What part of speech is "mountain" in the sentence "Avalanches are dangerous to mountain climbers."? [duplicate]

I'm trying to understand the grammar of this sentence:

Avalanches are dangerous to mountain climbers.

What part of speech is the word mountain?


Solution 1:

It is part of the noun phrase "mountain climbers", which is itself the complement of the sentence. Specifically "mountain" is a noun modifier (also called an 'attributive noun' or a 'noun adjunct'), modifying "climbers". A noun modifier is a kind of noun.