Ice climbing is a climbing discipline that involves ascending routes consisting entirely of frozen water. To ascend, the ice climber uses specialist equipment, particularly double ice axes (or the more modern ice tools) and rigid crampons. To protect the route, the ice climber uses steel ice screws that require skill to employ safely and rely on the ice holding firm in any fall. Ice climbing routes can vary significantly by type, and include seasonally frozen waterfalls, high permanently frozen alpine couloirs, and large hanging icicles.
Ice climbing originated as a subdiscipline of alpine climbing, where sections of scalable ice are encountered on alpine routes alongside segments that require rock or mixed climbing. Ice climbing arose as an independent sport in the 1970s. Modern ice climbing includes a difficulty grading system that peaks at WI6 to WI7, as ice tends to hang vertically at its most severe. WI7 is very rare and usually attributed to overhanging ice with serious risk issues (i.e. unstable ice, little protection, and a risk of death). Advancements in mixed climbing in the 1980s pushed the technical difficulty of ice-climbing routes by introducing rock overhangs and roofs that can entail dry-tooling, which is the use of ice tools on bare rock.
Since 2002, the UIAA have regulated competition ice climbing, which is offered in a lead climbing format on an artificial bolted wall, generally on indoor rock climbing artificial walls without ice, that employs dry-tooling techniques (e.g. stein pulls and figure-four moves), and in a speed climbing format that uses a standardized wall of real ice. Since 2010, ice climbers at Helmcken Falls in Canada have used the unique characteristics of the waterfall to create severely overhanging bolted ice climbing routes that are graded up to WI13, and are the hardest technical ice climbs in the world.
Description
Ice climbing uses specialized equipment, namely ice tools and crampons, to ascend routes consisting of frozen water ice, and/or frozen snow fields. As with rock climbing, ice climbing can be done as free climbing and performed in climbing pairs where the lead climber inserts climbing protection equipment into the ice route as they ascend for their safety. After the lead climber has reached the top, the second-climber (or belayer) then removes this protection as they ascend the route.
The protection equipment that is used when leading ice routes are specialized steel ice screws. The ice screws require considerable experience to use properly and safely, and given that the underlying condition of the ice can change materially over time (including constantly breaking off), the seriousness of leading an ice climbing route is considered to be greater than that of a traditional rock climbing route. For example, while an intermediate ice climber could 'top rope' a WI4-graded ice climbing route, 'leadclimbing' WI4-graded route is a far more serious undertaking. In contrast to rock climbing, "the leader must not fall" ethos is a core part of ice climbing.
Ice climbing can also be performed as free solo climbing, which is an even riskier undertaking (the climber uses their ice tools and crampons but has no climbing protection such as ice screws); or performed as top roping which is the safest form of ice climbing and the format used for novices being introduced to the sport.
Ice climbing was developed as part of the broader climbing discipline of alpine climbing, where it is still a key component of the alpinist's skill set. Where the ice climbing route does not fully consist of ice and has elements of bare rock, it is known as mixed climbing. Where the route has no ice whatsoever, but the climber still uses the ice tools and crampons, it is known as dry-tooling. Because mixed climbing and dry-tooling routes can be fully bolted — just like sport climbing routes are in rock climbing (i.e because there is bare rock into which bolts can be drilled) — they have become popular as safer alternatives to traditional ice routes.
Types of routes
Ice climbing can take on a broad range of climbing routes. A common type of ice route is a frozen waterfall, particularly one that cascades down a mountain face or a down-mountain gully. Ice climbing routes can also take the form of high alpine snow-covered couloirs that are permanently frozen year-round. Giant icicles (also known as ice-daggers) have also been climbed as ice routes, and also as part of mixed routes; although such icicles can often dangerously break off and have been a source of several ice climber fatalities.
Ice climbing routes normally don't move beyond the sheer vertical for sustained distances due to the nature of ice (i.e. ice rarely stays in an overhanging fashion for any length of time). This means that standard ice-climbing grades broadly peak at WI6-7 (i.e. WI7 being completely sheer vertical ice and with additional risk issues). In contrast, extreme mixed-climbing routes have been developed beyond the equivalent M7-grade as they can incorporate routes that cross overhanging bare rock roofs to get to the vertical hanging icicle such as Jeff Lowe's groundbreaking Octopussy WI6 M8 in Vail, Colorado.
In Helmcken Falls in Canada, a situation arises where a perennially active waterfall keeps severely overhanging rock faces covered in thick ice, thus creating 'overhanging ice routes' of sorts. Ice climbers have established bolted routes (there is enough rock for the bolts) graded above WI7 (currently at WI13, as of 2023) in Helmcken.
History For decades, ice and mixed climbing were part of the alpine climbing skill set. During the 1960s, ambitious early ice climbers began to use pitons to climb harder ice routes but this was dangerous and very unstable. The breakthrough came in the 1960s when Yvon Chouinard designed a new wooden-handled ice axe with a curved serrated pick called the "Climax". This was followed in 1970, when Hamish MacInnes designed the all-metal aluminum alloy ice axe that had a radically dropped pick called the "Terrordactyl" (or Terror). These two ice axes revolutionized ice climbing and eventually became merged into the modern all-metal ice axe (later the ice tool) with its dropped pick but curved and serrated tip (the now familiar "banana shape").
Chouinard and McInnes' ice axes would lead to an explosion of interest in climbing on frozen waterfalls in the North American Rockies and in the European Alps. In 2002, ice climber and climbing author Raphael Slawinski wrote in the American Alpine Journal: "By the early 1980s ice climbing, from being merely one of the techniques in the alpinist's arsenal, had evolved into a full-blown technical art. The skills gained on waterfalls also gave rise to a whole new generation of alpine climbs. Slipstream (WI4+, 1979) in the Canadian Rockies blurred the distinction between waterfall ice and alpine climbing; the Moonflower Buttress (WI6 M7 A2, 1983) in the Alaska Range applied the highest levels of ice climbing skill to a major alpine first ascent; and the list goes on. Waterfall ice climbing, though initially pursued for its own sake, ended up revolutionizing alpine climbing".
By the end of the 1980s, ice climbers had effectively reached the limits of what could be climbed at grade WI6-7; ultimately, the inherent tendency of the medium to hang in a vertical fashion limited the possibilities for development. It was mixed climbing that began to drive development in ice climbing as pioneers like Jeff Lowe dry-tooled bare rock overhangs and roofs to get to more radical ice features, such as hanging icicles; the culmination of which was Lowe's historic ascent of Octopussy (WI6, M8) in Vail in 1994, which lead to the birth of modern mixed climbing.
It would not be until 2010 when Tim Emmett and Will Gadd began to put up ice routes at Helmcken Falls in Canada that ice climbing development would take a leap forward in technical development. Helmcken Fall's unique characteristics provided severely overhanging iced-routes, and in the next decade, grades were proposed up to WI13 with Mission to Mars in 2020. Emmett and Gadd consider Helmcken to be a potential Yosemite of ice climbing.
Competition ice climbing
The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) has organized and regulated the sport of competition ice climbing since 2002 when the very first "Ice World Cup" (IWC) competition took place under the new UIAA rules and codes.
Amongst others, the UIAA runs two main competition ice climbing events, the annual Ice Climbing World Cup (which is run as a series of events in the year) and the bi-annual Ice Climbing World Championships (a single, once-off, competition).
Most of the IWC lead climbing routes are held on bolted dry artificial surfaces and thus employ dry-tooling techniques (e.g. stein pulls and figure-four moves). In contrast, the IWC speed-climbing routes are on a standardized wall of ice that takes seconds for top roped ice climbers to complete (as per speed rock climbing).
Over the years, the UIAA has increased the regulation and use around competition ice climbing equipment, including the prohibition of leashes on ice tools (so they cannot be used as aid), and increased controls on the use of "heel spurs" while climbing (to counter their use for resting).
Equipment
Ice climbing uses items of equipment that are common in rock climbing such as ropes, harnesses and helmets, as well as mechanical devices such as belay devices. However, the different nature of the medium means that ice climbers also use equipment that is highly specific to their type of climbing.
For climbing
Ice axes or the more modern ice tools: Modern ice climbing requires double ice axes (or ergo ice tools); a key decision is whether it uses a leash or not. Competition ice climbing has prohibited leashes (as they can be used for aid), and most extreme mixed climbing tends not to use leashes. However, the lack of a leash means that the shock of any sudden "blowout" of the feet, can lead to an immediate fall. Crampons: Ice climbers often use mono-point crampons instead of the more typical dual-point crampons used by alpine climbers, to maintain greater control and cutting accuracy. Some favor the front points to be "vertical" (i.e. like a mini-ice tool), which increases cutting power but is less stable and can "blowout" without warning; others use the traditional "horizontal" (i.e. flat like an adze) front points. Ice boots. Ice climbers can use the "shell" or "plastic" rigid mountaineering boots used by alpine climbers, to which crampons are attached. Advanced mixed climbers, and competition ice climbers, use "fruit boots", which are light boots with crampons integrated into the sole. In addition, fruit boots can add "heel spurs", which are used in mixed climbing for overhangs.
For protection
Where ice climbing is done as lead climbing (e.g. and not as top roping), the key piece of equipment for providing protection is the ice screw, which is a hollow metal threaded steel tube with cutting teeth on its base and a hanger eye on the opposite end. It is literally 'screwed' into the ice and its stability is dependent both on the angle and quality of its placement and the soundness of the ice. Some ice climbs, such as in Helmcken Falls (see below), and mixed and dry-tooling routes, have enough exposed rock to enable them to be bolted like sport climbs, avoiding the need for screws.