Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Hiking or Climbing?

My daughter asked the question of me this morning "what's the difference between hiking and climbing?" My answer was that climbing involves going up, like climbing a mountain, and hiking doesn't always have to be up. But this reply left me questioning myself as to the real difference. It's easy to define an endevor such as Denali or Everest as climbing but as one moves down the level of difficulty the line between climbing and hiking gets blurred. For example, I've seen Whitney described as both a hike and a climb and sure the MR could certainly be considered a climb, but the main trail? What are your thoughts?

maybe I'm being too simplistic in this, but....
hiking = feet only
climbing = hands and feet

In common usage it's pretty much interchangeable when you're talking about big mountains (or even small ones, I suppose). A number of difficult big mountains are technically a straight Class 2 walk-up, but I've never heard someone say they "hiked" Rainier or Kilimanjaro. Conversely, mountaineers who regularly tackle Class 4 & 5 stuff take understandable exception to people who walk up a peak and say "I climbed" so-and-so, when the real "climb" was on a steeper face.

Not being comfortable with anything over Class 3 (yet), which I would judge to be the true line of demarcation between the two terms, I try to avoid saying I "climbed" Whitney, Long's Peak, etc. - but I find that I do from time to time.

Good way of putting it, to which I would only add a third line:

technical climbing = climbing with the use of technical climbing equipment

That's the way I've always referred to them to non-technical people (i.e., people who wouldn't know classes).

My friends and I have added another designation...trail walking, to hiking and climbing. Trail walking is obvious, we believe hiking is the stuff you do off trail without the use of your hands and climbing, which you need to use both hands and feet.

In the winter, climbing is any time you need use an ice axe.

Hiking
Climbing