John Arran


Quick Info

From: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Gender: Male
Hardest Trad (Worked): E7
Hardest Trad (Onsight): E7
Notable Partnerships
Anne Arran

John Arran is a very accomplished trad climber with adventurous first ascents across the UK, North and South America and beyond, often climbed onsight. Spending 3 years in the US in the 80s, John onsight soloed multipitch routes up to 5.12, a level that has not been surpassed today. In the late 90s he dabbled in gritstone headpointing, climbing The Zone and the unrepeated Doctor Dolittle E10.

On 20th June 2003 John and his partner for the day Shane Ohly soloed or descended 536 routes in a mammoth single day. [1] Following in the footsteps of Ron Fawcett's Arran climbed 100 extremes in a day in 2001, all at Stanage with 55 of them onsight. [2,3]

John helped pioneer big wall free climbing in Venezuela, culminating in Rainbow Jambaia (E7) on Angel Falls, one the most spectacular hard big walls in the world.

References

[1] On The Edge Issue 130, page 11

[2] On The Edge Issue 113, page 32

[3] http://www.thefreeclimber.com/johnHistory.htm

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgHRLSBiGvo

Contributors
TdG
157 contributions since 4th October 2025.
28 contributions since 3rd January 2021.
8 contributions since 12th October 2025.

Quick Info

From: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Gender: Male
Hardest Trad (Worked): E7
Hardest Trad (Onsight): E7
Notable Partnerships
Anne Arran

John Arran is a very accomplished trad climber with adventurous first ascents across the UK, North and South America and beyond, often climbed onsight. Spending 3 years in the US in the 80s, John onsight soloed multipitch routes up to 5.12, a level that has not been surpassed today. In the late 90s he dabbled in gritstone headpointing, climbing The Zone and the unrepeated Doctor Dolittle E10.

On 20th June 2003 John and his partner for the day Shane Ohly soloed or descended 536 routes in a mammoth single day. [1] Following in the footsteps of Ron Fawcett's Arran climbed 100 extremes in a day in 2001, all at Stanage with 55 of them onsight. [2,3]

John helped pioneer big wall free climbing in Venezuela, culminating in Rainbow Jambaia (E7) on Angel Falls, one the most spectacular hard big walls in the world.

References

[1] On The Edge Issue 130, page 11

[2] On The Edge Issue 113, page 32

[3] http://www.thefreeclimber.com/johnHistory.htm

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgHRLSBiGvo

Contributors
TdG
157 contributions since 4th October 2025.
28 contributions since 3rd January 2021.
8 contributions since 12th October 2025.

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