Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4732 Climbers
8407 Climbs
22555 Ascents
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Ron Fawcett
Ron Fawcett was at the top of the UK climbing scene in the mid 70s and early 80s and one of the first professional climbers in the UK. He took up the mantle from climbers such as Pete Livesey and helped cement the E5 and E6 grade in the UK. He also put up some of the early hard sport routes in the UK with lines such as Sardine, Body Machine and The Prow at Raven Tor.
Ron famously climbed 100 extremes (i.e. routes graded E1 or harder on the British Trad grading scale) in a day in 1986 starting at Froggatt then going on to Stanage, Burbage and finishing at Curbar. This feat is even more impressive when you consider that Ron was not just picking the easiest routes available: Downhill Racer (E4), Heartless Hare (E5) and Ulysses or Bust (E5) feature among the hard routes that he climbed. See [3] for a full list.
References
[1] Rock Athlete, by Sid Perou https://youtu.be/tdRfqD125-g?t=1522
[2] Interview with Andy Pollitt https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/andy_pollitt+big_ron_fawcett-9483.
[3] Ticklist of Ron's 100 extremes in a day https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=548
[4] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/282305001835682
[5] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/revisited_ron_fawcett_talks_about_soloing-16330
Ron Fawcett was at the top of the UK climbing scene in the mid 70s and early 80s and one of the first professional climbers in the UK. He took up the mantle from climbers such as Pete Livesey and helped cement the E5 and E6 grade in the UK. He also put up some of the early hard sport routes in the UK with lines such as Sardine, Body Machine and The Prow at Raven Tor.
Ron famously climbed 100 extremes (i.e. routes graded E1 or harder on the British Trad grading scale) in a day in 1986 starting at Froggatt then going on to Stanage, Burbage and finishing at Curbar. This feat is even more impressive when you consider that Ron was not just picking the easiest routes available: Downhill Racer (E4), Heartless Hare (E5) and Ulysses or Bust (E5) feature among the hard routes that he climbed. See [3] for a full list.
References
[1] Rock Athlete, by Sid Perou https://youtu.be/tdRfqD125-g?t=1522
[2] Interview with Andy Pollitt https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/andy_pollitt+big_ron_fawcett-9483.
[3] Ticklist of Ron's 100 extremes in a day https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=548
[4] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/282305001835682
[5] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/revisited_ron_fawcett_talks_about_soloing-16330
On this day 2nd November
2022 Ryuichi Murai climbed Gakidō 8B+ at Chigomaidai
This line is an old project completed by Nomsin in March of this year and consists of only 4 moves. Moreover, the actual difficulty is concentrated in the second move (aiming for the next hold while fully locking the body in an unstable state). This day was the third day of trying, and the temperature was cooler than when I tried for two days last year, so the conditions were perfect. Thanks to that, I was able to grab the pinch hold in a hard direction in a stable state, and I continued to make a lot of close tries. After several adjustments to the trajectory of the move, I finally succeeded in the second move and was able to send it. As for the grade, it's difficult to evaluate because it's very short, but I feel it's easier than the V16s I've climbed so far. The low start project joins Gakido after four crimpy moves like V13. The most difficult part was reaching the start position of Gakido, and unfortunately I couldn't do it on this day. Connecting from below will increase the difficulty of Gakido greatly.
- 1867 Owen Glynne Jones was born
- 1904 Joseph Brunhuber was born
- 2001 Kitty Morrison was born 25 years
- 2013 Daniel Woods made the first ascent of The Ice Knife SDS 8C+ at Guanella Pass
- 2015 Adam Ondra made the first ascent of C.R.S. 9b at Mollans
- 2015 Stefano Ghisolfi made the first ascent of Lapsus 9a+ at Andonno
- 2018 Seb Bouin climbed Agincourt 8c at Buoux
Pics + Vids
Featuring 11032 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
Will Bosi on Pôr do Sol 8C+
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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
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Podcasts
Featuring 4387 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Peter Metcalf on The Enormocast (2015)
- Alex Honnold on CIA - Climbing Intelligence Agency (2022)
- Tony Yaniro and Randy Leavitt on The Nugget (2025)
- Dave Sharratt on The Ground Up Podcast (2026)
Library
Featuring 16232 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- E9 6c (1997) Film
- Alpine Journal64 1959 78-82 Chan-Chun Muztagh Ata (1959) Journal
- Carneddau (1966) Guidebook
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References
References
Ron Fawcett was at the top of the UK climbing scene in the mid 70s and early 80s and one of the first professional climbers in the UK. He took up the mantle from climbers such as Pete Livesey and helped cement the E5 and E6 grade in the UK. He also put up some of the early hard sport routes in the UK with lines such as Sardine, Body Machine and The Prow at Raven Tor.
Ron famously climbed 100 extremes (i.e. routes graded E1 or harder on the British Trad grading scale) in a day in 1986 starting at Froggatt then going on to Stanage, Burbage and finishing at Curbar. This feat is even more impressive when you consider that Ron was not just picking the easiest routes available: Downhill Racer (E4), Heartless Hare (E5) and Ulysses or Bust (E5) feature among the hard routes that he climbed. See [3] for a full list.
References
[1] Rock Athlete, by Sid Perou https://youtu.be/tdRfqD125-g?t=1522
[2] Interview with Andy Pollitt https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/andy_pollitt+big_ron_fawcett-9483.
[3] Ticklist of Ron's 100 extremes in a day https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=548
[4] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/282305001835682
[5] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/revisited_ron_fawcett_talks_about_soloing-16330