Mountaineering

Mountaineering is RuneScape's newest and most integrating Skill. Mountaineering features many new mountains which crop over RuneScape, and give greater access to existing mountains. Mountaineering gives a player the ability to climb mountains all over RuneScape. There are usually rewards at the top of mountains, such as new familiars, gems, gold, weapons, armor, experience, special items or mountaineering-only clothes. Every skill can be used in mountaineering.

Mountaineering can only be trained whilst climbing a mountain. You gain experience from simply hiking upward, climbing, and using any of the numerous climbing techniques, from using mountaineering equipment (which, if used enough, can be used off mountains as well). If you complete a quest on a mountain, it will always award mountaineering experience. In mountain dungeons, for every four experience points you gain in any skill, you will be awarded one mountaineering experience point.

Mountaineering is closely related to constitution, some ranges, peaks or sections of mountains can only be accessed at a certain constitution level, and training mountaineering will also help with constitution experience.

Buzz is an integral part of Mountaineering, as he is the only way for players to get Mountaineering equipment and advice.

The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 394,722) on the hiscores for Mounting is level 22. As of 16 October 2010, there are 22 players that have achieved level 99 in Mounting and no players have reached level 120 in Mounting yet. No one has reached 200 million experience either. The current rankings are visible on the Runescape Hiscorespage.

Getting Started
To gain your first piece of Mountaineering equipment, simply talk to Buzz, the mount climber. He is in the house, across from the Blue Moon Inn, three houses down. If the player talks to Buzz, no matter what he/she says Buzz will give them a Grappling Hook and some rope, unless the player's inventory is full.

With this equipment in hand, the player can climb Ice Mountain.

Climbing Techniques
At Mountaineering Level 1, the player can only climb Ice Mountain, and not even all the way. They will only have two techniques available to them, The Grapple Throw and Rope Climb. As their Mountaineering level rises, they can gain new equipment from Buzz, perform new techniques with the equipment they have and climb new mountains.

Access.
The Player, at this point, can climb somewhat up Ice Mountain, but not very far.

Techniques:
Grapple Throw.

To Perform a grapple throw, the player must have the Grappling Hook in their inventory. The Player must stand by an Ice Wall, and use the Grappling Hook on it. The Camera will shift to below the character, showing the player and the full Ice Wall and the ledges the player must latch on to.

The Player will spin the Grappling Hook quickly, and will release when the player clicks the screen. If timed correctly, the Grappling Hook will latch onto the ledge. From their, the player can climb the rope.

Rope Climb.

To Perform this manoeuvre, the player must have already performed the Grapple Throw, or else have a rope in front of them. To start, simply click on he rope, and the player should jump a bit and grab on. From there, the camera will focus on the player, and a vertical bar will appear to the side of the player.

The bar is red at the ends, green in the middle, and yellow in between. A small arrow will travel quickly up and down the bar. The player must try to click when the arrow is at green, if they succeed, they will jump a great deal up the rope and gain maximum experience.

If the player mistimes and hits yellow, a small jump will be performed, and a small amount of experience will be gained. If the player mistimes and hits red, they will not move and may even fall.

Access.
At this level, The Player can climb further up Ice Mountain thanks to the jump technique.

Techniques:
Jump.

This Technique can only be performed where there is a ledge to jump to.