First ascent
A first ascent in the mountaineering sense is the first mastering of a special route (such as the ascent of the Eiger north face ) on a certain mountain, massif or rock. The development of new routes is usually carried out by locally resident climbers who climb a piece of rock that has not yet been climbed and, if necessary, provide them with safety hooks or z. B. Secure clamping wedges and slings.
In sport climbing , the route is usually equipped with bolts before the first ascent . In this case , the climber roping off , pierced in the rope hanging with a rechargeable drill holes in the rock and the hooks mounted. This step is called setup. In a second step, there is the first ascent, not always by the same person. This only applies if the climber has climbed the route in a recognized ascent style . After a successful ascent, the first climber gives the route a name and rates its difficulty according to a difficulty scale .
New routes are now published in climbing guides , specialist magazines or on internet climbing sites. First ascents have very different demands depending on the area. In the high mountains (e.g. the Himalayas ) the requirements, the effort and the risk are very high, while this is not the case in the low mountain ranges .