Ice-climbing

Ice climbing originated as a subdiscipline of alpine climbing, where sections of scalable ice are encountered on alpine routes alongside segments that require rock or mixed climbing. Ice climbing arose as an independent sport in the 1970s. Modern ice climbing includes a difficulty grading system that peaks at WI6 to WI7, as ice tends to hang vertically at its most severe. WI7 is very rare and usually attributed to overhanging ice with serious risk issues (i.e. unstable ice, little protection, and a risk of death). Advancements in mixed climbing in the 1980s pushed the technical difficulty of ice-climbing routes by introducing rock overhangs and roofs that can entail dry-tooling, which is the use of ice tools on bare rock.