What are the key differences between Mountaineering and Rock Climbing?

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland has a definition of Mountaineering right here: Welcome to Mountaineering Scotland.

The British Mountaineering Council has a great wealth of articles about the topic, which I can only recommend.

Typically "Mountaineering" involves the use of technical equipment in order to navigate through the terrain, like ropes, ice axes or crampons. As opposed to a leisurely walk on a paved road, or hill walking. It encompasses most of the more adventurous activities which take place in the mountains.

Rock climbing as such is defined as an athletic activity which comes in different flavours: Bouldering, indoor climbing, Traditional climbing, sport climbing, deep water soloing and so on. Usually a mountain face, sea cliff or boulder is either climbed up on or traversed. Although technically it can be done without any equipment, the bare minimum that is necessary are the specifically designed rock climbing shoes.

Personally, I'd consider a hike which requires basic navigating/orienteering skills, and goes into more difficult mountain terrain to be mountaineering. Everything which involves climbing up a wall with hands and feet, thus using rock climbing techniques and equipment, would be rock climbing. "Via ferrata" routes I would rather classify as mountaineering since it does not involve rock climbing techniques as such and uses specialised equipment.

posted over 12 years ago

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Pitt Pauly‭

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1. Context

   • Mountaineers sooner or later must climb ice and snow and camp for days at a time in high altitude.
   • Rock climbers climb rock and in winter the rock that forms on climbs that are quite small in relation to that of what a mountaineer will climb. Rock climbers focus on climbing rocks and ice covered rocks and then going down. The face they are on may take days but it will not generally be above 18k feet. Climbers will seek to be on YDC 5.0 and above and need a rope.

2. Terrain

   • Mountaineers may be in terrain 5.0 and under and above. They are the ones that go to the top of the world.

   • Rock climbers don't seek the top they seek to climb and their aim is improve at the context strength game. The more sheer the face , the more impossible to find a hold yet manage to, that is the rock climber. They may even do seemingly impossible holds all day lone 100 feet off the ground.

3. Goals

   • The Mountaineer wants to go up, up, up and climb mountain tops and use as much gear as they need to get there. They typically make base camps along the way for support and to retreat to for 2nd attempts.

   • Climbers have rope and chalk or ice axes. Hope this helps. A good climber may not make a good mountaineer and a great mountaineer may not make an incredible rock climber.

4. Mindset

   • The mind of the mountaineer is that of a survivalist.

   • The mind of a rock climber is that of a sportsman.

5. Pain tolerance

   • Both are game to suffering, only the mountaineer is game to suffer the most. To loose body parts, team mates, they are game to face mother nature at the hardest.

6. TL;DR

   • Many a great Mountaineer has never done super hard free solos taking only 2 hours.

   • Many a great rock climber has never been to the top of Everest.

posted almost 9 years ago

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user8674‭

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Mountaineering is one of them terms that means different things to different people. To me mountaineering is spending time ascending mountains, simples.

I would argue that rock climbing is a skill you may or may not use in the process of mountaineering.

For example ascending the north face of the eiger (one of the most classic and famous lines in mountaineering) requires lot's of rock climbing. So this to me proves that rock climbing is part of mountaineering as a general activity.

Mountaineering is broader though and also includes activities such as skiing (see ski touring, etc), hiking, scrambling, via ferrata, etc. etc.

posted almost 9 years ago

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System‭

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I would consider "Rock Climbing" as something in the Class 5 definition of the YDS grading system.

Wikipedia definition

Class 4 and 6 might also be considered "rock climbing" but I've been climbing for nearly 2 decades, and I would say class 5 = rock climbing.

posted over 12 years ago

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user2101‭

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Mountaineering refers to ascending a natural feature, although it doesn't necessarily imply summitting, nor must it be rock, as the same can be applied to the ascension of glaciers.

Mountaineering has a subset of various skills which include climbing, skiing, hiking and scrambling. You can hike, ski, climb and boulder without mountaineering.

posted over 12 years ago

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furtive‭

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According to my father (a self-identified mountaineer), the difference is as follows:

A rock climber encounters a cliff on a mountainside. He spends some time studying it, finds the most interesting route, climbs up and back down, and calls it a day.

A mountaineer encounters a cliff on a mountainside. He pulls out his map, finds a route around it, and continues up the mountain.

posted over 10 years ago

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Mark‭

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There are two interpretations of 'Mountaineering' depending on the context in which you use the word:

1. Mountaineering is any activity in a mountainous environment. It includes rock climbing, ice climbing, hiking, orienteering, skiing, and 'mountaineering' in its own right (see below)...

2. Mountaineering as a specific activity is usually used to include climbing of a whole mountain, encompassing a wider variety of skills than simply rock climbing. For example, climbing up a cliff face might be rock climbing, but climbing Everest is mountaineering as it requires ascending a complete mountain, and uses skills from rock climbing, ice climbing, survival, navigation, endurance etc.

But there is a grey area in this. Is climbing El Capitan in Yosemite rock climbing or mountaineering? What about if you climb an unclimbed face of a mountain in the Himalaya, but without trying to summit the mountain? At the end of the day, it boils down to the seriousness of the adventure.

posted over 12 years ago

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Rich‭

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