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mountaineering is an inherently dangerous activity.
every season you hear of fatalists on the slopes and faces
both for the novice and experienced climbers.

i look at mountaineering as an effort to solve problems with a growing number of variables.
no matter how much beta you gather before the climb and how much experience you got it is a changing environment which asks that you the climber make adjustments to solve the problem at hand.
if its rock fall do too massive melting or avalanches do to a new layer of snow or just bad weather combined with high exposure.
a mountaineer needs to adjust and asses the situation accordingly its these problems that may lead to errors in judgment resulting in massive failure.
leaving you're mind unchecked during a demanding climb for each ones respective grade is where the mountain gets you or vise versa climbing a lower grade and ignoring oblivious tells lead to disaster in shorty ego.
Climbing is dangerous know what you're doing and keep thinking how to not die and have some fun at the same time yay!!

Mattski, I'm glad you use this website!

Sure mountaineering is dangerous. Holds break, people slip, etc.. What's dangerous about it is the consequences of little errors.

That being said, there are lots of things just as dangerous. Look at BASE jumping, surfing, motocross, any kind of moto racing for that matter. Even college parties and driving!

Dangerous is a subjective term anyways. It's all about the risk you're willing to take for everything that takes place outside a padded insane asylum cell.

All of us that have been around this for a while know of competent able climbers who were killed in "freak" accidents. Sure it's dangerous, so what? I always say: "it is not dyine that worries me, the scary choice is NOT LIVING."

It can be. I´m getting over the results of a bit of "mountain danger" now. I don´t really think I did much wrong, pulled up on the wrong hold, even if it was obvious, hold broke off, I followed it. The damage limitation worked, i.e. my partner held me. Still got injured though.

Yes. There are multiple objective and subjective hazards at play in mountaineering scenarios. And it's things like (but not limited to) instinct, knowledge, experience, and skill that one uses to stack the odds in his or her favour.

Edit: spelling

I agree with most of the posters above. Mountaineering is inherently dangerous and that danger generally increases when you climb at higher levels. In nature, nothing is guaranteed and although you may do your best to minimize the objective hazards, shit happens.

Is a climber unlucky, not skilled, accident prone, or just climbing to the edge of their skill if they are involved with several close calls?

It is somewhat scary that you don't know if mountaineering is dangerous or not. You should have a healthy respect for the mountains and climbing. You can be the best climber there ever was, and get stuck in a situation d/t weather, conditions, your partner getting hurt, etc and be SOL.

As a nurse in CO, I've seen REALLY good climbers die climbing something that was far beneath their level.

mattski, is english a second language for you?

I could ask the same thing.

You should probably quit mountaineering then, because it IS dangerous. And the fact that you don't realize that means you probably will f-up and die.

You drive vehicles in New Zealand?

JJBrunner wrote:You drive vehicles in New Zealand?

Yes, but the Kiwis drive on the left side of the road, so are always smashing into the tourists who fuel the economy.

Five people I've climbed with have died in mountaineering accidents. One on K2,one on Raineer,one in the Tetons,one on the Matterhorn in Switzerland,and one on Surgar Loaf in the Sierra. They were all experienced .

If I was a cat, with 13 lives, I'd be a dead cat because of climbing.

I think I'm a elephant dung beetle, aren't dung beetles supposed to have 15 lives?

Is climbing that dangerous, or have I just been foolish?

Where is the line between bravery and foolishness? Is it bravery (succeeded) and foolishness (failed)? Or what?

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:If I was a cat, with 13 lives, I'd be a dead cat because of climbing.

I think I'm a elephant dung beetle, aren't dung beetles supposed to have 15 lives?

Is climbing that dangerous, or have I just been foolish?

Where is the line between bravery and foolishness? Is it bravery (succeeded) and foolishness (failed)? Or what?

I don´t know how many lives they have but they lay about 1000 eggs.

Looks like Jr. is getting confused again, there is a difference between mountaineering and alpine climbing.

Mountaineering is generally the easiest and safest route up an objective. (Example: the DC route up Mt. Rainier. Generally long snow slogs, crevasse travel and easy angled snow/Ice) It is uncommon to have lots of Ice and belay stations involved.

Alpine climbing is much different. That would include the shortest and or most difficult route to your objective done in a fast amount of time. (Example would be a route with multiple pitches including rock/ice/ and or mixed climbing and maybe even aid, maybe a night or two, lots of exposure and use of a lot of technical gear.)

The brevity of my definition limits me to more detail, but if you want more read Freedom of the Hills. I think you would learn a lot.

And to answer your question, yes they are both dangerous in their own ways.