Arthur Rhodes Dolphin


Quick Info

From United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Date of birth 1925
Date of death 25th Jul 1953
Age between 27 and 28 years old
Gender Male
Climbing
Hardest Boulder (Worked) 6A+
Hardest Trad (Worked) E1
Hardest Trad (Onsight) VS

Rock climber and fell-runner from Baildon, West Yorkshire. Although from a working-class family, who included several notable Yorkshire cricketers, he studied at Leeds University and had established himself as a metallurgist before his death:

Bill Birkett:

Arthur was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of British rock climbing, spanning the social gap between the old guard and the emergence of a hungry new breed of working class climbers. [1][3]

Dolphin was perhaps best-known for his new routes on Almscliff.

Joe Brown:

When you went to try one of his climbs you knew it was going to be hard. [1][3]

He died in a fall descending the Dent du Géant aged 28.

References

[1] Yorkshire Gritstone Volume 1, Almscliff to Slipstones

[2] https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/arts-and-culture/looking-back-at-the-life-of-a-gentleman-climber-1975188

[3] Greenwood, Tom ed. (2010). Memories of Dolphin: The Life of a Climber Remembered. UK: Green Woods.

Contributors
43 contributions since 19th November 2021.
31 contributions since 16th August 2026.

Quick Info

From United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Date of birth 1925
Date of death 25th Jul 1953
Age between 27 and 28 years old
Gender Male
Climbing
Hardest Boulder (Worked) 6A+
Hardest Trad (Worked) E1
Hardest Trad (Onsight) VS

Rock climber and fell-runner from Baildon, West Yorkshire. Although from a working-class family, who included several notable Yorkshire cricketers, he studied at Leeds University and had established himself as a metallurgist before his death:

Bill Birkett:

Arthur was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of British rock climbing, spanning the social gap between the old guard and the emergence of a hungry new breed of working class climbers. [1][3]

Dolphin was perhaps best-known for his new routes on Almscliff.

Joe Brown:

When you went to try one of his climbs you knew it was going to be hard. [1][3]

He died in a fall descending the Dent du Géant aged 28.

References

[1] Yorkshire Gritstone Volume 1, Almscliff to Slipstones

[2] https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/arts-and-culture/looking-back-at-the-life-of-a-gentleman-climber-1975188

[3] Greenwood, Tom ed. (2010). Memories of Dolphin: The Life of a Climber Remembered. UK: Green Woods.

Contributors
43 contributions since 19th November 2021.
31 contributions since 16th August 2026.

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