Nervous branch of sport
Hanging from an ice ax over a fathomless ravine: always wanted to do it? Ice climbing is a tough branch of sport, for real daredevils.
Who keeps the adrenaline running through the blood vessels If you want to feel, you should give yourself up to this nerve-racking and not harmless sport.
Steep ice walls
With crampons on your mountain boots, a helmet on your head, a few kilos of ropes on your belt and an ice ax at the ready, you slowly work your way up bizarrely steep ice walls. Only now and then making a so-called ‘station’ on a ledge, while below you yawn a fathomless deep ravine.
True?
Ice climbing is mainly done in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. There are the most suitable frozen waterfalls and glaciers, where ice axes can be cleaved.
But there are also lesser-known locations, such as Scotland, where the mountains are not as high, but at least as steep and exciting (www.buitensport-schotland.nl/ijsclimbing/index.php).
What do you need to know?
For ice climbing, you need to master the basics of mountaineering. Always follow a basic ice climbing course. You don’t have to go to a distant country for that.
You can practice on an indoor climbing wall. There is also a real indoor ice wall, Globe Outdoor in The Hague, where you can learn ice climbing (www.globeoutdoor.nl).
General information about climbing can be obtained in the Netherlands from the Dutch Climbing and Mountain Sports Association (www.nkbv.nl) and in Belgium at eight climbing clubs united in the Bergstijgers (www.bergstigers.org)
