Alpine Climbing

[Bug]

To someone like Colin or Wayne, yes.

On the other hand, if something is aqua, kind of blue and kind of green is either color being overused as an adjective?

[Hendershot]

Alpine is so Core

[pink]

To someone like Colin or Wayne, yes.

On the other hand, if something is aqua, kind of blue and kind of green is either color being overused as an adjective?

 

so infinite bliss is a big wall?

[G-spotter]

by definition, alpine is above treeline.

 

So the Tooth etc. are not alpine.

 

Thank you for allowing alpinist to post.

[pink]

thank you

[pink]

what is your definition g-spot?

[G-spotter]

ummmmmm could it be climbing routes in the mountains above the treeline

[pink]

just checking, i'm thinking other people have different definitions.

[pink]

where does the tree line end? does it vary?

[jared_j]

I hear the term alpine climbing and I think 'commitment' and 'substantially higher elevation from where I park my car'.

 

I also think of this term as being defined to contrast with 'cragging'. Understanding what people on this board mean when they use the term alpine might be aided by understanding what they define as cragging.

 

I think of cragging as being relatively low-committal. One can back off of a route relatively easily (by being lowered, or by a small number of rappels). By low-committal, I also think 'proximity to safety'. In most instances, this means proximity to ones' car.

 

There are lower - elevation crags that involve long approaches, and there are climbs labelled as alpine that are relatively close to ones' car (e.g. Washington Pass). So yes, surprise surprise, constructing a precise definition may be impossible.

[pink]

thank you

 

interested in hearing what different people think.

[G-spotter]

where does the tree line end? does it vary?

 

Everything you ever wanted to know and then some:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_line

[bstach]

Is Yak Peak alpine or cragging with an alpine feel?

[G-spotter]

The summit is just barely above treeline on that one but the south face routes are cragging. The north face is a different story.

[cheamclimber]

I did the North Face of Yak and it was definitely alpine.... it went at A1 5.12d 17 pitches.... all free it would be about 5.13c.... great day out... did I mention I did it solo and flew off the summit with my jetpack

[TimL]

I bouldered in the Bugs...would that be alpine bouldering or climbing....could be alpine cragging.

 

Define alpine clucking.... 8D

 

 

[pink]

anything above the hair line is considered clucking.

 

backcountry clucking would be acceptable as well.

[TimL]

anything above the hair line is considered clucking.

 

backcountry clucking would be acceptable as well.

 

 

...and anything below the alpine hairline would be.....bushwacking?

[wayne]

Alpine and committed climbing are the only types of "climbing"

Everything else is practice.

The scale slides for all. Is it a practice climb for you or the real deal. The point is to push your scale.

[mattp]

I'm sure most here will disagree but I think the term "alpine" has always involved something more than just rock climbing. Generally, this means there is some snow and ice involved but certainly there are some long or complicated rock climbs that are in a mountain environment that have the added value that I'd consider them alpine - especially where there are complex descents required or the needed technical skills in some way overlap with mountaineering.

 

I've often said that the simpler standard rock climbs routes in the Bugaboos, for example, are not really "alpine." The line (for me) is somewhere between Surf's Up, which is a rock climb that you approach on glacier, and the Beckey Chouinard, with a long climb and descent of the other side of the peak, over a schrund, and onto steepish snow. Most people, I think, carry an ice axe of some kind on the BC; nobody does so on SU.

[pope]

It's all about the garb. When you put on wooly knickers and gaiters to hike up Mt. Si, you're alpine climbing. This became clear to me on Chimney Rock when we left our packs on the glacier and went up the wall with just a rope and about six nuts kind of early one morning. I remember wearing a T-shirt and yellow lycra tights. As we ran the rope right through six mountaineers bivied on a ledge four pitches up, one of them woke up, took a look at my goofy pants and remarked, "Buddy, this is an alpine climb."

[pink]

lycra is cool until you pitch a tent

[pope]

I've got an extra leg sewn in my lycra for such events.

[pink]

would that be a foreseason tent?

[pope]

Megamid. Ask your sister.