How to divide the difficulty of ice climbing?

According to the connectivity of ice walls, ice climbing can be divided into ice climbing and mixed climbing. They use different levels of system for the difficulty of climbing.

First, the difficulty of climbing the ice wall

According to the nature of ice, the ice wall can be divided into two types: one is the seasonal ice wall, that is, the ice falls seen in the winter, namely the water ice Ice Ice, and the corresponding climbing difficulty level is the WI system; One is the perennial alpine ice wall, Alpine Ice, the corresponding climbing difficulty level for the AI ​​system. With respect to the assessment of difficulty, the WI system and the AI ​​system are subjectively consistent, but since the Water Ice is seasonal and the ice conditions change with temperature, the WI system is harder than the AI ​​system at the same difficulty level. some.

WI system classification

Absolutely accurate evaluation of ice climbing difficulty is not easy. In different regions or under different conditions, WI systems often have a lot of room for swing. The following description is a rough, averaged system.

WI1: Very slow ice slopes, no need to climb with hail.

WI2: Continuous 60-degree ice wall, which may have some bulges, easy to set up and reliable.

WI3: The continuous 70-degree ice wall, which is mixed with a long 80- to 90-degree bulge, is a good place to rest. There are also better platforms to use. It is easier and more reliable to place the ice cone.

WI4: The continuous 80-degree ice wall, mixed with a fairly long vertical section, will have a gentler place to rest. The setting of the ice cone is easier.

WI5: Long-distance and steep ice walls, including a 85- to 90-degree ice wall with long pitches, and not many good rest points; or a short thin ice wall, where it is difficult to place the ice cones.

WI6: The entire rope pitch is a vertical ice wall with no breaks in the middle; or a shorter, but harder ice wall than WI5, with very high technical requirements.

WI7: Similar to the previous grade, but the ice wall is a very thin adhesive ice wall; or a weakly integrated icicle on a negative wall; protection is extremely difficult, extremely poor quality, or no protection at all.

WI8: To be discussed.

In order to more accurately describe the difficulty of the route, sometimes the difficulty number is marked with a + or - sign, the + sign is a bit more difficult, and the - sign is a bit easier. Such as: WI4+; WI5- and so on.

Second, ice rock mixed difficulty

Mixed climbing refers to the fact that the ice wall is not connected in the ice climbing route. It is necessary to use hailstones and crampons to climb some rock sections to connect separate ice walls. At this point, use the mixed climbing difficulty level M system to assess the difficulty of the route. In addition, the use of ice axes, crampons in the fully rocky area of ​​the climb is called Dry tooling, and its climbing difficulty grade is also evaluated using the M system.

Classification of M systems

The division of the difficulty level of the mixed ice rock climbing is not as accurate as the result of comparison with the rock climbing difficulty. It should be noted that this system can not be equal to the difficulty of rock climbing at all, and it can only be said to be a comparison between rough sense and climbing difficulty, and it is based on experience.

M1: Equivalent to the first level to third level climbing. It is a gentle slope course and it is easy to climb.

M2: This is equivalent to fourth-level rock climbing. Need some climb flexibility.

M3: 5.0-5.7, which is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M4: 5.8 is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M5: The equivalent of climbing difficulty 5.9

M6: 5.10 which is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M7: 5.11 which is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M8: 5.12 which is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M9: 5.13 equivalent to climbing difficulty

M10: 5.13+ equivalent to rock climbing

M11: 5.14 which is equivalent to climbing difficulty

M12: 5.14+ equivalent to rock climbing