
Part of the alpine climbing system for grading the technical difficulty of alpine climbing routes, which goes: F ("facile/easy"), PD ("peu difficile/little difficult"), AD ("assez difficile/fairly hard"), D ("difficile/difficult"), TD ("tres difficile/very hard"), and ED ("extremement difficile/extremely difficult") ED then goes ED1, ED2, ED3. alpine climbing A form of mountaineering that includes ice climbing, dry-tooling and rock climbing. aid climbing Type of rock climbing where artificial devices are used to make upward progress (and not just for protection) opposite of free climbing. A thin blade mounted perpendicular to the handle on an ice axe is used for chopping footholds.
