Mixed climbing

Part of a series on
Climbing
American climber Rich Purnell on an M9-graded mixed climbing route in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado.
Lists
Climbers Piolet d'Or winners IFSC victories Equipment Knots Historical events Grade milestones Eight-thousanders Terminology
Types of rock climbing
Aid Big wall Multi-pitch Bouldering Highball Competition Speed Free Sport Traditional Solo Free solo Deep-water solo Rope solo Top roping
Types of mountaineering
Alpine Mixed Via ferrata Himalayan Alpine style Expedition style Ice Dry-tooling Scrambling Hillwalking
Other types
Buildering Canyoning Crane Grass Commercial Parkour Pole Rock hopping Rooftopping Roof hacking Slide Tree
Key actions
Abseiling Belaying Leading Redpointing Jumaring Self rescuing Simul climbing Traversing Techniques
Key terms
Anchor First ascent FFA FFFA Grade Route Beta Guide Pitch
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Mixed climbing is a climbing discipline used on routes that do have not enough ice to be pure ice climbs, but are also not dry enough to be pure rock climbs. To ascend the route, the mixed climber uses ice climbing tools (e.g. double ice tools and crampons), but to protect the route, they use traditional (e.g. nuts) or sport (e.g. bolts) rock climbing tools. Mixed climbing can vary from routes with sections of thick layers of ice and sections of bare rock to routes that are mainly bare rock but which is “iced-up” (i.e. covered in a thin layer of ice and/or snow).

While alpine climbing has used mixed climbing techniques for decades (most north-facing alpine routes are iced or snow-covered), the sport came to prominence with Jeff Lowe's ascent of the partially bolted Octopussy (WI6, M8 R) in 1994. Mixed climbing led to the sport of dry-tooling, which is mixed climbing on routes that are completely free of all ice or snow. At times, mixed climbing equipment has come under scrutiny from concerns that it was aid climbing (e.g. the lengths of tools used, and the use of heel spurs and of ice axe leashes).

Mixed climbing routes are graded for difficulty on an M-grade system, and the development of specialized mixed climbing techniques (e.g. stein pulls and figure-four moves), and equipment (e.g. fruit boots, heel spurs, and advanced ergo ice axes), led to dramatic increases in mixed climbing grade milestones, particularly from 1994 to 2003, and have been credited with pushing standards in the wider field of alpine climbing. Many modern mixed routes are bolted like sport climbing routes, but some routes require traditional climbing-type protection.