Mountain Climbing
The act of trekking, scrambling or actually climbing over mountain surfaces that range from pathways to sheer cliff faces. The rules of this page attempts to capture the spirit and thrill of this activity, but makes no pretext of trying to accurately simulate the actual process of mountain climbing. First and foremost, the reader should remember that most of our experiences with climbing mountains begins with descriptions in the 19th century, while the game world takes place two centuries before, in the 17th — where pitons are replaced by iron spikes and where virtually no other equipment exists. Therefore, we must note that there are many mountains that could not be climbed at all, and that actual experiences climbing then would be very different from most experiences climbing today.
Determining Mountain Characteristics
Before we can propose rules on how to climb a mountain in D&D, we must first establish guidelines that describe the mountain itself. As the goal with climbing is to cover distance, and because the distance is a less important obstacle than the difficulty of the climb, I have chosen to divide the trek into periods of time. The mountain is therefore measured in terms of how many hours it requires to complete the climb. An easy climb might enable a party to climb a thousand vertical feet in an hour; whereas a hazardous climb might enable only 45 to 60 feet in the same amount of time.
Each hour then describes a "slope line" — which describes a path of ascent between one point and the next, requiring one hour for a typical mountain climber to complete.
The number of hours that any given mountain might require would be determined by two factors: vertical height and type of mountain. Both can be decided ahead of time by the DM, then compared with one another upon the following table, which will give the number of slope lines for any given fictional mountain.
Slope Line Table
Slope lines are mountain paths that require one hour for a typical mountain climber to traverse. The length of a slope line is variable, since an easy slope line will enable much better progress than will a challenging or hazardous slope line.
Number of Slope Lines
Mountains are divided into slope lines; the total number of slope lines indicates how long it will take to climb from the base of a given mountain to its top. High, precipitous mountains will be comprised of many slope lines, perhaps requiring several days to climb. A low hill of less than a thousand feet may comprise only one slope line — that is, the hill can be climbed in its entirety within a single hour.
Presently, the table below includes but four types of mountains, but this should be sufficient.
The "shield" mountain type is a form of conical mountain, in which the slope is excessively gradual. This type of mountain is usually a tropical volcano, like those found in East Africa. Kilimanjaro is a good example.
The table gives the number of slope lines per 1,000 feet of climb, depending on the elevation of the climber above the base of the mountain, and not its elevation above sea level. Thus, for a climb between 3 and 4 thousand feet above a pyramidal mountain's base, there would be 1 to 4 slope lines; and then another 1-4 slope lines for the next thousand feet.
The high number of slope lines for arêtes and shield types is due to the lengthy distance that usually needs to be trekked before reaching the principal climb on this type of mountain; usually, the climb itself does not require as much time as the approach.
See also Mountaineer (sage study)
