Sports & Fitness
Mountaineering
The summit is half of it; the descent is where things go wrong
This means technical climbing above the snow line, not hiking. It starts with a course in roping up, movement and self-arrest, and people go with a team or a guide, because alone is a different order of risk. A full kit is expensive and altitude needs acclimatising. Time costs more than money: a peak takes days, most of them spent waiting on weather.
First stepTake a snow skills course covering roped travel, self-arrest with an ice axe and walking in crampons, and stay below the snowline until you've done it.
Barriers
Cost to start
$300–2k
Going deep → $10k–50k
Alone or with people
Anyone will do
Effort
Demanding
Without a teacher?
Needs a teacher
One session takes
A full day
Where
A special place
Why people take it up
Related guides
Try a hobby before you buy the gearStarting costs $300–2kSkills
Needs firstAerobic base ↗