DWS needs only shoes and chalk, but the risk has not gone away: the AAC notes at least three DWS deaths in Europe. The S0–S3 scale, created in Britain in the mid-1990s, rates what happens if you fall and assumes high tide; at low tide an S1 can become an S3. In a fall, enter feet first, legs together, arms tight to your body, eyes on the horizon — never look down. At Long Dong only a few rock-sheltered spots are climbable; elsewhere the rip currents are strong.
A big wall usually means NCCS Grade V or higher, a route that needs a night on the wall. El Capitan's The Nose is written VI 5.9 C2: VI means two or more days, 5.9 is the free climbing, C2 the hammerless aid. The leader climbs and fixes the rope, the second ascends it with ascenders and cleans the gear, and meanwhile the leader hauls the bag. Taiwan has nothing of this scale — Long Dong tops out at about 70 m — but it is a good place to master trad, anchors and multi-pitch.
Belaying and leading on ice work the same way as on rock; the protection is ice screws drilled into the ice. Grades run WI1–WI7: WI3 is sustained ice around 70 degrees with good rests, WI5 is a full pitch of 85–90 degrees with few rests. An analysis of 30 years of North American accident reports found the top factor in ice climbing accidents was inadequate protection or screws pulling out. Taiwan has almost no natural ice, so the usual path is to practise top-rope belaying and rappelling at a gym, then take a top-rope ice course in Korea or Japan; in the 2026 season, the beginner session at Akadake Kosen in Yatsugatake cost 3,000 yen.
Alpine climbing = multi-pitch + snow and ice skills + objective hazards + the descent. F to ED grades the seriousness of the whole route, not just the technical moves: in the definitions the Canadian ACMG uses, PD has rock of only 5.3–5.4 and snow up to 45°, while D has 5.6–5.7 rock, snow and ice around 55°, and often more than 500 m of height. North America's 71 alpine accidents in 2024 were the most of any type, but that is a count, not a rate. Taiwan only offers snow-climbing level terrain; for a first technical alpine route, the two common paths are hiring a guide or taking a course.
The AAC says free solo accidents are "almost always fatal" and usually happen on popular moderate routes: in December 2024 two people died on two consecutive days in Colorado's Flatirons, on a 5.7 and a 5.4, and one of them had soloed his route many times. Honnold says no soloist has fallen while pushing their limit; the AAC says familiarity lowers focus. The two don't contradict each other: deaths tend to happen in easy, familiar places. Rope soloing carries its own risks: the top-rope solo accidents the AAC recorded share a single device, no backup knot and a climber in a hurry.
Rope soloing comes in three tiers, from simplest to hardest: top-rope soloing (the rope is fixed above you and two devices ride up with you), single-pitch lead rope soloing (the tail is anchored at the base and you feed your own rope and catch your own falls), and multipitch rope soloing (every pitch is climbed once, rappelled once and climbed again). Most devices' makers do not support self-belay: Petzl says the GriGri is not a self-belay device and forbids modifying it, and only a handful of devices are labelled for solo use. The baseline across all three tiers: two systems, backup knots, a test on the ground, and never changing your usual routine because you are in a hurry.