Making your way into the mountains
Hopefully, you have seen my story in the mountains, which has formed the basis of this post. If not go take a read of that. Now I want to talk about how you can become a climber and mountaineer yourself.
I’m only going to be covering the climbing, scrambling and mountaineering portion of the outdoors, as that’s all I do (and love it if you can’t tell)
Hiking, Scrambling, Climbing & Mountaineering
For most people, (and if you are reading this you probably already do it) hiking is an introduction to the outdoors, but you are looking for something more. Whether you hike mountains or low-level stuff. Adding in scrambling is an obvious next step on your journey to being a mountaineer. let’s look at the 3 features that make someone a mountaineer.
Hiking Mountains
The first step to becoming on your journey to become a mountaineer is bagging some summits. Technically 600m+ is a mountain, but something like Kinder Scout I wouldn’t class as one. You should look at hiking up mountains such as Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the Glydersm Pen Yr Ole Wen, Scafell, and Great Gable (to name a few). There are so many in the UK and further that won’t need any technical climbing skills.
Even the Likes of Tobukal, Island Peak and a lot of huge mountains, don’t require any technical ability, just a good level of fitness and determination.
Being a mountain hiker doesn’t require you to do much. The next steps are where it starts to get exciting, technical and more dangerous.
Summer Scrambling
This is where it gets interesting, and I’d say the term climber/ summer mountaineer is completely valid here. Scrambling is straightforward forward yes it can be scary and dangerous, but it’s more of how you can handle the fear, taking it slow and ensuring control through the whole scramble. My best advice for getting into scrambling is three points of solid contact, and start by going with someone experienced.
There are a lot of ways to do this, mates who scramble, and groups on Facebook, The Scrambling Crew is a great one that I am part of, and finally, pay for a guide. with a guide, you will learn a lot, and go through safety and how to do it properly, but with the added expense, it’s not always a viable option. However, groups are great. Often guides may be a part of these groups so you’re getting their knowledge for free.
And remember to look at the grades and reviews of the route. Scrambles go from 1-3, depending on the difficulty. This should help decide the route, and the comments may help with whether is it easy or hard for the grade and maybe tips for said route etc.
Summer Climbing
Now that scrambling has been covered, let’s look into climbing. Climbing is a great sport, and my favourite thing to do in the outdoors (besides winter), however, due to needing a lot of knowledge on gear, anchors, safety and understanding the gear. I recommend going with a guide to learn. Even if you learn from a friend, pay for a climbing day with a guide to ensure everything you’re doing is right and you’ll learn lots too.
Becoming a climber takes a lot of learning (and it can be quite expensive), but it will take you to some amazing places and help you achieve some really impressive stuff. Seen as though there is a lot to learn, rake your time to read on all sorts, watch videos and more. Be sure with new skills, and practice them at home or on ground level before taking them onto a climb. Just to make sure they work.
Once you know it is a case of repetition. You don’t need to rush into any crazy grades. at the start and even as you progress, it’s all about learning and honing your craft. I say a minimum of 10 at a grade before you even look to the next one.
Also, weigh the gear, place good gear and practice trusting it, this will help massively with your confidence. Not trusting the gear can be a massive downfall for people wanting to become climbers. After all, if you are placing it, and have your life being trusted by it, you want to be confident it will hold. The first few times, even grab a pad and do it a few feet off the wall, just to get used to it. And remember if it feels sketch place more pieces. If there is doubt, there’s no doubt about what you should do.
If you can’t trust multiple pieces, that’s all an anchor is. Maybe you need to go back to a guide for more training and practice. With climbing it’s a feeling and you should know what is right and comfortable for you.
Then once you are comfortable on single-pitch take it onto small multi-pitches and then the mountains and sea cliffs, that’s where the real fun is at, but again get training on multi-pitch climbing as there are some differences such as directional anchors, and being on a hanging belay, guide mode etc.
Winter scrambling & climbing
Hopefully, you’ll already have a good amount of hiking and scrambling gear. However, if you are from the UK, you’ll find yourself heading up to the highlands. I’d recommend working out a good layering system for the cold and wind. Along with investing in some good quality waterproofs, I like the Mountain Equipment Makalu for my waterproof and the Mountain Equipment Shelterstone as my “Belay jacket”. A belay jacket is something you’ll put on whilst sat on a belay to stay warm, or if it’s freezing you may already have it on for climbing. You also want some good gloves and multiple pairs to change them as they get wet.
You’ll also need things like b2 boots, crampons and an ice axe. with these, you can start slow with just some winter hiking and mountain hiking. This is a good introduction to what it’s like being in the mountains in snow and using the gear. You can also do an introduction to the winter course. So many people run these through the winter in Scotland, and it is a really good way to get into winter as there is a lot more you need to consider before you head out such as avalanche risk. Having a guide to teach you all about this (or a competent friend) will help you excel and be safer in winter.
Hiking solo in summer is fine, but if you have no experience, winter is different and I 100% recommend going with someone who understands it a bit more. You don’t want to get caught out. There is also so much content out there to read up on and watch to give you even more of an edge for your first winter outings. Once you are comfortable with the gear, it may be time to look for some graded winter stuff.
Winter Climbing
For winter, it’s not so much as scrambling and climbing, I find it to be gulleys and climbs (whether they are solo or roped). A gulley is as simple as it sounds, it’s a gulley full of snow that you climb up. The grading is based on the steepness of it, you don’t get hard-graded galleys, alone. However, you may find climbs require you to use a gully before or after the main climb. They are also handy for descent, but be sure to know the avalanche risk before you descend a gulley, as you don’t want wan falling on you.
Even really small snow slides can be painful. I had a huge ball of ice smack me right in the eye. As much as I wouldn’t call it an avalanche, something like that could be fatal. Always respect the mountains, even if it’s a low risk, stuff can still happen like it did to me.
As for pushing up the winter grades, it tends to get more into mixed winter, and ice climbing.
Ice climbing requires ice screws to place for protection as there is no rock for nuts or cams. And then it’s as straightforward as climbing up the ice using your axes. The climbing and safety side of it with gear and anchors is the same as trad and mixed climbing, just you will be placing different gear for protection. For the record as of writing this, I have only done small solos in Ice and done longer top ropes. I am yet to lead and Ice-climbing pitches.
As for mixed climbing, this combines Ice Snow and Rock. You will have a rack similar to summer, Often with a few screws in case you need them. Similarly to ice climbing, you use your axes and crampons for climbing not hands (unless needed), then climb, place gear build anchors just as you would for summer trad.
As you may see there is a lot in winter climbing, and having a sting set of summer skills will help you loads. However, it is still different and requires its own added set of skills on top of your summer knowledge. As I stated above, so many guides will happily take you on a course tailored to your own goals. You may get lucky and have a friend who is also a winter climber who is willing to teach you. I didn’t have that to start with so had no other option than doing some winter courses.
The courses I have done have provided me with a breadth of knowledge, to feel confident in the mountains whatever the weather. The guidance I have had is as expensive. I want to be transparent, with this post, and a lot I have learned for free through meeting people with the knowledge. However, for winter (and the next part on big mountains), I have spent close to £4500 on courses. Yeah, it’s a lot, but for me, it has been worth every penny.
And to also be transparent with cost, please check the conclusion for a further breakdown of what I have spent to get where I am. I will talk about the gear costs and break down the course spend. I won’t go into all the details of the cost to get and stay near the mountains.
Posts of mine that could be useful:
Jagged Globe intro to winter mountaineering
Jagged Globe Winter Mountaineering
The Big Mountains
Now that you have done all this and learned so much, you are ready to take your skills to the big mountains of the Alps, Patagonia, Nepal, and more. I can’t stress this enough though, seek professional training before you take a new step as each offers its own set of challenges and risks. Of course, it’s doable alone, and with your partners, but a guide will make it easier and safer for you to learn everything you need.
If you’re confident and have a good partner, you could go at it alone. At the very least take a crevasse course/ glacier safety course, as this is the main difference (apart from the altitude) to climbing and mountaineering in the UK.
I do however recommend a course. Like me, the climbing side of it wasn’t essential, I got a few tips on speed and efficiency in the mountains, and for all the routes we did it was more of a climbing team and I ended up leading 90% of what we did especially the crux parts. Be sure to do your research and do what is right for you.
Posts of mine that could be useful:
For more on the bigger mountains, check out my week with Jagged Globe in the Alps where I look at everything we did, so you can get a feel for what you may encounter on the bigger mountains. I may also do another post about the big mountains, as this post is already very long, so wanted to cover the 4 (in my opinion) best things to start your journey.
Cost Breakdown
As mentioned above, I will take a look at the rough cost for me to become a mountaineer and climber. (I’m not going to break it down into every piece of gear I have bought, travel and accommodation, I don’t think they are essential for you to know, as you may find it more or less expensive, based on so many factors.
It won’t be an exact figure, as I have lots of gear, some I got in sales or second-hand, so not 100% sure. However, there is an idea of what it has cost me. Please also remember, that I review gear that I buy too, so some bits may not have been 100% needed, but I wanted the extra gear to write about.
Courses
Intro to winter mountaineering £995
Winter Mountaineering £1175
Alpine Improvers £2195 (excluding flights, and gondolas while I was there which added about £500 to the cost) – I did this instead of an intro course as my skills in the UK meant the intro course wouldn’t have provided me much other than glacier travel. I wanted a bit of a better introduction, so I spoke to the company running the course, and based on my UK experience, they were more than happy to let me do this course.
Mountain Leader Training £375 – Not essential for you to know, but I did learn so much about navigation while on this training course, so I thought it could be interesting to add
Rock Climbing Instructor Training course £250 – Again not essential, but I learned a lot during this course.
Gear
Hiking gear (coats, trousers, bags, boots) – £2500
Climbing gear (harnesses, rope, helmet, protection, quickdraws, personal kit, shoes etc) – £3000
Winter gear (boots, axes, and crampons ) – £1050
Final Conclusion
I hope you have a bit of guidance on how to go about becoming a mountaineer and a climber. By no means is this the “right” way to do it, it’s just what I did. Go at your own pace and if you don’t want to be a winter climber, that doesn’t mean you can’t go climbing in the Alps, just take everything I have said at face value. It’s not like baking a cake, go as slow or as quick as you want, or don’t do it. At the end of the day it’s your journey so do it whatever way you like. I’m just here to help.
If you have any questions get in touch and I will help you out the best I can. Instagram is the best way to contact me; either through my account @alexlee01 or via the Outdoor Ascent Instagram page @outdoorascent. I also have my email alex@theoutdoorascent.com.
Within climbing and mountaineering, you will never stop learning and finding new things. Just because you have been to the Alps once won’t by any means make you an expert. Always have your wits about you and be open to learning new techniques and practices to do things differently. Stay with what you are comfortable with, don’t go doing all of the above in 12 months, it could take years before you get into climbing. and then even longer for winter and the big mountains.
The term mountaineer is a very loose term, a mountaineer is someone who climbs mountains, theatre it be with ropes or just hiking up mountains. At some point (less so in the UK) it turns into Alpinism, but that’s for another post.
Please remember, this post is about what I did and ideas that someone could help you go about it yourself. As always stay safe, and within your capabilities. The mountains can be a dangerous place, so seek professional guidance before doing anything you read online. Stay safe!
