Man has lived in the mountains since prehistoric times. He often used to journey across difficult mountain regions. However, mountaineering became a sport about a hundred years ago. It does not involve any competition among people. Mostly many individuals, making up a party, climb together as a team. They depend upon one another for their protection and safety. It is a challenging sport.
Mountaineers attempt to scale peaks in a convenient group. As they move up the dangerous peaks, they are generally tied together with a rope at a distance of about six metres. They do climb all at once. The leader climbs first and guides the rest. Mountaineers use special equipments for climbing. They wear special climbing boots, the soles of which are made of moulded rubber. It helps them gain a firm foothold on the dry rocks as well as snow. They wear protection suits against cold and wind at higher altitudes. They wear snow goggles for protection against the blinding glare. Each team carries a 40 metre long rope. They also carry things like oxygen cylinders, a compass, ice-axes, karabiners and pitons for different uses.
The earliest recorded rock climbing was made in the British Isles by Sir Robert Moray who climbed the Stac Na Biorrach, St. Kilda (71.9 m 236 ft.) in 1698.
Only about the year 1949 mountaineering became popular as a sport and climbers approached it scientifically. On 29 May, 1953, Tenzing Norgay of India and Edmond Hillary of New Zealand succeeded in scaling Mount Everest for the first time. And within the next five years all the top ten peaks in the world were conquered.