Alpinist's regrettable lack of control (8)
I believe the answer is:
tailspin
'lack of control' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'alpinist's regrettable' is the wordplay.
'regrettable' indicates an anagram.
'alpinist' anagrammed gives 'TAILSPIN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tailspin that I've seen before include "Spiral aeroplane dive" , "State of rapidly increasing panic" , "awful state" , "that could result in crash" , "confused state" .)