Competitive and amateur climbers are attracted from around the world and the centre provides training up to World Cup competition standard.

A research team in Spain studied the effects of high altitude climbing by giving MRIs to a group of experienced climbers, amateur climbers and a control group.

Although she did not live in New Zealand, Du Faur was the leading amateur climber of her day.

Would you climb Mt. Everest after reading words like these, recorded after a 1996 mountain-climbing disaster that took the lives of eight amateur and professional climbers?

Hugh had been an obsessive amateur climber, seeing in that no man's land between air and rock something his grandson recognised as more than a sport.

The peak is relatively easy to climb in the summer months and ascents have been made by amateur climbers without proper mountaineering gear.

He is also an amateur climber.

This year, at least, amateur climbers were as rare as the occasional herd of cattle put out to summer pasture down below the tree line.

They were steep, all right, but even an amateur climber could handle them, I knew.

Standing at 1,276 m (4,186 ft), with a clear trail leading to the peak, the mountain is a popular destination among amateur climbers.