Mountaineering can sometimes get confused with hiking and rock climbing, but its skill and stamina required far exceed those activities. Hiking can be done on hilly and vertical ground or on straight and smooth trails of grass and land. Rock climbing is often done indoors at sports facilities, but can also be done outdoors. Mountaineering is a little different, yet it actually does involve both hiking and rock climbing. However, mountaineering is much more difficult as it is the physical climbing of often steep mountains usually under snowy and icy conditions. For an average person, mountaineering is an ambitious goal, but for a pregnant person, it is overwhelming, and not recommended during pregnancy.

Here’s why.

When you set out on a mountaineering expedition, you need to have already been properly trained in enduring long expeditions in the cold. You also have to know how to use the proper tactical gadgets, such as ice axes which help you dig into the snow as you are hiking through knee deep or higher snow. Ice axes also help you stop a slide and rebalance yourself.

Even if you are experienced at mountaineering, there are still too many hazards to continuing to do it while pregnant.

In addition, you must also be properly trained in how to be part of a rope team, another way to safeguard yourself and your team against injury. You must be instructed in wearing the types of clothing and equipment you need to survive frostbite and what outerwear and gear will help sustain you through long periods out in the frosty air, such as crampons, which are gadgets you attach to your boots that have teeth to help you walk through the snow without sliding.

Mountaineering is tough and requires a lot of stamina and physical conditioning along with applied skill. Even if you are experienced at mountaineering, there are still too many hazards to continuing to do it while pregnant. Risks include falling, slipping, and sliding, all of which could cause trauma to the abdomen, but also hypothermia and the possibility of not getting proper food and fluids in the event you get stuck out in severe weather conditions.

Remember, pregnancy is just nine short months and you can always head to the mountains once the baby is born!