Hobby Types – Mountaineering

Although mountaineering is a popular sport, it is a popular hobby too. It starts from the basic hobbies like the hiking and trekking, which to me are the basic prerequisites for taking bigger leaps and adventures like mountain climbing. Mountaineering entails the stretching of one’s physical endurance to its extremes as the hobby may entail dangers at a place when one is all by oneself. It is hobby of one’s skills, determination, and endurance by using only a pair of spiked boots, a rope and a hammer to hammer nails into the mountain to make a lifeline for one self both upwards and downwards.

One can say mountaineering for people who want a extreme hobby – a hobby that involves danger, courage, hair-raising moments of one’s life and a sense of great achievement when atop the pinnacle. The hobby is extremely popular in youngsters, which then make them professional mountain climbers. And one should not be amazed to see females too into this deadly and adventurous hobby despite their relatively softer physiques. But they overcome the physical barriers by exercising hard and cling to the rope with determination and courage.

From plain and rugged mountains to icy slopes and steep vertical climbs, one has to tackle some of the most difficult terrains of the world. When going up even slip can cost one’s life or limbs. In fact beside many other factors, mountaineering is a test of one’s concentration – if the concentration is lost even for a second, the results can be disastrous and fatal.

Before undertaking mountaineering as a hobby, one must read a lot about rocks, rock formation, basics of knot fastening as a nylon rope is all that one hangs on and become the only life saving object high up there. There cannot be any short cuts as one has to have a firm grip on the rope and rope must be well fastened both to the individual and t the mountain itself.

Recently rock climbing has also become a popular hobby. The hobby starts from the indoors on a vertical artificial climb and then takes the more adventure seekers to high up on the vertical sides of the mountains. This is fascinating, awesome and very dangerously adventurous.

Pakistan is mountaineers haven – a country which has some of the most challenging mountains of the world. It has many peaks that fall in the exclusive 8,000+ meters category, like the K-2, Nanga Parbat and the Raka Poshi. Mountaineers from all over the world come to Pakistan to climb still many virgin peaks that abound in the Karakoram, the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and the Suleiman ranges. I recommend the hobbyists to meet each other in mountains of Pakistan for adventure, challenge and fun.

We will continue to talk about various aspects of mountaineering in our future posts.

Related Link: Meet me in the mountains (Pakistanpaedia)