Difference mountain / rockclimbing?

Why do rockclimbers climb mountains and mountaineers scale smooth walls?

The deliberately incorrect wording of the question in the headline is no accident – in our work we must constantly collide with such ignorance. People who answer the call of the soul to our mountainous universe do not always understand where it came from, they usually can not exactly determine what they want to receive, and do not know what they seek. In order to avoid confusion and frustration from the very beginning, it is necessary to separate the flies from the cutlets and put everything in their shelves - it will be more convenient for you and us!

So, the first thing to understand about rockclimbing and mountaineering: not everyone who climbs anywhere is an alpinist or even a climber. Climbers are the workers who clean the roof of the snow, the fireman climbs into the window of Madame to cool her outlet in the bedroom, thieves and lunatics climb on their secret routes to the desired goals. But the climbers who climb in the mountains, are not exactly rockclimbers, ATTENTION, they are mountaineers. Why do they climb? That is another question entirely and not one to tackle here -– it requires too much mental strain to reach the final understanding! It is only necessary to understand that if you are attracted by the romance of distant wanderings, by the divine views through a hole in the tent through which a snowdrift has been blown during the last night over your sleeping bag, if you are attracted by the ringing song of the heavenly road above the clouds, over which you can hardly move your monstrous shoes from which you have blisters to the very depths of the soul - you are on the direct way to mountaineering, where everyone will be happy to see you, because mountaineering is a completely social form of heavy insanity.

However, if common sense has not left you completely and your innate instinct of self-preservation blames you obscenely - come back to your senses! There is still time to sell these beautiful things, bought for crazy money. There is still time to re-join all the normal grey average people - work, metro, booze and quiet family happiness on the couch in front of their TV. Think thrice! It's not too late to return… until the high-altitude hypoxia begins to devour your brain and the manufacturers of membrane jackets tear your budget like an old teddy bear!

But what to do if nevertheless the demon of adventure pinches your ass, provoking you for doing some non standard things? And if you concede to that provocation you definitely will get plenty of unexpected stuff befall to you, you should not doubt! If common sense is strong in you and madness does not build its nest under your pillow, every night casting dreams about wonderful mountain peaks on the hazy horizon - there is an alternative! You go to the store and buy rockclimbing shoes! Cheap and desperate! If there were money left in your wallet – also harness and a bag of chalk! After all, in order to do rockclimbing, nothing else is needed! Although this is not what the above paragraph was about, but the acuity of impressions and the level of masochism are also quite present! You will climb walls and ceilings like a fly or some other creeping insect, and get happy only from the process, regardless of the surrounding situation - because for the rockclimber, the dusty climbing gym is the home of his happiness and the desired shelter from the everyday routine.

Text — Alexey Trubachev, founder of the MCS AlexClimb mountaineering and climbing school.