The Dangers and Hazards of Mountain Climbing
The sport of mountain climbing is a very difficult one which takes years of practice, and certain skills have to be learnt before a person can attempt any sort of climb. Veteran climbers say that a person should be fully prepared and ready before attempting a mountain climb and they should have the basic skills down pat. With dangers ever present such as breaking bones, falling, avalanches and mental fatigue, a mountain climber needs to be absolutely ready to face them head on. While the risk of succumbing to these dangers gets minimised by experience and practice, they are still always at the back of a climber’s mind. Still people have managed to overcome the hardest challenges and have risen to conquer staggering heights.
Mountain climbing is a very difficult sport for anyone to undertake. Due to the heights involved, a person climbing a mountain will be subjected to less oxygen, a steep climb and hazards such as falling rocks. People who undertake this exhausting sport as a fun activity do not realise that it takes years of training and fitness conditioning to be able to reach the levels of skill and physicality to be able to climb mountains. Whenever anyone climbs any sort of mountain, they should be aware of the risks involved. These can range from falling rocks, slippery terrain, exhaustion and even wild animals. Even though these risks can be minimised and a climber can learn to take evasive action through experience and training, the dangers never go away completely.
The other problem that mountain climbers, who are scaling any sort of mountain, face is mental stress and fatigue. One of the first things a climber is taught is how to control their own mindset and mentally prepare for a climb. One of the most dangerous things that a climber can face is being halfway up a mountain and losing the will to go on. The climb down is always more treacherous than the ascent, and so without the right frame of mind, a climber will be lost and afraid and become prone to risks and dangers. Sometimes a little bit of training and mental preparation is all it takes to win half the battle of the climb.
With all the dangers that mountain climbers face even with the aid of safety equipment, ropes and harnesses, there is a type of climbing that does not allow for the use of aid equipment. Free climbing is a sport where the climbers only use their hands and feet to ascend a mountain or a cliff. They do not use any aids or help when climbing, although they do use ropes as a form of last minute safety if they do happen to slip and fall. This type of climbing is one of the most difficult in the world because it requires a climber to rely on their own physical strength, mental fortitude and creativity to find a way up the side of the cliff or mountain. It is also one of the most pure forms of climbing because it brings people back in touch with the earliest pioneers of the sport who did not have any aid equipment and did not rely on technology to help them with their climbs. It was them against nature and those that scaled it could stand up and proudly declare that they achieved it on their own.
Why then do people do it? Why do they scale the highest peaks with so many threats always trying to get the better of them? It seems that nothing can compare to the view that a person can get once they climb to the highest point that they are able to. The feeling of being on top of the world and conquering something that seemed impossible to do are huge motivating factors and cannot be compared to anything in the world. People will continue to climb mountains despite the challenges and dangers that might affect them. The sport of mountain climbing looks all set to become even more popular than it is today and new and exciting climbing destinations will continue to be unearthed all over the world.
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