Climbers

Owner of climbing's most iconic moustache.

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.

Jack Palmieri is a British boulderer. He started climbing relatively late in life but has rapidly established himself by repeating a huge number of hard problems in the UK and abroad.

Around 2017 Jack spent a lot of time in Parisellas Cave, repeating nearly all the hard problems (including Silk Cut and Pilgrimage) in the cave as well as adding some new link ups of his own.

Using this as a base, he has then branched out in an attempt to seemingly climb every hard boulder in the UK. In 2022 alone he climbed over 100 8th grade boulder problems in the UK [1], a very impressive feat given the weather!

References

[1] Interview with UKClimbing.com, December 2022 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/jack_palmieri_on_climbing_100_8s_in_a_year-14907

[2] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/jack_palmieri_on_climbing_200_8s_in_a_year-15678

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

Noah Wheeler is a young and up and coming boulderer who currently resides in Colorado, USA. He is one half of Wheel Rock with his brother Benn Wheeler.

Noah burst onto the scene in 2022 in which he repeated three 8C/V15 boulders with G-Master, Paint it Black, and Delirium. In 2024 Noah repeated Sleepwalker 8C+/V16 and Insomniac 8C+/V16. In the dying days of 2024 Noah repeated the infamous Return of the Sleepwalker 9A/V17 at only 22 years of age, this made him the youngest person to climb 9A/V17 at the time of his ascent.

References

[1] https://www.grimper.com/news-mais-jeune-americain-nomme-noah-wheeler

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

Shauna Coxsey is a British boulderer and one of the strongest female climbers in the UK. She has won two bouldering world cups, firstly in 2016 and then in 2017.

While she was primarily a competition climber in her early career (up to the 2020 Tokyo olympics) she did occasionally climb outside, with highlights such as the first female ascent of New Base Line 8B+ in 2014, making her one of a handful of women to have climbed 8B+ at the time.

Since retiring from competitions and having a child she has switched focus to bouldering outdoors.

References

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20171209231653/http://www.shaunacoxsey.co.uk/

[2] https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WiWRSy1JEgXMpx4aBxA0g

Owner of one of the all time great psyche screams.

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.

Born in 1930, Joe Brown was one of the pivotal figures in post-war climbing in the UK. In the 1950s and 60s, and alongside contemporaries such as Don Whillans, he pushed the standard of rock climbing in the UK to new levels with the first ascents of classic routes such as Cemetry Gates (E1), Great Slab (E3) and Right Eliminate (E3). Joe's routes frequently ventured in to territory that was previously considered off limits, often tackling bold and uncompromising features with minimal protection.

It is sometimes suggested that he was one of the inventors of jamming. Though this seems unlikely, though it is certainly true that he employed the technique to great effect on many of his new routes.

Jim Perrin:

With all the other greats of my time, I could understand how they climbed: fitness, physique, supple gymnasticism or sheer application. With Brown, there was something else at work. He was quite short, not heavily built, his muscles corded rather than developed, his movement smooth and deliberate. When I climbed with him, sometimes I would watch the way he made a move, copy it when I came to that point, and his way, that he had seen instantly, would be the least obvious and most immediately right. He was climbing's supreme craftsman, unerringly aware of the medium. [3]

References

[1] An extended biography written by Ollie Burrows is available here https://www.theclimbersshopjoebrownblog.co.uk/blog/joe-brown-biography including a list of many of Joe's first ascents.

[2] Interview with the BMC

[3] Obituary on UKClimbing written by Jim Perrin.

Pete Robins is a rock climber best known for his prolific development around North Wales, in particular in opening a huge number of quality new problems and areas.

References

[1] Interview with RockClimbingUK

[2] Profile from DMM, one of Pete's sponsors https://dmmwales.com/climbers/pete-robins

Shawn Raboutou is an extremely strong boulderer from the USA. He's the son of Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and Didier Raboutou and brother to Brooke Raboutou.

Since his 2018 ascent of Off the Wagon SDS Shawn has continued to cement his reputation by establishing many hard problems at 8C+ and above, including Big Z, Fuck the System and The Story of Three Worlds. More recently he's pushed the highest levels with his ascent of Alphane for which he proposed 9A and Megatron, another 9A.

References

[1] Down and up Karma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ9sCAhRh1M?t=481.

[2] Interview with Magnus Midtbø 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BiC-ypXGLU

References

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

Nico Pearlson is a prolific name and developer in the Fontainebleau scene and further afield. He is known for his ascents of Soudain Seul 9A and No Kpote Only 9A. He subsecquently downgraded both boulders to 8C+ and 8C respectively.

Nico is also known for his interesting music career being behind the masterpiece Mini Drill.

Lucien Martinez:

A last one for the road. In the 65° overhang of Blocage, the small ‘gym’ in Font, Nico Pelorson opened a boulder (red holds) with a move of pure crimping and core strength that seemed to me not to work. Yet Nico managed to do it, and even adding the two moves prior. It was around the time he made Big Island sit [Soudain Seul] and he was a monster. The climbers who passed by the gym and saw his boulder thought it was so impossible as to be a joke. [1]

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/interview-lucien-martinez-irreductible-acharne-interview-lucien-martinez-inveterate-and-tenacious/

[2] Interview with http://escalade9.wifeo.com/, November 2015 http://escalade9.wifeo.com/nicolas-pelorson.php

[3] https://bleau.info/profiles/nicolas.pelorson.2

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