice wall. Ice walls are usually located on glaciated mountains and have an incline between 40 ° and 90 °. In rare cases, overhangs can occur, e.g. B. with free-standing ice pillars or cones. Climbing an ice wall requires crampons, ice ax, ice screws , a helmet and rope .

Backup in the ice

Various ice tools

Ice screws are used to attach intermediate securing devices and to construct a stand when ice climbing . These have replaced the ice nails used in the past. To build a stand, two ice screws are generally connected to a sling using a triangle of forces , but they can also be attached in rows. It is extremely important to pay attention to the quality of the ice when installing the fuses. If possible, attach ice screws in steep ice, as the risk of air bubbles in the ice is much smaller and there is practically no “cauliflower ice”. When setting the ice screw, attention should also be paid to the angle at which the screw is attached. In most cases it is advisable to screw in the screw at a 90 ° angle to the ice. However, if there is a risk of the screw melting out, it should be set at a 75 ° angle (so that the screw comes slightly at an angle from above). Large hourglasses can also be used to attach fuses.

When retreating, ice hourglasses are drilled into the ice with the help of ice screws and tape loops or cords are pulled through. The climber can then abseil on these (however, lowering is not possible because of the risk of melting the loop through which the rope would have to run, unless a snap hook is used, which is left behind).

A second method of abseiling is the self-unscrewing ice screw. To do this, the ice screw is provided with a cord. The accessory cord is attached to the screw bracket, wrapped around the ice screw and attached to the rope at the second end. When the rope is pulled off, the ice screw is unscrewed by the cord and falls down together with the rope.

Dry tooling

In recent years, dry tooling has developed as a special discipline in ice climbing. A rock face is climbed with special ice tools and crampons. Dry tooling came about because many ice climbers had to negotiate difficult places in the rock in search of difficult icicles on the approach to these icicles.

Mixed climbing

Mixed climbing is the youngest form of ice or waterfall climbing, in which you have to overcome dry tooling passages between the ice climbing passages with ice tools and crampons. For example, overhanging rock zones are climbed through by placing the ice axes on rock ledges or wedging them in cracks, and in this way a free-hanging icicle is reached and then climbed.

The difficulty of ice or mixed tours is rated using special difficulty scales.

See also

literature

  • Bruno Hasler: The fascination and dangers of steep ice climbing . In: The Alps . No. 2 , 2006, p. 24–25 (full text available on the web).
  • Dominik Osswald: The basics of ice climbing. Der Bund , Bern, February 27, 2017, p. 26

Web links

Commons : Ice Climbing  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the ice ax. Retrieved December 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Construction site stand . Safety technology for ice fall climbing. In: German Alpine Association , Austrian Alpine Association , Alpine Association South Tyrol , Swiss Alpine Club (publisher): bergundstieg . No. 3 . Innsbruck 2003, p. 76–83 ( alpineausbildung.at [PDF; accessed on February 3, 2011]).