In rock climbing and ice climbing, a pitch is a steep section of a route that requires a rope between two belays, as part of a climbing system. Standard climbing ropes are between 45 and 60 metres long, so a pitch is always shorter, between two convenient ledges if possible; longer routes are multi-pitch, requiring the re-use of the rope each time.
Caving
The term pitch is also used by cavers to refer to a very steep or vertical section (called a drop, pit, or shaft) in a cave that needs ladders or Single Rope Technique to descend and ascend (a drop that can be descended and ascended without equipment is a climb). As caving rope lengths are not standardized, the length of a pitch is usually equal to that of the drop. The deepest underground pitch is 603 m in Vrtoglavica Cave in the Julian Alps in Slovenia. In some cases, cavers may choose to split one drop into two or more distinct pitches. However in most cases a single rope or ladder is used for the entire drop, so in practical usage 'pitch' has become synonymous with the terms 'drop', 'pit' or 'shaft'.
