I have a real fascination with mountains and mountaineering despite never having been up anything higher than Snowdon.

Does anyone on here actually do proper mountaineering rather than just bimbling about like I used to with a back pack full of factor 25 and some butties?

Who is STW highest climber? Summit photos required as evidence, especially if somebody claims to have been up K2.

I managed (sadly with oxygen and a full sherpa support team) an ascent of the Col Du Clent. We summited on the morning of July 25th 2003. Locals may remember the year, it was the first time in decades that the snow on the peak melted during the summer months. However we did lose one member on the descent due to a rock fall (RIP Sherpa LDV 😥 )

Ok it's not K2…not even snowdon but it's the only decent photo i have of me up the good old Idwall slabs (top of Tennis shoe) dont know how high (about 400 foot??)
Would love to give some big alpine routes a bash but lifestyle, time and familly mean that peak district cragging is all the climbing i do these days….maybe one day….

Did you see the thing about Munroe then last night???

I'm off to the Tien Shan on Friday to hopefully climb some unclimbed peaks (fingers crossed).
Not super high though, but it's not about the altitude (unless you are a masochist).

Not sure if you'd call it 'mountaineering', but a nice winter's day in the Lakes is hard to beat…

Highest I have been is top of Island Peak in Nepal (6200m). but no pics as before digital

Also done a fair amount of snowboard mountaineering in the Alps etc.
Here I am on the Domes de Miages (near Mt blanc)
http://nickmorrish7436.fotopic.net/p40446274.html
Looking rather sunburnt in the BC coast mountains!
http://nickmorrish7436.fotopic.net/p28496113.html

Did you see the thing about Munroe then last night???

No, but I did watch something about the Mark Inglis/Russell Brice/David Sharp incident.

ive done a few 4000m peaks in the alps, some scottish winter climbing too.the highest ive been though is sat on my fat one at a base camp in nepal when i visited a mate who was out on an expedition there.(ama dablam)
seen a few nasty accidents and they made me get the fear, dont even rock climb anymore.

I've been to about 3,500m in the Alps, on a glacier. It really just involved putting one foot in front of the other many times.

I've also done some classic 'mountaineering' routes in N Wales.

Mountaineering is brilliant. The absolute apogee of outdoor sports I think. Getting to the top of a mountain, especially if you needed ropes, is just the best 🙂

There's really two kinds of mountaineering. UK style where the mountains are small, so you just have to find a difficult way up; and Alpine style where you sometimes need to get the ropes and gear out just to get up at all. There are however plenty of mountains in the Alps/Rockies/Himalayas etc where you really just walk or scramble up, but the sheer size requires you to take a bivi bag and three days of food. Then there are the ones where you have to take a tent, food AND your climbing gear…

rode a motorbike to 3300m in columbia – does that count?

would love to climb big mountains. will do one day.

Mountaineering – hard to define. I don't do dangling off ropes but don't mind a bit of scrambling, via ferrata or ice axe and crampon work.

Done many Scottish mountains – summer and winter. Highest is Ben Nevis at what 4400ft. Been up alps and pyrenees at well over 10 000 ft – but some just a walk from a road, did a couple of julian alps peaks at around 7000 ft but the highest I have been is a pass in the andes at about 16 000 ft.

Best view from a op perhaps. Teh furthest peaks are about 70 miles away

On top of a julian alp

Panorama – should be clicky to make huge

Big plateau top in scotland – but a bit of ice axe and crampon work to get up and down

I've winter climbed all over Scotland the lakes and Wales when conditions allow, sadly don't do it anymore as the cold nearly wiped me out on a few occasions.

The frienship of fellow climbers in adversity is hard to match.

Holy shiiiiiiit Molgrips, I'm getting vertigo just looking at that picture. And that's why I had to give up climbing.

I live at 1150m, does that count?

The pic I searched for used to be on a North Face advert poster. It's of a bloke sitting bleary eyed in a tent in his sleeping bag, making a brew. Except that the tent is anchored half way up a cliff and the rest of the shot is just an impossibly large void. I don't think TNF make the tent any more, it was called Room with a View IIRC.

DOing this

http://www.spanishhighs.co.uk/climb-mulhacen-highest-mountain-in-spain.php

in Sept, having done Snowdon the hard way a couple of years ago and liked it…

Patagonia, not high but wild and awesome:

Volcan Villarica, 2847m. Glissaded most of the way back down. 😀

Done some fun mountain stuff in UK, but winter mountains and multi-pitch climbing still on list for future.

Done about half the Munros before running out of steam, and about 60 of those in winter + tonnes in the Lakes and Wales. Am a terrible rock climber, but can manage a bit of snow and ice, easier scrambles and via ferrata. It's kinda mountaineering for mortals and 100% ace.

Would love to do some proper alpinism in Alps.

I used to work as a guide in Bolivia, and there was one ride we did that started at 5400m, then descended all day to 1000m at the edges of the Amazon. That's the highest I've ever been, and it was amazing.

Climbing terrifies me and I'd never do it!

I'm more of a hill walker than a climber but I have managed 6194 metres.

I have some slides in a box somewhere but nothing on-line I'm afraid.

There was a great programme on BBC 4 Munroe Mountain Manlast night, re-run I think, all about how the 3000ft mountains got their name and the man behind it.

Just back from a trip to the Alps. See link below for photos (they're my pal's, not mine).

" class="bbcode-link">http://www.flickr.com/photos/chenderson/sets/72157624338726725/show/

And I managed to fit in a few days at Les Gets afterwards, as well as catching a stage of the Tour. Top holiday all round.

DOing this

http://www.spanishhighs.co.uk/climb-mulhacen-highest-mountain-in-spain.php

in Sept, having done Snowdon the hard way a couple of years ago and liked it…

If you're planning to camp near at Sieta des Lagunas, near the top of Mulhacen, beware the fox. We pitched tents there last December, did the summit and came down to find one of the tents had been ripped open and the fox made off with a load of food.

Its not about the height in Mountaineering.
There is some of the best mountaineering to be had on your doorstep – get up to Scotland in the dead of winter and go climb the north face of the Ben, jump across to the Cairngorms for some ski mountaineering or easy access scottish winter climbing in the Northern Corries.
Great End in the lakes has some excellent routes.
Snowdon has some classic lines on Lliwedd.

I have had two winters in the Polish High Tatras (2100m+):
Rysy
Kozi Weirch
Zawrat
Swinica
Kosceliec

Very cheap to get to, cheap food and accomodation and truely stunning scenery.

Swinica, Jan 2010

I climbed this twice last year, not a mountain but 1000ft of vertical conglomerate

My highest is about 4200m on a few peaks in the Swiss alps a few years back. Mostly snow plods but with a few exposed bits that made me quite nervous.

HC that does look a bit boring..!

The Polish snowy peak photo gets my juices going. That looks doable.

Looks like Wales or Scotland too 🙂

Didn't quite go over the summit but that is the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, got up to a tad over 6000m, would love to do it again and many many more!

yeah that polish mountain is easy but as we approached the top, a weather front closed in and the temp plummeted and I soon realised I had left my mittens in the hut. got to -15 according to my Suunto.

Ive been over the Thorong La (5416m) 6 times, with and without bike, but would love to go much higher one day.

Im the non nepalese looking one !!!

The highest I've climbed is Doufourspitze in Switzerland @ 4634m, by the Cresta Rey route (AD+). We did it from the margherita Hut, which itself is perched on the summit of signalkuppe at 4559m and the highest building in Europe.
From Margherita Cabina looking across to Doufourspitze (centre).

kennyp :- fantastic pics of Cham there.
I haven't been climbing in Cham for over 10 years but bringing back many memories. Liking the pics up to the Albert Prem and the Chardonet (done that twice, brill).

Highest I've been would be Mera Peak in Nepal, around 6300m ish.

I managed to scale Primrose Hill unaided last week, and at the top it was quite windy and there was a lady with a summery dress and no pants.

WTF is that bloke doing in Molgrips' picture? no way. No **** way. That's just perverted.

Off to do the three passes trek and EBC then hopefully Island Peak. Then climbing my way round SE Asia, then New Zealand and then South America, would like to head to Patagonia but is winter when I arrive there. Quite a bit of biking thrown in along the way on an 8 month holiday. Hurray.
Am always torn between biking and climbing really. I do like a nice view whilst eating my butties. 😆

I appreciate it has an immense appeal for many people, but it's just not my cup of tea, really. I'm not the biggest fan of walking as it is, and the idea of schlepping all the way up just to come down again, just doesn't turn me on. If there was a pub at the top, I might be slightly more tempted. Whilst I admire the determination etc of those that do climb bloody great mountains and accept it's something with a great sense of challenge, it's never really appealed to me personally. I think it's the idea of all that effort, for a reward I just don't 'get'.

Add a bike into that mix, and it seems to make a lot more sense. I wouldn't go out of my way to do it without one though.

elfin – have look at the panorama pic I posted – thats one of the reasons why we do it.

A lot of peace of mind at the top of a mountain

one of my heros as a climber

dan osman 400ft in 4mins 25seconds with one of the scariest dynos ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jf3eupPeQo

Yeah I see what you're saying, Tandemjeremy, and undoubtedly some of the pics here are stunning but without a bike I don't find that sort of thing exciting really. I was on a walk up Helvellyn with some friends a few years ago, and I faked an injury so that we'd come back down and I wouldn't have to traipse around for miles. Selfish I know, but I was so bored.

With me, it's just 'plod plod plod oh look what a nice view yeah whatever can we go now?'. I long for a cable car or a funicular railway! 'Plod plod plod ah back down again pub nice one'.

Oddly, I enjoy climbing up steep hills on a bike, so riding up an alp would be brilliant. Maybe it's just the walking thing I'm not into.

I used to do a bit of climbing and mountaineering. I'd like to do more again, but there isn't time to do everything<sigh>

Alps back in the 90s (pre digicam):

Andean Mountaineering by rental SUV (~4200m?):

A nice scramble near Annecy:w