Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4109 Climbers
7962 Climbs
21113 Ascents
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John Gill
John Gill is one of the pioneers of bouldering, putting up many hard first ascents in the US at a time when bouldering was not understood as an activity in its own right.
With a background in gymnastics, Gill applied a similar mentality to rock climbing, transferring some of the training ideas and using gymnastic chalk.
For Gill, as in gymnastics, elegance of execution was as important as difficulty. This did not stop him from establishing many extraordinarily hard problems however, and for decades his problems were amongst the hardest in the world.
When he applied his skills to taller routes, Gill also excelled. His route The Thimble, climbed solo and ground up in 1961 and considered around 7A+, was well ahead of its time. After attempting to repeat the line, Royal Robbins said of it:
I considered my greatest failure to be my efforts on the thimble. I could see that even if I worked on it forever I would never achieve it.
Gill has researched bouldering history and his website johngill.net remains an invaluable resource.
References
[1] https://www.climbing.com/people/john-gill-father-of-bouldering/
[2] Pat Ament, John Gill, Yvon Chouinard, Rearick, Dave. John Gill: Master of Rock: The Life of a Bouldering Legend. United Kingdom: Vertebrate Publishing, 2018.
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FdMLil9lNU
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yaGXFkC8M
[5] Reflections of a Middle-Aged Boulderer, orignally presented at the BMC conference in March 1986, then reproduced in Mountain 110 /file/c4606b9f-a73c-ab1b-25eb-2d7f66dc3515/reflections_of_a_middle_aged_boulderer.txt
John Gill is one of the pioneers of bouldering, putting up many hard first ascents in the US at a time when bouldering was not understood as an activity in its own right.
With a background in gymnastics, Gill applied a similar mentality to rock climbing, transferring some of the training ideas and using gymnastic chalk.
For Gill, as in gymnastics, elegance of execution was as important as difficulty. This did not stop him from establishing many extraordinarily hard problems however, and for decades his problems were amongst the hardest in the world.
When he applied his skills to taller routes, Gill also excelled. His route The Thimble, climbed solo and ground up in 1961 and considered around 7A+, was well ahead of its time. After attempting to repeat the line, Royal Robbins said of it:
I considered my greatest failure to be my efforts on the thimble. I could see that even if I worked on it forever I would never achieve it.
Gill has researched bouldering history and his website johngill.net remains an invaluable resource.
References
[1] https://www.climbing.com/people/john-gill-father-of-bouldering/
[2] Pat Ament, John Gill, Yvon Chouinard, Rearick, Dave. John Gill: Master of Rock: The Life of a Bouldering Legend. United Kingdom: Vertebrate Publishing, 2018.
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FdMLil9lNU
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yaGXFkC8M
[5] Reflections of a Middle-Aged Boulderer, orignally presented at the BMC conference in March 1986, then reproduced in Mountain 110 /file/c4606b9f-a73c-ab1b-25eb-2d7f66dc3515/reflections_of_a_middle_aged_boulderer.txt
Pics + Vids
Featuring 10251 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
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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 4156 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Graham Zimmerman on The Enormocast (2017)
- Paige Claassen on TrainingBeta (2017)
- Aidan Roberts and Sam Prior on The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast (2025)
- William Moss on The RunOut Podcast (2024)
Library
Featuring 15194 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 Journal 2003 223-236 Alps (2003) Journal
- Doe Crag (1922) Guidebook
Recent updates
References
Repeated ground-up and without chalk, resting on the bolts, in keeping with the ethics of the area.
References
References
References
Leistner established and bolted the route ground-up and without chalk, climbing all sections between bolts free, resting on the bolts. According to the local ethics, he is credited with the first free ascent.
References
A highpoint of technical difficulty in Saxony's sandstone climbing. The route was established ground-up with no chalk by Robert Leistner in 2012, resting on the bolts – which he also placed ground-up. According to the ethics of the region, he is credited with the first free ascent. The route has not had a redpoint ascent and the grade is conjecture.
A highpoint of technical difficulty in Saxony's sandstone climbing. The route was established ground-up with no chalk by Robert Leistner in 2012, resting on the bolts – which he also placed ground-up. According to the ethics of the region, he is credited with the first free ascent. the route has not had a redpoint ascent and the grade is conjecture.