A climbing area is a small geographical region with a concentration of opportunities for climbing. The term is most commonly used of rock climbing areas, but there are also ice climbing areas that have the right combination of steepness and water to result in climbable ice during the winter.
While there are many mountains and cliffs in the world, only a small percentage are popular for climbing. Mountain ranges are frequently at high elevations, remote, and tend to have poor weather much of the time, which means that the climber spends more time hiking, camping, and battling the elements than actually climbing. At the opposite end of the scale, many cliffs are too small or the rock is too unstable to make for an enjoyable and safe experience.
Read more about Climbing Area: Characteristics, Development of A Climbing Area
Famous quotes containing the words climbing and/or area:
“To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)