Climbers from USA

Katie Lamb is an American boulderer, currently based in the Yosemite area. She was the first woman to climb 8C+ with her ascent of The Dark Side (8C+) in 2025. She had previously climbed Box Therapy in 2023 which was regarded as 8C+ at the time, though now rated 8C.

Lamb was a successful youth lead comp climber, winning the PanAmerican Youth Championships. She went on to study computer science at Stanford University, which left less time for climbing. After graduating, she turned her focus to outdoor bouldering, steadily working through an enviable ticklist of hard problems.

Her ascent of The Dark Side (8C+) was the culmination of 20–25 sessions:

It’s easy to fall into the trap of treating friction on this boulder like passive resistance - a force that each scaler is at the whim of. But I learned to reshape this narrative: friction is something to sit with, to actively attend to, and to ask for help in understanding.

In 2026 she made the first ascent of 130 BPM (8C) in Yosemite, one of the hardest problems in the Valley.

Her older brother Andy Lamb is also a notable boulderer.

References

[1] Interview with Katie Lamb, Climbing.com https://www.climbing.com/people/katie-lamb-interview/

[2] Katie Lamb's 8C+ Ascent of The Dark Side, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STfiakiPNCY

[3] Interview with Sam MacIlwaine (2025) https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/golden-piton-2025-katie-lamb/

References

[1] https://gripped.com/profiles/austin-hoyt-and-what-could-be-the-worlds-hardest-boulder-problem/

References

[1] Interview with https://covergroundusa.com Jan 2025 https://covergroundusa.com/connorherson

[2] Interview with Sonnie Trotter, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1MdKRXzclE

[3] https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/golden-piton-2025-connor-herson/

References

[1] https://climbingaway.fr/en/climbers/griffin-whiteside

[2] https://kitkaclimbing.com/blog/griffin-whiteside-talks-about-route-setting-and-boulder-competitions/

References

[1] Brooke Rabotou's World Cup Journey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPO4sr4pQmk

[2] Interview with Beth Rodden (2026) https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/golden-piton-2025-brooke-raboutou/

A legendary figure in American climbing. As a youth he established himself as one of the new wave while repeating many of America's hardest climbs alongside Chris Sharma.

He went on to establish many of his own hard routes, notably Flex Luthor which some now consider to be the first 9b in America.

He has also contributed an astounding number of hard free climbs to Yosemite. The pinnacle of these efforts is The Dawn Wall which opened up a new level of difficulty in big wall free climbing.

Other notable achievements include the Fitz Traverse, a full traverse of the FItzroy range in patagonia, completed with Alex Honnold in 2014. Tommy has at at various points held many speed records for Yosemite big walls.

In August of 2000 Tommy was on a trip to Kyrgyzstan with fellow climbers Beth Rodden, John Dickey and Jason 'Singer' Smith. They were kidnapped and held hostage for 6 days, only escaping when Tommy pushed one of their captors over a cliff, believing he had killed them (though it subsequently emerged that the captor had survived the fall).

Interestingly Tommy only has 3 fingers on his left hand, having lost the index finger "in a home remodelling accident" in 2001.

References

[1] http://www.niallgrimes.com/jam-crack-climbing-podcast/2016/1/5/tommy-caldwell-dawn-wall-yawn-wall

[2] AMA on reddit.com/r/iama, September 2018 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9fkki7/we_are_tommy_caldwell_a_climber_who_spent_6_years/

References

[1] Interview with Sam Prior and Aidan Roberts, April 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/1j8yi1s7I8rkG5CjSqLq76?

[2] Muga (2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmchZGKZ93U

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/3O6FI1hbAKBsel83KUqvNS?

References

[1] Interview with 8a.nu, 2018 https://www.8a.nu/news/james-litz-9b-profile