International Space Station
The International Space Station is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest man-made body in space, the ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, the ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, astronomy and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft and it completes 15.54 orbits per day. The ISS is the space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and Russian Salyut, Almaz. The station has continuously occupied for 16 years and 156 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000.
This is the longest continuous presence in low Earth orbit. It has been visited by astronauts and space tourists from 17 different nations, Soyuz has very limited downmass capability. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, the ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment, which is shared by many nations. As of January 2014, the American portion of ISS is being funded until 2024, Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024 but has proposed using elements of the Russian Orbital Segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK. On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. NASA issued a statement expressing thanks for Russias interest in future co-operation in space exploration.
According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory and factory in low Earth orbit. It was planned to provide transportation and act as a base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given roles of serving commercial, diplomatic. The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research, the ISS simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars was filmed on a low budget, and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role. Released in Italy in 1964, and in the United States in 1967 and it was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are known as the Dollars Trilogy, or The Man With No Name Trilogy, all three films were released in sequence in the United States, in 1967, catapulting Eastwood into stardom. The film has been identified as a remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo, which resulted in a successful lawsuit by Toho. In the United States, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwoods character in all three films as the Man with No Name, as few spaghetti westerns had yet been released in the United States, many of the European cast and crew took on American-sounding stage names. These included Leone himself, Gian Maria Volontè, and composer Ennio Morricone, a Fistful of Dollars was shot in Spain, mostly near Hoyo de Manzanares close to Madrid, but in the Tabernas Desert and in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, both in Almería province.
A stranger arrives at the little Mexican border town of San Miguel, the Stranger seizes his opportunity when he sees the Rojos massacre a detachment of Mexican soldiers who were escorting a shipment of gold. He takes two of the bodies to a nearby cemetery and sells information to both sides, saying that two Mexican soldiers survived the attack. Both sides race to the cemetery, the Baxters to get the survivors to testify against the Rojos, the factions engage in a gunfight, with Ramón managing to kill the survivors and Esteban capturing John Baxters son, Antonio. While the Rojos and the Baxters are fighting, the Stranger searches the Rojo hacienda for the gold, while he is searching he accidentally knocks out a woman, Marisol. He takes her to the Baxters, who, in turn, during the exchange, Marisols son, Jesús runs towards her, followed by her husband, Julio. While the family embraces, Ramón orders one of his men, Silvanito attempts to protect the family with a shotgun with the Stranger backing him up.
Neither Ramón nor any of his men attempt to challenge the Stranger, the Stranger tells Marisol to go to Ramón and for Julio to take Jesús home. He learns from Silvanito that Ramón had framed Julio for cheating during a game and taken Marisol as his prisoner. He gives Marisol some money and tells her family to leave the town, when the Rojos discover that he freed Marisol, they capture and torture him, but he escapes. Believing the Stranger to be protected by the Baxters, the Rojos set fire to the Baxter home, ramon kills John Baxter and Antonio after pretending to spare them. Consuelo, John Baxters wife and curses the Rojos for killing her unarmed husband and she is shot and killed by Esteban. With help from Piripero, the local coffin-maker, the Stranger escapes town by hiding in a coffin, the Stranger hides and convalesces in a nearby mine
Walking in the United Kingdom
Access is easy in Scotland but not in Northern Ireland. Walking is used in the United Kingdom to describe a range of activity, the word hiking is used in the UK, but less often than walking, the word rambling is used, and the main organisation that supports walking is called The Ramblers. Mountain walking can sometimes involve scrambling, in earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and was associated with vagrancy. Thomas West, an English priest, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. To this end he included various stations or viewpoints around the lakes, published in 1778 the book was a major success. Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure was the English poet William Wordsworth, in 1790 he embarked on an extended tour of France and Germany, a journey subsequently recorded in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude. His famous poem Tintern Abbey was inspired by a visit to the Wye Valley made during a tour of Wales in 1798 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth.
Wordsworths friend Coleridge was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three weeks tour of the Lake District. John Keats, who belonged to the generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland. Stevenson published in 1876 his famous essay Walking Tours, the subgenre of travel writing produced many classics in the subsequent 20th-century. Due to industrialisation in England, people began to migrate to the cities where living standards were often cramped and they would escape the confines of the city by rambling about in the countryside. However, the land in England, particularly around the areas of Manchester and Sheffield, was privately owned. Rambling clubs soon sprang up in the north and began campaigning for the legal right to roam. One of the first such clubs, was Sunday Tramps founded by Leslie White in 1879, the first national grouping, the Federation of Rambling Clubs, was formed in London in 1905 and was heavily patronized by the peerage.
Access to Mountains bills, that would have legislated the publics right to roam across some land, were periodically presented to Parliament from 1884 to 1932 without success. Finally, in 1932, the Rambler’s Right Movement organized a mass trespass on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, despite attempts on the part of the police to prevent the trespass from going ahead it was successfully achieved due to massive publicity. The establishment of this and similar national parks helped to access for all outdoors enthusiasts. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 considerably extended the right to roam in England, a walking tour is an extended walk in the countryside, undertaken by an individual, or group for several days
El Capitan
El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the worlds favorite challenges for rock climbers, the formation was named El Capitan by the Mariposa Battalion when they explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff and it is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant the chief or rock chief. In modern times, the name is often contracted to El Cap, especially among rock climbers. The top of El Capitan can be reached by hiking out of Yosemite Valley on the next to Yosemite Falls. For climbers, the challenge is to climb up the granite face. There are many named climbing routes, all of them arduous, including Iron Hawk and Sea of Dreams, El Capitan is composed almost entirely of granite, a pale, coarse-grained granite emplaced approximately 100 mya.
In addition to El Capitan, this granite forms most of the features of the western portions of Yosemite Valley. A separate intrusion of igneous rock, the Taft Granite, forms the uppermost portions of the cliff face, a third igneous rock, diorite, is present as dark-veined intrusions through both kinds of granite, especially prominent in the area known as the North America Wall. Along with most of the rock formations of Yosemite Valley. The El Capitan Granite is relatively free of joints, and as a result the ice did not erode the rock face as much as other, more jointed. These forces contribute to the creation of such as the Texas Flake. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing, El Cap has two main faces, the Southwest and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a prow, while today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the south buttress. The climbing team relied heavily on aid climbing, using rope, the second ascent of The Nose was in 1960 by Royal Robbins, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost, who took seven days in the first continuous climb of the route without siege tactics.
The first solo climb of The Nose was done by Tom Bauman in 1969, the first ascent of The Nose in one day was accomplished in 1975 by John Long, Jim Bridwell and Billy Westbay. Today, The Nose typically takes fit climbers 4–5 days of full climbing, efforts during the 1960s and 1970s explored the other faces of El Capitan, and many of the early routes are still popular today. Among the early classics are Salathé Wall on the southwest face, climbed in the 1960s are routes such as, Dihedral Wall, West Buttress, and Muir Wall
Grade (climbing)
In rock climbing and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a grade to a climbing route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route. Different aspects of climbing each have their own grading system, and many different nationalities developed their own, different grading systems consider these factors in different ways, so no two grading systems have an exact one-to-one correspondence. They may be the opinion of one or a few climbers, a grade for an individual route may be a consensus reached by many climbers who have climbed the route. While grades are usually applied fairly consistently across a climbing area, because of these variables, a given climber might find a route to be either easier or more difficult than expected for the grade applied. In 1894, the Austrian mountaineer Fritz Benesch introduced the first known grading system for rock climbing, the Benesch scale had seven levels of difficulty, with level VII the easiest and level I the most difficult.
Soon more difficult climbs were made, which originally were graded level 0 and 00, in 1923, the German mountaineer Willo Welzenbach compressed the scale and turned the order around, so that level 00 became level IV-V. It prevailed internationally and was renamed in 1968 as the UIAA scale, originally a 6-grade scale, it has been officially open-ended since 1979. For free climbing, there are many different grading systems varying according to country and they include, The Yosemite Decimal System of grading routes was initially developed as the Sierra Club grading system in the 1930s to rate hikes and climbs in the Sierra Nevada range. The rock climbing portion was developed at Tahquitz Rock in southern California by members of the Rock Climbing Section of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club in the 1950s and it quickly spread to Canada and the rest of the Americas. Originally a single-part classification system and protection rating categories were added later, the new classifications do not apply to every climb and usage varies widely.
When a route involves aid climbing, its unique aid designation can be appended to the YDS free climbing rating, Class 1 is the easiest and consists of walking on even terrain. Class 5 is climbing on vertical or near-vertical rock, and requires skill, un-roped falls would result in severe injury or death. Originally, Class 6 was used to aid climbing. However, the separate A rating system became popular instead, the original intention was that the classes would be subdivided decimally, so that a route graded 4.5 would be a scramble halfway between 4 and 5, and 5.9 would be the hardest rock climb. Increased standards and improved equipment meant that climbs graded 5.9 in the 1960s are now only of moderate difficulty. While the top grade was 5.10, a range of climbs in this grade was completed. Letter grades were added for climbs at 5.10 and above by adding a letter a, b, c, the system originally considered only the technical difficulty of the hardest move on a route. For example, a route of mainly 5.7 moves but with one 5. 11b move would be graded 5.
11b, the YDS system involves an optional Roman numeral grade that indicates the length and seriousness of the route
Mountain
A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism and these forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level and these colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains, different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m, there is no universally accepted definition of a mountain.
Elevation, relief, steepness and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain, whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. The highest point in San Francisco, California, is called Mount Davidson, notwithstanding its height of 300 m, Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma is only 251 m from its base to its highest point. Whittows Dictionary of Physical Geography states Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres as mountains, in addition, some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. For a while, the US defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or taller, any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US, using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earths land mass is mountainous, there are three main types of mountains, volcanic and block.
All three types are formed from plate tectonics, when portions of the Earths crust move, compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate, at a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab, and forms magma that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it builds a volcanic mountain. Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain, magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US
Mountaineering
The term mountaineering describes the sport of mountain climbing, including ski mountaineering. Hiking in the mountains can be a form of mountaineering when it involves scrambling, or short stretches of the more basic grades of rock climbing. All require experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge to maintain safety, mountaineering is often called Alpinism, especially in European languages, which implies climbing with difficulty such high and often snow and ice-covered mountains as the Alps. A mountaineer with such great skill is called an Alpinist, many cultures have harbored superstitions about mountains, which they often regarded as sacred due to their proximity with heaven, such as Mount Olympus for the Ancient Greeks. In 1492 Antoine de Ville, lord of Domjulien and Beaupré, was the first to ascend the Mont Aiguille, in France, with a team, using ladders. It appears to be the first recorded climb of any technical difficulty, in 1573 Francesco De Marchi and Francesco Di Domenico ascended Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains.
During the Enlightenment, as a product of the new spirit of curiosity for the natural world, in 1741 Richard Pococke and William Windham made a historic visit to Chamonix. By the early 19th century many of the peaks were reached, including the Grossglockner in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812. In 1808 Marie Paradis became the first female to climb Mont Blanc and this inaugurated what became known as the Golden age of alpinism, with the first mountaineering club - the Alpine Club - being founded in 1857. Well-known guides of the era include Christian Almer, Jakob Anderegg, Melchior Anderegg, J. J. Bennen, Michel Croz, in the early years of the golden age, scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall. In the years, it shifted to a more competitive orientation as pure sportsmen came to dominate the London-based Alpine Club and this ascent is generally regarded as marking the end of the mountaineering golden age.
By this point the sport of mountaineering had largely reached its modern form, with a body of professional guides, mountaineering in the Americas became popular in the 1800s. In North America, Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rockies was first climbed by Edwin James, though lower than Pikes Peak, the heavily glaciated Fremont Peak in Wyoming was thought to be the tallest mountain in the Rockies when it was first climbed by John C. Frémont and two others in 1842, pico de Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico and third tallest in North America, was first climbed by U. S. military personnel which included William F. Raynolds and a half dozen other climbers in 1848. Heavily glaciated and more technical climbs in North American were not achieved until the late 19th, in 1897 Mount Saint Elias on the Alaska-Yukon border was summitted by the Duke of the Abruzzi and party. But it was not until 1913 that Mount Mckinley, the tallest peak in North America was successfully climbed by Hudson Stuck, Mount Logan, the tallest peak in Canada was first summitted by a half dozen climbers in 1925 in an expedition that took more than two months.
In 1879-1880 the exploration of the highest Andes in South America began when English mountaineer Edward Whymper climbed Chimborazo, the summit of Aconcagua was finally reached on January 14,1897 by Swiss mountaineer Matthias Zurbriggen during an expedition led by Edward FitzGerald that began in December 1896. The Andes of Bolivia were first explored by Sir William Martin Conway in 1898 and it took until the late 19th century for European explorers to penetrate Africa
Rock-climbing equipment
A wide range of equipment is used during rock or any other type of climbing. The most popular types of climbing equipment are briefly described in this article, the article on protecting a climb describes equipment commonly used to protect a climber against the consequences of a fall. See the Glossary of climbing terms for more equipment descriptions, climbing ropes are typically of kernmantle construction, consisting of a core of long twisted fibres and an outer sheath of woven coloured fibres. The core provides about 80% of the strength, while the sheath is a durable layer that protects the core. Ropes used for climbing can be divided into two classes, dynamic ropes and low elongation ropes, dynamic ropes are designed to absorb the energy of a falling climber, and are usually used as Belaying ropes. When a climber falls, the rope stretches, reducing the force experienced by the climber, their belayer. Low elongation ropes stretch much less, and are used in anchoring systems. They are used for abseiling and as fixed ropes climbed with ascenders, modern webbing or tape is made of nylon or Spectra/Dyneema, or a combination of the two.
Climbing-specific nylon webbing is generally tubular webbing, that is, it is a tube of nylon pressed flat and it is very strong, generally rated in excess of 9 kN, or about 2,020 pounds of force. Dyneema is even stronger, often rated above 20 kN and as high as 27 kN, in 2010, UK-based DMM performed fall factor 1 and 2 tests on various Dyneema and Nylon webbings, showing Dyneema slings can fail even under 60 cm falls. Tying knots in Dyneema webbing was proven to have reduced the amount of supported force by as much as half. When webbing is sewn or tied together at the ends, it becomes a sling or runner and these loops are made one of two ways—sewn or tied. Both ways of forming runners have advantages and drawbacks, and it is for the climber to choose which to use. Generally speaking, most climbers carry a few of both types and it is important to note that only nylon can be safely knotted into a runner, Dyneema is always sewn because the fibers are too slippery to hold a knot under weight. Webbing has many such as, Extending the distance between protection and a tie-in point.
An anchor around a tree or rock, protecting a rope that hangs over a sharp edge. Carabiners are metal loops with spring-loaded gates, used as connectors, once made primarily from steel, almost all carabiners for recreational climbing are now made from a light weight aluminum alloy. Steel carabiners are much heavier, but harder wearing, and therefore are used by instructors when working with groups
Climbing
Climbing is the activity of using ones hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep object. It is done recreationally, competitively, in trades that rely on it and it is done indoors and out, on natural and manmade structures. Climbing activities include, Ascending boulders or small outcrops, often with climbing shoes, Climbing along canyons for sport or recreation. Chalk climbing, Ascending chalk cliffs uses some of the techniques as ice climbing. Competition Climbing, A formal, competitive sport of recent origins, competition Climbing has three major disciplines, Lead and Speed. Ice climbing, Ascending ice or hard snow formations using special equipment, usually ice axes, techniques of protecting the climber are similar to those of rock climbing, with protective devices adapted to frozen conditions. Indoor climbing, Top roping, lead climbing, and bouldering artificial walls with bolted holds in a climbing gym, Ascending mountains for sport or recreation. It often involves rock and/or ice climbing, pole climbing, Climbing poles and masts without equipment.
Lumberjack tree-trimming and competitive tree-trunk or pole climbing for speed using spikes, rock climbing, Ascending rock formations, often using climbing shoes and a chalk bag. Equipment such as ropes, nuts and camming devices are normally employed, rope access, Industrial climbing, usually abseiling, as an alternative to scaffolding for short works on exposed structures. Rope climbing, Climbing a short, thick rope for speed, not to be confused with roped climbing, as in rock or ice climbing. Scrambling which includes rock climbing, and is considered part of hillwalking. Sport climbing is a form of climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock. Top roping, Ascending a rock climbing route protected by a rope anchored at the top and protected by a belayer below Traditional climbing is a form of climbing without fixed anchors and bolts. Climbers place removable protection such as camming devices, free solo climbing, Climbing without ropes or protection. Tree climbing, Recreationally ascending trees using ropes and other protective equipment, a tower climber is a professional who climbs broadcasting or telecommunication towers or masts for maintenance or repair.
Rock and tree climbing all usually use ropes for safety or aid, pole climbing and rope climbing were among the first exercises to be included in the origins of modern gymnastics in the late 18th century and early 19th century
Zermatt
Zermatt is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of about 5,800 inhabitants, the town lies at the upper end of Mattertal at an elevation of 1,620 m, at the foot of Switzerlands highest peaks. It lies about 10 km from the over 10,800 ft high Theodul Pass bordering Italy, Zermatt is famed as a mountaineering and ski resort of the Swiss Alps. The year round population is 5,759, though there may be several times as many tourists in Zermatt at any one time. Much of the economy is based on tourism, with about half of the jobs in town in hotels or restaurants. Just over one-third of the permanent population was born in the town, the name of Zermatt, as well as that of the Matterhorn itself, derives from the alpine meadows, or matten, in the valley. The name appeared first as Zur Matte and became Zermatt and it does not appear until 1495 on a map or 1546 in a text, but may have been employed long before. Praborno or Prato Borno are the names of Zermatt, they appear in the ancient maps as early as the thirteenth century.
The Romand-speaking people from the Aosta Valley and from the Romand-speaking part of canton Wallis used this name until about 1860 in the form of Praborne, the reason of this change from Praborno to Zermatt is attributed to the gradual replacement of the Romance-speaking people by German-speaking colony. The town of Zermatt lies at the end of the Matter Valley. Zermatt is almost completely surrounded by the mountains of the Pennine Alps among which Monte Rosa. It is followed by the Dom, Lyskamm and the Matterhorn, most of the Alpine four-thousanders are located around Zermatt or in the neighbouring valleys. The town of Zermatt, while dense, is geographically small, there are three main streets which run along the banks of the river Matter Vispa, and numerous cross-streets, especially around the station and the church which forms the centre of Zermatt. In general anything is at most a thirty-minute walk away, there are several suburbs within Zermatt. Winkelmatten, which was once a hamlet, lies on a hill on the southern side.
Steinmatten is located on the bank of the main river. Many hamlets are located in the valleys above Zermatt, however they are not usually inhabited all year round, zum See lies south of Zermatt on the west bank of the Gorner gorge, near Furi where a cable car station is located. On the side of Zmutt valley lies the hamlet of Zmutt, findeln is located in the eastern valley above the Findelbach river
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First ascents are notable because they entail genuine exploration, with risks, challenges. The person who performs the first ascent is called the first ascensionist, the details of the first ascents of even many prominent mountains are scanty or unknown, sometimes the only evidence of prior summiting is a cairn, artifacts, or inscriptions at the top. Today, first ascents are generally recorded and usually mentioned in guidebooks. Overwhelmingly, the idea of a first ascent is a one, especially in places such as Africa. There may be little or no evidence or documentation about the climbing activities of indigenous peoples living near the mountain. The term is used when referring to ascents made using a specific technique or taking a specific route, such as via the North Face. In rock climbing, some of the earlier first ascents, particularly for difficult routes, involved a mix of free, as a result, purist free climbers have developed the designation first free ascent to acknowledge ascents intentionally made more challenging by using equipment for protection only.
Some other first ascents could be recorded for particular mountains or routes, one is the First Winter Ascent, which is, as the name easily suggests, the first ascent made during winter season. This is most important where the climate of winter is a factor in increasing the difficulty grade of the route, in the Northern Hemisphere conventional winter ascents are made between December 21 and March 21 and are not related to the conditions. Also in the Himalayan area, although Nepal and Chinas winter season permits start on December 1, another is the First Solo Ascent, which is the first ascent made by a single climber. This is most important on high-level rock climbing, when the climber has to provide his own security or even when climbing without any protection at all, another type of ascent, known as FFA is the first female ascent. The term last ascent has been used to refer to an ascent of a mountain or face that has changed to such an extent – often because of rockfall – that the route no longer exists.
It can be used facetiously to refer to a climb that is so unpleasant or unaesthetic that no one would willingly repeat the first ascent partys ordeal. List of first ascents List of first ascents in the Alps List of first ascents in the Himalaya Glossary of climbing terms Alpinist Magazine – Peter Mortimers First Ascent, Issue 17
