Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4755 Climbers
8456 Climbs
22799 Ascents
Featured
El Niño | E8 Trad climb on El Capitan
The third route to be free climbed on El Capitan, after Salathé Wall and The Nose.
The first ascent by Alexander and Thomas Huber followed meticulous preparation, with every hold ticked and every gear placement labelled.
Just a few days after the first ascent, British teenagers Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond made an extraordinary almost-onsight ascent of the route for their first big wall.
The route incorporates parts of Continental Drift (a mixed free and aid route) then largely follows the North America Wall climbed free in its upper half. Until discovery of the Pineapple Express Variation all ascents used a short pendulum to overcome a 10m blank section.
References
[1] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199901800
The third route to be free climbed on El Capitan, after Salathé Wall and The Nose.
The first ascent by Alexander and Thomas Huber followed meticulous preparation, with every hold ticked and every gear placement labelled.
Just a few days after the first ascent, British teenagers Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond made an extraordinary almost-onsight ascent of the route for their first big wall.
The route incorporates parts of Continental Drift (a mixed free and aid route) then largely follows the North America Wall climbed free in its upper half. Until discovery of the Pineapple Express Variation all ascents used a short pendulum to overcome a 10m blank section.
References
[1] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199901800
On this day 12th November
2017 Jonny Kydd climbed You Can Go Now 8B at The Cuttings Boulderfield
Props to Huffy for putting up this beast! Second ascent? After doing all the moves on the first session I thought it was going to go down quickly but stacking hard move after hard move again and again resulted in 5 sessions of sitting under this boulder!
- 1886 Günter Dyhrenfurth was born
- 1980 Jonny Woodward made the first ascent of Iguanodon E5 at Running Hill Pits
- 2008 Alex Honnold flashed Gaia E8 at Black Rocks
- 2021 Holly Rees made the first ascent of Converser 8A at Raven Tor
- 2023 Adam Ondra made the first ascent of El Maquinista 9a+ at Montanejos
Pics + Vids
Featuring 11166 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
Dave Mason on Metal Slug 8B
Stefano Ghisolfi on Change 9b+
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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 4412 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Tyler Nelson on The Nugget (2024)
- Justen Sjong on The Nugget (2024)
- Shauna Coxsey on Strong Mind (2025)
- Benn Wheeler, Josh Horsley and Michael Rosato on The Testpiece Podcast (2026)
Library
Featuring 16262 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- Kylmää kiveä - Suomikiipeilyn tarina osa 4 of 4 Film
- Alpine Journal 1867 Vol 3 104-118 Nichols Graians (1867) Journal
- Llyn Interim Guide (1979) Guidebook
Recent updates
All-round American climber most notable to date for hard offwidth ascents. MacIlwaine is a journalist, currently [2026] the Associate Editor at Climbing and a former Yosemite Climber Steward.
References
All-round American climber most notable to date for hard offwidth ascents. MacIlwaine is a journalist, currently [2026] the Associate Editor at /Climbing/ and a former Yosemite Climber Steward.
References
All-round American climber most notable to date for hard offwidth ascents. MacIlwaine is a journalist, currently [2026] the Associate Editor at _Climbing_and a former Yosemite Climber Steward.
Nalle invested a huge amount of time and effort in to the problem before finally making the first ascent, spending 3 years and 4000+ attempts on the problem.
References
[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2016/10/nalle_hukkataival_puts_up_burden_of_dreams_-_font_9a-70761
[2] Send footy:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DNIgOzIs8zE/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2exjenOqE
[3] While working the problem Nalle posted about in a series of Instagram posts:
- https://www.instagram.com/p/d34fcpSEr-/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/ecWG2aSEo2/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/fPdtwlSEnC/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/fiHl6KyEpX/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/gBTqK6yEr2/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/gS6wGZSEpx/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/nXtEdRSEmQ/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/oGcw7ZSEhL/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/oLqlU_SEu4/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/odtrtryEl9/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/pEfV6cyEl4/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/tXzNV2SEix/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/t5SK6QyEjK/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/uQcB5OyEn2/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/ux4XICSEsv/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/0LNWV0yEng/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/0aeI3lSEpz/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/0xr_a0yEif/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/1sn-iaSEg9/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/3Gv3PuyEkw/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/9oPbZKyEvc/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BDWHpIXyEhe/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BDszkZLSEsy/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BD8fyrYyErl/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BEyThXBSEs-/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BE8ujrZyEsw/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BFZGD-TSEo7/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BFl3Th5yEr4/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BLToTs5ggwd/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BL9H0OSg8Fc/
[4] The Lappnor Project (2017 film)
References
100+ sessions over 6 years. Giuliano worked out some new beta using some tiny crimps under the roof, he got close with this method but ultimately went back to a sequence that was pretty similar to the normal method.
Giuliano moved the wagon making the sit start in to a stand (thought at no change in grade).
References
References
The third route to be free climbed on El Capitan after Salathé Wall and The Nose.
The first ascent by Alexander and Thomas Huber followed meticulous preparation, with every hold ticked and every gear placement labelled. Just a few days after the first ascent, British teenagers Leo Houlding and Patch Hammond made an extraordinary almost-onsight ascent of the route for their first big wall.
The route incorporates parts of Continental Drift (a mixed free and aid route) then largely follows the North America Wall climbed free in its upper half. Until discovery of the Pineapple Express Variation all ascents used a short pendulum to overcome a 10m blank section.
References
[1] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199901800