Challenge for climbers changing gear on sides of slippery, icy area (6,4)

I believe the answer is:

greasy pole

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'challenge for climbers' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'changing gear on sides of slippery icy area' is the wordplay.
'changing' is an anagram indicator.
'on sides of' suggests removing the centre.
'icy area' becomes 'pole' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'slippery' with its centre taken out is 'sy'.
'gear' with letters rearranged gives 'grea'.
'grea'+'sy'+'pole'='GREASY POLE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for greasy pole that I've seen is " hard way to the top".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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