How NOT to climb the summit?

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MCS AlexClimb Mountaineering School

News reports of accidents in the mountains have become a regular feature of the news. It seems journalists lack a twist to their daily bloodbath...

It would seem that the more terrible disasters the world is experiencing are enough to create a dark media backdrop, but no, climbers have also found themselves caught in this bloody vortex.

Caucasus. Approaching the Ushba Icefall from the north (long ago, before the prohibition)

Accidents have always happened in mountaineering – after all, mountains are a dangerous landform.

But without context, without explanation, these reports distort the core idea of mountaineering, creating also a distorted image of people for whom mountains are not just a pile of rocks, but an important part of their lives.

One of the most challenging and beautiful peaks in the Caucasus is Dykh tau Peak

Modern mountaineering is not a competitive sport, neither self-torture or neither a way to become a hero at any cost.

One of the most unfortunate scenarios is that heroism in mountaineering usually ends in rescue efforts and general bewilderment – "Why did this idiot climb there?"

During a training climb in the Caucasus, before climbing Mount Elbrus

After this, it's difficult to explain to people outside the mountaineering community that summiting is about expanding your physical limits. It is about the highest form of control over your body and about experiencing the pure and intense emotions of contact with a crystalline, shining world.

The greatest virtue in the mountains is not conquering the nature, but the ability to coexist with it.

Sunset in the Mountains

Of course, climbing peaks or hiking along mountain trails in some distant locations away from the comforts of civilization is always a challenge to the forces of nature and oneself, a conscious step beyond one's usual comfort zone.

The key point is that, despite all the difficulties, the goal of the hike or climb is still to gain new, vibrant emotions, enjoyment, and useful experience, but not self-sacrifice.

A sea of clouds over the Baksan Valley, Caucasus

In the civilized world, modern mountaineering is a form of active recreation that closely interacts with the environment.

Mountaineering is an excellent incentive, providing long-term motivation for comprehensive training and self-discipline.

Mountaineering is a way to become stronger in many ways.

Presenting mountaineering as an extreme activity, pushing people to take unnecessary risks, act recklessly, or push their limits (there's an article on this), distorts the core meaning of a beautiful and rewarding activity: mountain climbing.

Climbing Mount Dykh tau in the Caucasus

If you choose a feasible route for which you've carefully and painstakingly prepared, you can derive immense pleasure, valuable experience, and unforgettable positive emotions from it.

At the same time, any route in the mountains, even the simplest, can become deadly dangerous if you lack correct motivation, proper training, or equipment.

Climbing Lenin Peak, Pamir

Since mountaineering involves dangerously close contact with the forces of nature, it makes sense to cultivate a culture of safety from the very beginning when becoming interested in mountains, understanding the basic principles that always include a high risk of failure.

Ushba Peak, Caucasus

It's generally accepted that failure in mountaineering means, for whatever reason, failing to reach your goal - to reach the summit.

However, the summit as a goal is symbolic and has no practical value—meaning pursuing it "at any physical cost" is foolishness and a dangerous form of destructive behavioral deviation.

The Climax of the Ascent: The Summit

On any mountain route, true success is not reaching the summit, but returning to the start point unharmed.

No mountain is worth even a slightest harm to your health, let alone the value of human life.

On the mountain climbing route in the mountains of Dagestan

The ability to assess circumstances correctly, anticipate possible consequences, and complete a route safely on time is the highest form of mountaineering skill.

An experienced leader or professional mountain guide on a route isn't needed to push you to the summit at all costs, but to help you return safely and on time, after weighing all potentially threatening circumstances.

Climbing Mount Shkhara in the Caucasus

What factors can influence our plan to reach the summit and cause us to turn back before reaching our goal?

These circumstances can be objective or subjective, but in any case, they clearly take safety precedence over achieving any goal.

Objective circumstances include all factors beyond our control—weather, route conditions, dangerous natural phenomena such as avalanches, mudflows, and rockfalls—their likelihood varies depending on the specific route or season, but is always present in the mountains on any terrain, even seemingly simple ones.

Climbing Kluchevskaya Sopka in Kamchatka

Subjective reasons for not reaching the summit may include any form of physical ailment (this should be taken extremely seriously in the mountains), lack of technical or physical fitness, or inadequate equipment.

Sometimes even a loss of motivation can be a justifiable reason for ending a route.

Climbing in the Caucasus

Many mountain tour organizers claim that 100% of their clients reach the summit—this is primitive marketing or, simply put, an outright lie.

There are many reasons why an ascent might not take place. When setting out on a route, you must be fully aware of this and be prepared for any failure. Remember that no summit is worth a human life.

There is no shame in abandoning the ascent and start descending. The mountain will always be there. And it's better not to climb it 100 times than not to descend from it once...

At the summit of Mount Gestola, Caucasus

I think that instead of revelling in the tragic consequences of others' mistakes and whipping up a wave of negativity against an innocent, beautiful activity - climbing the mountains, we could clearly explain the most basic attitudes and reasons why people get into trouble in the mountains.

Text and photographs by Alex Trubachev
International mountain guide, rock climbing and ice climbing coach

MCS EDIT 2025