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     A detailed discussion, with expanded skills from Beyond the Mountains of Madness and other sources.

     An investigator with Climb skill at 60% is considered "experienced" and has mastered both free (with little or no equipment) and technical (with ropes, pitons, etc.) climbing.

Rating of Climbs

     The difficulty of a climbing route is based on permanent factors such as steepness, irregularity, altitude, durability of the surface; and variable factors such wind and weather, time of day, injuries, encumbrance and exertion level, equipment, skill level of other climbers, etc. Using the "Yosemite Decimal System" to rate free-climbing difficulty, we get:

• Class 1: Walking with a low chance of injury. Fall distance:  1d10 feet.
  

• Class 2: Simple scrambling or difficult hiking, with the possibility of occasional use of the hands. Little potential danger is encountered. Fall distance:  1d20 feet.
  

• Class 3: Scrambling, hands required. A rope can be carried but is usually not required. Via ferrata are usually in this class (at least in the Thirties). Falls are not always fatal. Fall distance:  2d20 feet.
  

• Class 4: Simple climbing; a rope is used unless the climber is very skilled and has moral objections to using ropes! Falls may well be fatal. Fall distance:  4d20 feet.
  

• Class 5: Technical climbing involving rope, belaying, and other protection hardware for safety. Fall distance:  5d20 feet.
  

• Class 6: Cannot be ascended with Climb skill at all. Might be descended from above, if ropes and so forth were attached from above (in which case the Class would be anything from 3 to 5).  A practical route through this area would require engineering and construction skills, rather than mountaineering. Fall distance:  6d20 feet.
  

   

     Example:  the Matterhorn. The usual modern route to the peak of the Matterhorn is a one-day Class 2 hike (to an overnight hut), followed by a one-day Class 4 to the peak and back, and of course another one-day Class 2 back down from the hut.

     Example:  K2. This Himalayan peak requires two weeks of Class 1 or 2 hiking just to reach the base of the mountain, and then about two days of Class 4 and two days of Class 5 climbing to reach the peak by the safest route. Avalanches, storms and other environmental issues can delay climbers for days, weeks or even a month on this mountain - nobody climbs in a storm. K2 kills about 1 in 4 of the modern climbers (21st Century) who attempt the peak.

Determining the Difficulty

     Bad weather will add +1 to the Class of the route; climbing without oxygen above 26,000' altitude will add +1 to the Class also. Choosing a route is often more important than "mere" climbing skill; Cartography, Spot Hidden, Climb, Natural History and Meteorology might all come into play. The most common variable factors affecting Climb skill are encumbrance, equipment, and organization. 

     An overall "mountain climb" may combine various Class ratings on different days; part of being a good mountaineer is recognizing how to combine weather, time, exhaustion, skill, etc. with the various routes which can be chosen. If well-organized and using equipment, only the leader (highest Climb skill) of a climbing team will see the full Class of the route -- all others treat it as one rating less. Use the worst Class encountered in the day to determine this modifier for each day's climb:

     The GM can provide a simple map of the terrain, with possible routes and their classes shown if the characters can "read" the routes.

     Example:  the Matterhorn. An experienced climber (60% Climb skill) is making the last day's climb to the top of the Matterhorn, a 1-day trip, traveling as part of a team including other experienced climbers ( +10%) on a known route (+10%), using technical equipment (+30%), unencumbered, and sees the route as Class 3 (since he's being led by a guide). Thus he must roll 60 + 50 - 10 =  100%. Climbers are roped pretty close together, let's say 15 feet apart. On each roll of 96+, the climber will take a fall of 15 feet (see "Failure") anyway, for 1d6-2 points of damage. It's said that a group of four Matterhorn guides could get a cow to the top of the mountain in the Thirties.

     Example: K2. A team of four very experienced climbers (all at 70% Climb skill, except a leader at 90% Climb skill) attempt to ascend K2, well-equipped with oxygen and technical equipment (but each strong enough that a 40 pound load won't encumber them). They're usually roped together about 20 feet apart. There are no surveyed routes. Leaving out the two-week approach and departure hikes, most members of the team makes rolls as follows:

day 1, Class 4:  modified skill is 105%, fail only on 96+ roll

day 2, Class 4:  modified skill is 105%, fail only on 96+ roll

day 3, Class 5:  modified skill is 95%, fail on 96+ roll

day 4, Class 5:  modified skill is 95%, fail on 96+ roll

the peak!

day 5, Class 5:  modified skill is 95%, fail on 96+ roll

day 6, Class 5:  modified skill is 95%, fail on 96+ roll

day 7, Class 4:  modified skill is 105%, fail only on 96+ roll

day 8, Class 4:  modified skill is 105%, fail only on 96+ roll

      Note that each climber must make this whole sequence of rolls; there is a 1/3 chance per climber that they'll roll a 96+ at least once. Save your chips! Falls of 20 feet do 2d6-4 damage, for an average of 3 points of damage; and of course an injured person has a negative modified on their Climb skill until healed. At the Keeper's discretion, the "drop" distance (between roped characters or fixed protection) may be more than 20 feet at some points.

Failure

     Characters who fail a Climb roll may have fallen. Falls do damage based on the Class rating of the route, at 1d6-2 points per 10 feet of fall. If a falling character is roped to another character or a piton or support, the longest drop distance is the free length of the rope (or the fall distance for the Class, whichever is less); however, the supporting character must make a Climb roll at that time. If that character also fails their Climb roll, things get complicated and deadly ...also of course, the chance of a rope breaking, piton coming loose, etc. depends on the weight of the falling climber(s) and the distance they fall. Fall factors, etc. complicate the "rope breaking" numbers a lot; for our purposes, 1930s rope will break if a 180 pound climber drop straight more than 20 feet. The distance between roped climbers depends on their skill, equipment and (mostly) the terrain on the route.

     If the referee is feeling generous, a failed Climb roll may merely represent a blocked route, or generally a "must turn back here" event for the character. In reality, for every climber who falls to their death, ten climbers realize they aren't ready for that route and retreat.

     Characters who fumble a Climb roll suffer a spectacular misfortune. Ropes break, pitons dislodge, ledges crumble, ice falls ...  

See the trailer for North Face ... or a longer German one.

Excerpts from "Mountaineering", by T.A.H. Peacocke (pub. Adam & Charles Black, London 1941)