Alpine, ice and mixed: climbing in the mountains and on frozen ground.

Mountaineering, scrambling and alpine climbing

The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) defines mountaineering as a mix of walking, scrambling, and rock and ice climbing in mountain areas, naming Scottish winter, Alpine and Himalayan settings as examples. It defines scrambling as a mix of hill walking and rock climbing on steep and sometimes very exposed ground, done with or without ropes.

Wikipedia describes alpine climbing as long mountain routes that need rock, ice and mixed skills, done by small teams carrying light gear and with no outside support. Its multi-pitch article adds that the boundary between multi-pitch, big wall and alpine climbing is not precisely defined. Mountain hazards such as rockfall, weather and avalanches are covered in the safety section, and altitude on the altitude illness page.

Ice and mixed climbing

The BMC defines ice climbing as climbing on snow or ice, usually outdoors with ropes, and notes that some indoor venues exist. Wikipedia defines mixed climbing as climbing routes that have too little ice for pure ice climbing and too much for pure rock climbing, using ice tools and crampons. When those tools are used on rock with no ice at all, Wikipedia says, it is called dry-tooling.

Dry-tooling turns up in a standard and a policy we found. BSI says the European standard for artificial climbing walls, EN 12572-1:2017, does not apply to ice climbing or dry tooling. In the UK, the BMC says its bolting policy describes consultation for new bolting and for dry-tooling. The ice tools and crampons page covers the gear and its standards.

Ice climbing competitions

Competition ice climbing is governed by the UIAA, separately from the sport climbing competitions run by World Climbing (Wikipedia, secondary). The UIAA's own history says that when its 2006 General Assembly let competition sport climbing leave, leading to the founding of the IFSC in 2007 (renamed World Climbing in December 2025), ice climbing competitions stayed with the UIAA, which has run the Ice Climbing World Tour since 2002.

Alpine grades

The CAI paper on grade scales (Italian Alpine Club, by G. Mandelli and A. Angriman, hosted by the UIAA, undated) describes the French overall alpine scale as six levels that take in the difficulty of the moves, continuity, exposure and length, each split into "inf." (lower) and "sup." (upper). Wikipedia gives the six levels as:

Wikipedia says the UIAA adopted the French system in 1967. The CAI paper names a further overall grade, ABO (abominable), born in Chamonix, which it says the UIAA did not recognise. Mammut (maker, July 2025) says the UIAA rock scale is common on traditional alpine routes.

Ice and mixed grades

The CAI paper says an ice-fall grading system with two parts, an overall grade in Roman numerals (six levels) and a technical grade in Arabic numerals (1 to 7+), was introduced in Europe around 1985, and that the Canadian scale is now widely used for waterfalls. It describes the letters in use:

• WI for water ice and AI for permanent (alpine) ice.
• M added for mixed sections.
• R for thin ice and X for fragile structures.

The paper calls each of these an open scale, and notes that the same ice scale is now used for dry-tooling competitions on rock or artificial walls. Wikipedia credits the M grade to Jeff Lowe, in his 1996 book Ice World, and cites WI13, at Helmcken Falls in Canada, as the highest WI grade by 2020. Both of those details come from Wikipedia only and are unconfirmed.

Scottish winter grades

The BMC describes Scottish winter grades as an overall grade in Roman numerals plus, for crux pitches above grade III, a technical number. It gives Point Five Gully (V,5) and Zero Gully (V,4) as examples. The BMC's winter grades page (undated) describes grade I as straightforward snow slopes up to about 50 degrees, or simple scrambles on snowed-up rock.

The sources disagree on the top of the Scottish scale. The BMC's undated page says it currently runs from I to X. Wikipedia records grade XII routes, citing Banana Wall as the second Scottish winter XII.

Who teaches and guides in the mountains

The BMC lists the Mountain Training Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor award, which requires the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor award and the Winter Mountain Leader award, and says the British Mountain Guide (IFMGA) award covers guiding on rock, snow, ice and alpine terrain. In the US, the AMGA lists an Ice Instructor programme and an Alpine Guide programme. The learning and guide certification page explains these awards.