Around the North Pole, warm covers for climbers (5)
I believe the answer is:
rungs
'climbers' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'around the north pole warm covers' is the wordplay.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'the north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'pole' becomes 's'.
'warm' becomes 'rug' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'covers' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
's' after 'rug' is 'rugs'.
'n' put within 'rugs' is 'RUNGS'.
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rungs that I've seen before include "Crosspieces of a ladder" , "Ladder parts" , "bars" , "Steps of a ladder" .)