Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4103 Climbers
7957 Climbs
21064 Ascents
Featured
Malcolm Smith
Malcolm Smith is a Scottish boulderer and sport climber who was primarily active between 1990 and 2010. As an early adherent of training, and specifically training boards, he put his strength to excellent use, putting up many of the hardest boulder problems in the UK. He burst onto the scene with his quick second ascent of Hubble in 1992 aged just 18, at the time one of the hardest routes in the world.
He had the strength of character to turn his back on the tradition of climbing, the summit and the romance, and do his own thing. As he says, he's always got time for more training. [1]
He went on to climb some the last great problems in the UK such as Monk Life (8B+) and Pilgrimage (8B+). His traverses Lothlorian (8c+) and Leviathan (9a) remain unrepeated.
Alongside his hard bouldering, he repeated many of the hardest sport routes of the time including making the second ascent of Evolution at Raven Tor, the second ascent of Progress at Kilnsey as well as early repeats of Bat Route and Cry Freedom at Malham Cove. In 2010 he established Scotland's first 9a with his ascent of Hunger at The Anvil.
As dedicated to training as to climbing outdoors, his testpieces on the School Room 50° Board remain benchmarks of raw power and went unrepeated for years.
References
[1] Dave Cuthbertson interview with Niall Grimes on The Jam Crack Podcast Jan 2023. 1hr13mins. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cj6Zduv5LRmqwotmqg5Nd?
[2] Splinter, a short portrait by Ben Pritchard
[3] Stone Love
[4] Interview with Neil Mann, 2017 https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2017/2/14/interview-malcolm-smith
Malcolm Smith is a Scottish boulderer and sport climber who was primarily active between 1990 and 2010. As an early adherent of training, and specifically training boards, he put his strength to excellent use, putting up many of the hardest boulder problems in the UK. He burst onto the scene with his quick second ascent of Hubble in 1992 aged just 18, at the time one of the hardest routes in the world.
He had the strength of character to turn his back on the tradition of climbing, the summit and the romance, and do his own thing. As he says, he's always got time for more training. [1]
He went on to climb some the last great problems in the UK such as Monk Life (8B+) and Pilgrimage (8B+). His traverses Lothlorian (8c+) and Leviathan (9a) remain unrepeated.
Alongside his hard bouldering, he repeated many of the hardest sport routes of the time including making the second ascent of Evolution at Raven Tor, the second ascent of Progress at Kilnsey as well as early repeats of Bat Route and Cry Freedom at Malham Cove. In 2010 he established Scotland's first 9a with his ascent of Hunger at The Anvil.
As dedicated to training as to climbing outdoors, his testpieces on the School Room 50° Board remain benchmarks of raw power and went unrepeated for years.
References
[1] Dave Cuthbertson interview with Niall Grimes on The Jam Crack Podcast Jan 2023. 1hr13mins. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cj6Zduv5LRmqwotmqg5Nd?
[2] Splinter, a short portrait by Ben Pritchard
[3] Stone Love
[4] Interview with Neil Mann, 2017 https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2017/2/14/interview-malcolm-smith
Pics + Vids
Featuring 10230 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
Solly Kemball-Dorey on The Trident 8C+
Felix Wilkins on Egyptian Nights 8c+
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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 4147 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Tom O'Halloran on TrainingBeta (2019)
- Patch Hammond on Factor Two (2019)
- Steve McClure on The Enormocast (2022)
- Amity Warme on The RunOut Podcast (2024)
Library
Featuring 15185 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- Adam Ondra - Just Do It (2018) Film
- Alpine Journal 1987 150-155 Brown Atlas (1987) Journal
- Horseshoe Bend Buttress, South Cheddar Gorge Guidebook
Recent updates
Climber:
Mecca (8b+) Mecca and the three extensions – Mecca Extension (8c), Hajj (8c) and Kaabah (F8c+) were all first done by Steve McClure between 1998 and 2004. Mecca Extension is reckoned to be the more accommodating of the three and it’s been popular ever since it was first done. Hajj is said to be much harder and perhaps not surprisingly it hasn’t attracted the attention that its siblings have and has had few repeats. Steve’s ascent of Kaabah came during the 2004 Petzl Roc Trip on an especially sunny day in late summer.
[…]
The route starts up Mecca but swings out right where the original routes swings left to the half-height lower-off. Incidentally, this alternative was first bolted by Simon Reed as an alternative and slightly harder finish to Mecca itself. From the shake-out roughly level with the Mecca lower-off, Kaabah kicks-in with a hard, crimpy sequence up the headwall to a junction with Mecca Extension in a shallow corner up which it finishes. Gaining and climbing the hanging corner on Mecca Extension is the crucial section on Kaabah where the difficulty of the climbing is further exacerbated by hard clips.
References
[1] https://www.climber.co.uk/news/pete-whittaker-talks-about-his-repeat-of-kaabah/
Climber:
Mecca (8b+) Mecca and the three extensions – Mecca Extension (8c), Hajj (8c) and Kaabah (F8c+) were all first done by Steve McClure between 1998 and 2004. Mecca Extension is reckoned to be the more accommodating of the three and it’s been popular ever since it was first done. Hajj is said to be much harder and perhaps not surprisingly it hasn’t attracted the attention that its siblings have and has had few repeats. Steve’s ascent of Kaabah came during the 2004 Petzl Roc Trip on an especially sunny day in late summer. [...] The route starts up Mecca but swings out right where the original routes swings left to the half-height lower-off. Incidentally, this alternative was first bolted by Simon Reed as an alternative and slightly harder finish to Mecca itself. From the shake-out roughly level with the Mecca lower-off, Kaabah kicks-in with a hard, crimpy sequence up the headwall to a junction with Mecca Extension in a shallow corner up which it finishes. Gaining and climbing the hanging corner on Mecca Extension is the crucial section on Kaabah where the difficulty of the climbing is further exacerbated by hard clips.
References
[1] https://www.climber.co.uk/news/pete-whittaker-talks-about-his-repeat-of-kaabah/