Mountains and Mountaineering

After having been given a glimpse into the scientific side of montology, as a mere mountaineer, I felt some trepidation when invited to contribute to this volume. However, having been given some friendly words of advice, I now welcome the opportunity. The brief given to me was to produce a “manuscript indicating the need for agreement in terminology for the good practice of mountaineering.” As will be realized, this is a fairly broad scope and can be applied to a number of aspects of mountains which can include, inter alia, man-kinds view of mountains, definitions of “what is a mountain,” the importance of (or lack of it) the height of mountains, and the names given to mountains and peaks.