The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Climbing \Climb"ing\,
   p. pr. & vb. n. of Climb.
   [1913 Webster]

   Climbing fern. See under Fern.

   Climbing perch. (Zool.) See Anabas, and Labyrinthici.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Climb \Climb\ (kl[imac]m), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Climbed
   (kl[imac]md), Obs. or Vulgar Clomb (kl[o^]m); p. pr. & vb.
   n. Climbing.] [AS. climban; akin to OHG. chlimban, G. & D.
   klimmen, Icel. kl[imac]fa, and E. cleave to adhere.]
   1. To ascend or mount laboriously, esp. by use of the hands
      and feet.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To ascend as if with effort; to rise to a higher point.
      [1913 Webster]

            Black vapors climb aloft, and cloud the day.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Bot.) To ascend or creep upward by twining about a
      support, or by attaching itself by tendrils, rootlets,
      etc., to a support or upright surface.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

climbing
    n 1: an event that involves rising to a higher point (as in
         altitude or temperature or intensity etc.) [syn: climb,
         climbing, mounting]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

129 Moby Thesaurus words for "climbing":
   Brownian movement, acclinate, acclivitous, advance, ambition,
   ambitiousness, anabasis, anabatic, angular motion, ascendant,
   ascending, ascension, ascensional, ascensive, ascent, axial motion,
   backflowing, backing, backward motion, career, careerism, clamber,
   climb, course, current, descending, descent, downward motion,
   drift, driftage, ebbing, elevation, escalade, flight, flow, flux,
   forward motion, fountain, gush, gyring up, in the ascendant,
   increase, jet, jump, leap, leaping, levitation, lofty ambition,
   magnanimity, mount, mounting, oblique motion, ongoing, onrush,
   passage, plunging, power-hunger, progress, radial motion, rampant,
   random motion, rearing, reflowing, refluence, reflux, regression,
   retrogression, rise, rising, rocketing up, run, rush, saltation,
   saltatory, scandent, scansorial, set, shooting up, sideward motion,
   sinking, skyrocketing, soaring, social climbing, spiraling, spout,
   spring, springing, spurt, status-seeking, sternway, stream,
   subsiding, surge, takeoff, taking off, traject, trajet, trend,
   uparching, upclimb, upcoming, updraft, upgang, upgo, upgoing,
   upgrade, upgrowth, uphill, uphillward, upleap, uplift, upping,
   uprisal, uprise, uprising, uprush, upshoot, upslope, upsloping,
   upsurge, upsurgence, upsweep, upswing, upward, upward motion,
   upwith, vault, vaulting ambition, zooming