GRADE LEVEL: 12 WEEK 5-6

SUBJECT: PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH 4TH QUARTER

TOPIC: Equipment Used in Mountaineering LESSON: 3

Content Standards:
The learners demonstrate understanding of recreation in optimizing one’s health as a habit.

Performance Standards:
The learners lead recreational events with proficiency and confidence resulting in independent pursuit and in
influencing others positively.

Most Essential Learning Competencies:

At the end of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Discuss the different equipment in mountaineering.

EQUIPMENT USED IN MOUNTAINEERING

1. The climbing shoes are designed to provide the best possible

contact between your feet and the surface. They are special and
can’t be used for hiking or normal walking on the street. Instead,
they are lightweight and made to be tightly fit on your feet. You
can even feel a bit uncomfortable, but you can appreciate them
when you start climbing.

2. Mountaineering boots -First, let me explain what is

mountaineering boots. They look quite similar to hiking boots,
but they are different. Mountaineering boots are designed
especially for rock and ice climbing, and they are not so
comfortable for “normal” hiking on grass, dirt, or stones. For this
 purpose, mountaineering boots are made specially for adding
crampons, while you can’t add crampons on hiking boots.
3. Crampons This is a foot frame with several sharp spikes,
designed especially for climbing on icy slopes, including icefalls
(or frozen waterfalls). The spikes are large to avoid slipping on
the slope. Usually, there are 10 to 12 spikes. They are attached
to the mountaineering boots by metal or plastic straps.
4. Climbing gloves are designed to protect your hands from the
rugged rock surface. But at the same time, they decrease your
finger’s control and sensitivity. For this reason, a good solution
can be using gloves with semi-covered fingers. And this issue
makes gloves a bit controversial accessory.
5. Ice axe - This is a very useful accessory for ice and snow
climbing. Its main purpose is to provide stability and prevention
from slipping and falling. You can also use it to make steps in
the ice and even dig holes for protection against snowstorms.
The ice axe is usually 60 to 90 cm long, with a pick and a head,
and a spike on the other end. Some ice axes are straight, while
others are curved. Those which are curved are often shorter and
more proper for vertical ice climbing. You use the pick to stick
into the ice, and the spike on the other side can be used as a
peak of a trekking pole when the slope is steep, but not vertical.
The shorter curved ice axes are also called “ice tool” and are
preferable by the climbing mountaineers.
6. Harness -The harness is an important accessory, which provides
the main contact between your body and the ropes. It is made
of straps, forming a system of loops and additional connections.
There are three kinds of harness- sit harness, chest harness, and
full-body harness. For mountaineering, usually sit harness is
used, so we will focus on it. The sit harness consists of one large
loop around your waist and two smaller loops around your legs.
These loops are connected by straps and usually can adjust,
depending on your size. The modern harness is designed to
provide maximum stability and comfort at the same time. And
the loop connection of the harness’ front, between the waist and
the legs, is the place where the rope is connected to your body
by a carabiner.
7. Ropes – Climbing rope is the main connecting accessory. It is
designed to provide security and important assistance in
ascending and descending. The most common type of alpine
rope is the single rope. It is designed to be used alone, mainly
on trad (traditional) climbing. And the other type is a twin or half
ropes, usually used in lead climbing. Most climbing ropes are 50
m long, but some mountaineers use 70 or more m long ropes.
According to its flexibility, there are two types of ropes- static
(with low elongation) ropes, and dynamic (with high elongation)
ropes.
8. Carabiners - Carabiners are the main connectors between the
rope and your harness, and between various rope segments and
knots. By using carabiners, you can connect or disconnect these
segments according to the situation. There are two types of
carabiners used in mountaineering- standard and locking
carabiners. Standard carabiners are designed to open and close
easily while locking carabiners (or “lockers”) are made to provide
 better protection against opening according to the situation.
Usually, a mountaineer brings at least several standard and 2-4
locking carabiners.
9. Slings - Slings are additional accessories, made of two
carabiners looped by a short rope. They are used mainly to
provide distance between the main rope and your harness, or
between two rope segments. The main purpose of this is to
decrease the rope friction and to make the rope to run
straighter. 
10. Belay device -This is another additional accessory, designed to
control the moving of the rope. When the rope passes through
a belay device, its movement can be blocked if necessary. The
most classical way of belay device used is in a two climbers’
team. One of the climbers is a belayer (i.e., controlling the rope
movement), while the other climber ascends on the rock. If he
falls, the belayer can easily control it, providing much more
safety. 
11. Alpine anchors - Alpine anchors are designed to provide safe
and stable attachment to the climbing surface. There are three
main types of anchors- nuts, cams, and pitons. Two of them-
nuts and cams are made for attaching on rock cracks, and pitons
are made for all other kinds of surface. Let’s look at these
accessories.
12. Alpine nuts and cams - These accessories are made of a metal
attaching element and a wire with a loop for the rope. Both are
designed for rock cracks; the main difference is the type of the
attaching element. Nuts are made with a metal wedge (usually
in trapezoid shape), while cams are made by two, three, or four
metal blades (cams) which lock within the rock crack. Also,
usually, the cams use a metal stick rather than a wire, so they are
more complex and advanced. Both nuts and cams are used in
various sizes (and are selling in sets with various sizes), so the
mountaineer can choose the corresponding size fitting for the
size of the rock crack.
13. Climbing pitons - Climbing pitons (called also pegs) are
different. They are designed to be hammered and thrust into the
rock. If there is a crack, you can hammer a piton, or you can use
a nut or cams. But pitons are also used for places where nuts or
cams can’t work. For example, they can be used for ice surface,
or rock without cracks. In such cases, pitons have to be
hammered or even drilled into the rock.

NAME: QUARTER: 4
STRAND&SECTION: WEEK : 5 & 6
TEACHER: QUIZ : 3

Directions: Identify the correct answer in the following questions.

__________1. They are designed to be hammered and thrust into the rock.
__________2. These accessories are made of a metal attaching element and a wire with a loop for the
rope.

__________3. The main connectors between the rope and your harness, and between various rope
segments and knots.

__________4. It is designed to provide security and important assistance in ascending and descending.

__________5. This is another additional accessory, designed to control the moving of the rope.

__________6. This is a very useful accessory for ice and snow climbing.

__________7. An important accessory, which provides the main contact between your body and the
ropes.

__________8. They look quite like hiking boots, but they are different. Mountaineering boots are
designed especially for rock and ice climbing.

__________9. This is a foot frame with several sharp spikes, designed especially for climbing on icy
slopes, including icefalls.

__________10. Designed to protect your hands from the rugged rock surface.

NAME: QUARTER: 4
STRAND&SECTION: WEEK: 5 & 6
TEACHER: ACTIVITY NO. 3

DIRECTIONS:

 Make an infographic about different equipment use in mountaineering.

 The infographic should consist of the following.
o Picture of Equipment
o Description
 The student may use different editing application in making their infographic.
 The final output should be in a png, jpg or jpeg file format.

The student will be graded according to the following criteria.

 Content - 60%
 Creativity - 25%
 Presentation - 15%
 Total - 100%