Fitz Roy Chalten Argentina Todor Bozhinov 2013

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

and

climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders), to small boulders. Climbing is done fo ...

, enchainment (an

anglicisation Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

of the French word ''enchaînement'', meaning "linking") is climbing two or more mountains or climbing routes on a mountain in one outing (often over the course of a day or a series of days).

Rock climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

two or more routes in this manner are also called a "link up" in the United States. Climbers may do an ''enchainment'' of easy routes as a way of training for a more difficult objective, but some ''enchainments'' of hard routes are a prize in their own right, a notable example being the

great north faces of the Alps The six great north faces of the Alps are a group of vertical faces in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps known in mountaineering for their difficulty, danger, and great height. The "Trilogy" is the three hardest of these north faces, being the ...

In alpinism

By the 1970s, the number of possible new routes in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

seemed to be drying up, and so alpinists looked for other challenges. Developments in

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

and

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

technology, as well as advances in

extreme skiing Extreme skiing is performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in mountainous terrain. The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier ...

and the use of

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s, meant that mountains could be descended much more quickly than they could by foot, making possible enchainments of long and difficult face routes. Early practitioners of this style of climbing were predominantly French, the most notable being

Jean-Marc Boivin Jean-Marc Boivin (6 April 1951 – 17 February 1990) was a French mountaineering, mountaineer, extreme skiing, extreme skier, hang gliding, hang glider and paragliding, paraglider pilot, Speleology, speleologist, BASE jumping, BASE jumper, filmmak ...

,, and

Jean-Christophe Lafaille Jean-Christophe Lafaille (31 March 1965 – 27 January 2006 resumed was a French mountaineer noted for a number of difficult ascents in the Alps and Himalaya, and for what has been described as "perhaps the finest self-rescue ever performed in ...

.Jean-Marc BOIVIN: ENCHAINEMENTS
jeanmarcboivin.free.fr, retrieved 4 October 2010 *On 17 March 1986, Boivin, using skis, a paraglider, and a hang glider for his descents, linked up ascents of the north faces of the

Aiguille Verte The Aiguille Verte (; ), which is French for "Green Needle", is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. It was first climbed on 29 June 1865 by Edward Whymper, Christian Almer and Franz Biner, a fortnight before the fateful firs ...

Les Droites Les Droites () is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps and is the lowest of the 4000-metre peaks in the Alps. The mountain has two summits: * West summit (3,984 m), first ascent by W. A. B. Coolidge, Christian Almer and Ulrich ...

, Les Courtes, and the

Grandes Jorasses The Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m; 13,806 ft) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, on the boundary between Haute-Savoie in France and Aosta Valley in Italy. The first ascent of the highest peak of the mountain (''Pointe Walker'') was by Hor ...

, flying back to the

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

valley after his final ascent and arriving at 0:30 am.Mark Twight
''Kiss Or Kill: Confessions of a Serial Climber''
The Mountaineers Books, 2002, p. 33 *From 11 to 12 March 1987, Profit was the first to climb the three hardest of the six great Alpine north faces, "

the Trilogy The Trilogy (1884-1888) is a series of three novels written by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz. The series follows dramatized versions of famous events in Polish history, weaving fact and fiction. It is considered great literary work on p ...

", (the

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends a ...

, the

Matterhorn The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...

and the Grandes Jorasses) in under 24 hours. *In April 1996, Lafaille made a 15-day solo enchainment of ten classic alpine faces, including routes on the Eiger, and the

In rock climbing

* In 1986,

John Bachar John Bachar (March 23, 1957 – July 5, 2009) was an American rock climber. Noted for his skill at free soloing, he ultimately died during a free solo climb. A fitness fanatic, he was the creator of the climbing training device known as the Bac ...

and Peter Croft made the first link-up of routes on

El Capitan El Capitan ( es, El Capitán; "the Captain" or "the Chief") is a vertical Rock formations in the United States, rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The El Capitan Granite, granit ...

and

Half Dome Half Dome is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape. One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth ...

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

in a single day. * In 2014, over a 5-day period,

Alex Honnold Alexander Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to prominence in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a ...

and

Tommy Caldwell Tommy Caldwell (born August 11, 1978) is an American rock climber who has set records in sport climbing, traditional climbing, and in big-wall climbing. Caldwell made the first free ascents of several major routes on El Capitan in Yosemite Natio ...

completed the first-ever full enchainment, ''The Fitz Roy Traverse'' (5.11d C1 65 degrees, 5000m), on the Fitz Roy massif, in

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

In mountaineering

*In May 2008, Japanese climbers Katsutaka Yokoyama, Yusuke Sato, and Fumitaka Ichimura, completed the enchainment on Mount Denali of the ''Isis Face'' (M4 5.8 A1, 60 degrees, 7,200-feet o South Buttress Stutzman-Tackle, 1982), and the ''Slovak Direct'' (5.9, 100 degrees, 9,000-feet, Adam-Korl-Krizo, 1984), in a single, eight-day push.

References

{{reflist Types of climbing Mountaineering techniques