Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
2661 Climbers
5044 Climbs
12953 Ascents
Featured
John Allen
John was a prolific and gifted climber who established a host of hard, classic routes on his local gritstone crags in the peak district.
Lines that had been eyed up by many fell to this prodigious young talent. He climbed Old Friends when he was just 14 and continued adding quality new first ascents from there, such as Hairless Heart, White Wand, Profit of Doom and London Wall which were climbed within a 2 week period at age 16!
While later climbers pushed the numbers up John added a plethora of high quality lines such as West Side Story at Burbage West.
References
[1] Obituary on UKClimbing.com by Graham Hoey, 27th May 2020 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/the_day_the_music_died_-_remembering_john_allen-12803
John was a prolific and gifted climber who established a host of hard, classic routes on his local gritstone crags in the peak district.
Lines that had been eyed up by many fell to this prodigious young talent. He climbed Old Friends when he was just 14 and continued adding quality new first ascents from there, such as Hairless Heart, White Wand, Profit of Doom and London Wall which were climbed within a 2 week period at age 16!
While later climbers pushed the numbers up John added a plethora of high quality lines such as West Side Story at Burbage West.
References
[1] Obituary on UKClimbing.com by Graham Hoey, 27th May 2020 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/the_day_the_music_died_-_remembering_john_allen-12803
Pics + Vids
Featuring 6481 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
Support
If you've enjoyed using climbing-history.org please consider supporting the Mountain Heritage Trust, a charity dedicated to preserving the rich history of climbing and mountaineering. Their collection includes many unique and valuable items, from rare guidebooks through to the boots worn by Doug Scott on the 1977 Ogre expedition.
Explore
Fancy a look around? You can browse by climber or by climbs, or you can check out some lists. For example
- All sport ascents of 9b or above
- British women who have climbed 7C or above
- British men who have climbed 8c or above
Podcasts
Featuring 3175 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Christopher Schulte on The Testpiece Podcast, March 2025
- Dan Varian on Lattice Training, July 2022
- Tom Randall on Lattice Training, September 2022
- Shauna Coxsey on The Testpiece Podcast, March 2025
Library
Featuring 9268 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- Life on Hold (2012) Film
- Alpine Journal46 1934 404-413 Alpine Notes (1934) Journal
- Cwm Idwal (1967) Guidebook
Recent updates
References
Bransby used a wooden plank in the side runner.
References
[1] https://twitter.com/dmmclimbing/status/448116087448956930