Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4732 Climbers
8407 Climbs
22555 Ascents
Featured
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.
Luke Gerhardt on Insurgency 8B+
Aidan Roberts on Railway 8C
Rachel Freeman on Ashtray Verse 7C+
Chris Sharma on Samsara 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
- British men who have climbed 8c or above
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
Recent updates
References
[1] What happened to Mallory and Irvine?, Mountain issue 21 page 32
[2] Collected papers held at Magdalene College Cambridge https://magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/mallory-george-herbert-leigh
Camille was able to link the second part of the boulder but struggled somewhat with the first part.
References
At the end of 2024, I came to Vegas motivated, but mentally tired from the past year. My relationship with climbing and myself wasn’t as healthy as it used to be.
I defined myself as someone who never gives up, believing I could keep trying hard in any conditions and still feel mentally good, which would eventually make me send. I also thought people saw me the same way, so persevering no matter what became part of who I was.
After a few weeks in Red Rocks, I wasn’t making progress anymore, falling again and again at the same move. I started questioning spending all my energy, money and time here for something I might not be capable of. Something felt wrong, but I couldn’t accept it. I kept telling myself I was doing what I loved most and was lucky to be there, so there was no reason not to keep pushing. Insomnia and brain fog became part of the process, and everything started feeling more and more meaningless.
One day, I thought: “If I send now, alone with no one to share that moment with, I wouldn’t even feel happy”.
Luckily, I spent the end of the trip with homies and slowly accepted there was almost no chance I would do the boulder that trip. It helped me detach from the outcome and enjoy the process a bit more. I sent on my very last day of a three-month trip, with a great crew of homies! Thanks to them, it made the moment truly special!
So that’s a good end, right?
In reality, I lost myself and the pure love I had for climbing for a while. I pushed far beyond what I could emotionally handle. I’ve always been optimistic, but that year, my optimism disappeared, and I felt like climbing and most aspects of my life were failures. I knew it wasn’t true, but I felt that way. I burned out from chasing performance in competitions and outdoors that whole year.
But I’m grateful for what I learned. This taught me the importance of a well-balanced life, listening to my emotions and not falling into the trap of meeting society’s, social and performance expectations. [4]
References
[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DHG3Mh8o_Zr/
[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DHL-6lLIu2z/