Climbers

A newer name in the British climbing landscape, however his reputation speaks for itself with the third ascent of Isles of Wonder SDS and the first ascent of Poseidon's Wrath .

Sollys YouTube channel also boasts a wealth of esoteric climbing content. Although he has moved from the South West of England he remains one of the most prolific developers of that area.

Owner of climbing's most iconic moustache.

An early adherent of training on a woody who put his strength to excellent use, putting up many of the hardest problems in the UK from the early 90s to early 2000s. Notably he made the second ascent of Hubble aged just 18, one of the hardest routes in the world at the time.

Dave "Cubby" Cuthbertson:

He had the strength of character to turn his back on the tradition of climbing, the summit and the romance, and do his own thing. As he says, he's always got time for more training. [1]

As well as his hard bouldering exploits he also repeated many of the hardest sport routes of the time including making the second ascent of Evolution at Raven Tor, the second ascent of Progress at Kilnsey as well as early repeats of Bat Route and Cry Freedom at Malham Cove. In 2010 he established Scotland's first 9a with his ascent of Hunger at The Anvil.

References

[1] Dave Cuthbertson interview with Niall Grimes on The Jam Crack Podcast Jan 2023. 1hr13mins. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cj6Zduv5LRmqwotmqg5Nd?

[2] Splinter, a short portrait by Ben Pritchard

[3] Stone Love

[4] Interview with Neil Mann, 2017 https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2017/2/14/interview-malcolm-smith

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajSuf5s2yyo

References

[1] Interview with UKClimbing.com on his very productive 2024/25 grit season https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2025/05/mike_adams_talks_about_an_incredible_season_on_the_gritstone-73958

Bold English trad. climber. Coined the term "Headpoint" for his ascent of Face Mecca to describe climbing trad. routes after top-rope practice. Has headpointed at least one E8 or harder every year from 1986-2025.

References

[1] Interview with Niall Grimes.

[2] https://ukbouldering.com/threads/re-benchmarks-for-the-elderly.32130/page-10

[3] https://services.thebmc.co.uk/big-issues-2-ethics

John Dunne is a British climber who established many hard, high quality sport and trad routes in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular routes like Austrian Oak and Magnetic Fields at Malham Cove were some of the hardest in the UK at the time.

John also put up many excellent trad routes. For example The New Statesman at Ilkley included very difficult climbing in a dangerous position and was one of the hardest routes on gritstone when it was put up.

John's climbing attracted a degree of controversy with some not believing his claimed ascents, though these doubts now appear to be unfounded.

References

[1] Interview with Adrian Berry March 2005 https://web.archive.org/web/20061022044419/http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=466

[2] John Dunne - The Big Issue 1996 film by Sid Perou

Alex Honnold is one of the most accomplished solo climbers of all time. His ascents throughout North America and the rest of the world have pushed the soloing standard to new heights.

Most notably Alex was the first person to free solo a route on El Capitan in Yosemite with his ascent of Freerider in 2017.

Other Work

Alex co-presents the Climbing Gold podcast alongside Fitz Cahall.

In 2012 Alex founded The Honnold Foundation. The foundation's aim is to improve access to solar electricity.

Very capable comp climber who has a solid track record on rock too.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPhG_yXpZp8

Owner of one of the all time great psyche screams.

John Gaskins is a controversial figure in British climbing. As well as an early repeat of Hubble he has claimed many ascents of hard routes and boulder problems. However for some of his hardest ascents it is unclear whether they happened. In particular he has been unable to describe the holds or sequences on his problem Shadowplay, and shortly after claiming the first ascent was unable to pull on to the problem to get photographs for his sponsors.

Similar inconsistencies exist on several other routes and problems he has claimed including Violent New Breed (9a+), Tranquilitas (8C) which John originally claimed as Karma of the Trees at 8A and Little Women Right Hand.

Despite the above John was a capable climber and almost certainly climbed several hard problems, such as Anaesthesia (8A+) at Woodwell.

References

[1] Interview with Simon Lee from UKBouldering.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbZALxPdjZg

[2] From the same interview as [1], footage of John climbing on his board https://vimeo.com/82936059.

[3] A Profile of John Gaskins by Simon Panton, On The Edge 120 page 48.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc264zE7jGA