Eiger in the context of Jungfrau-Aletsch

An ultra-prominent peak, or ultra for short, is a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) or more; it is also called a P1500. The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or from sea level if there is no higher peak. There are approximately 1,500 such peaks on Earth. Some well-known peaks, such as the Matterhorn and Eiger, are not ultras because they are connected to higher mountains by high cols and thus do not achieve enough topographic prominence.

The term "ultra" originated with earth scientist Steve Fry, from his studies of the prominence of peaks in Washington in the 1980s. His original term was "ultra major mountain", referring to peaks with at least 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) of prominence.

In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain peak or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and climbers were mainly focused on reaching the tops of notable mountain peaks (e.g. the eight-thousanders such as Mount Everest) and the tops of iconic climbing routes (e.g. the great north faces of the Alps such as the Eiger) by whatever means possible, and often using considerable amounts of aid climbing and/or with large expedition style support teams allowing them to "lay siege" to the climb.

As all the key tops were summited, the manner or "style" in which each top was reached became important to climbers, and particularly the ability to complete the ascent without the use of any artificial aids, which is called free climbing. In free-climbing, the term first free ascent (abbreviated FFA) denotes where a mountain or climbing route is ascended without any artificial aid — note that equipment for protection in the event of a fall can be used as long as they did not aid in the climber's upward progression. Completing the FFA of a climbing route is often called freeing (or more latterly sending) a route, and is highly coveted.

The six great north faces of the Alps are a group of vertical faces in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps known in mountaineering for their difficulty, danger, and great height. The "Trilogy" is the three hardest of these north faces, being the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Matterhorn.

This is a list of the mountains of the Alps, ordered by their topographic prominence. For a list by height, see the list of mountains of the Alps. By descending to 1,500 m of prominence, this list includes all the Ultras of the Alps. Some famous peaks, such as the Matterhorn and Eiger, are not Ultras because they are connected to higher mountains by high cols and therefore do not achieve enough topographic prominence.

Where the prominence parent and the island parent differ, the prominence parent is marked with "" and the island parent with "" (with Mont Blanc abbreviated to MB). The column "Col height" denotes the lowest elevation to which one must descend from a peak in order to reach peaks with higher elevations; note that the elevation of any peak is the sum of its prominence and col. The column "Col location" denotes the pass where the col height is located.

In climbing and mountaineering, a traverse is a section of a climbing route where the climber moves laterally (or horizontally), as opposed to in an upward direction. The term has broad application, and its use ranges from describing a brief section of lateral movement on a pitch of a route, to large multi-pitch climbing routes that almost entirely consist of lateral movement such as girdle traverses that span the entire rock face of a crag, or mountain traverses that span entire ridges connecting chains of mountain peaks.

Long traverses in rock climbing and alpine climbing may require special climbing techniques (e.g. a pendulum or a tension traverse), and pieces of climbing equipment (e.g. ascenders) to manage the risks of the lead climber and/or the following (or 'second') climber falling far off the route. Long traverses place increased pressure on the abilities of the following climber than on a normal climb. Traversing is a regular feature in bouldering, and is also a popular rock-climbing training technique on indoor climbing walls.

Alpine climbing (German: Alpinklettern) is a type of mountaineering that uses any of a broad range of advanced climbing techniques, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large rock, ice, or snow covered climbing routes (e.g. multi-pitch or big wall climbs) in mountainous environments. While alpine climbing began in the European Alps, it is now used to refer to such climbing in any remote mountainous area, including in the Himalayas and Patagonia. The derived term alpine style refers to the fashion of alpine-climbing to be in small lightly-equipped teams who carry all their equipment (e.g. no porters are used), and do all of the climbing themselves (e.g. no sherpas or reserve teams).

In addition to the specific risks of rock, ice, and mixed climbing, alpinists face a wide range of serious additional risks. This includes the risks of rockfalls (common with rock faces in alpine environments), of avalanches (especially in couloirs), of seracs and crevasses, of violent storms hitting climbers on exposed mountain faces, of altitude effects (dehydration, edema, frostbite), of complex navigation and route finding, of long dangerous abseils, and of the difficulty of rescue and/or retreat due to the remoteness of the setting. Due to the large length of alpine routes, at times, alpinists need to move simultaneously to maintain speed (e.g. simul climbing or as rope teams), which brings another source of serious risk.