Climbers

Owner of one of the all time great psyche screams.

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

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.

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

References

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

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

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

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://vimeo.com/shaunacoxsey

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

Niccolò Ceria is an Italian boulderer. He is known for his aesthetic approach to bouldering which focuses on the quality of the problem and the movement, as well as the difficulty.

References

[1] Interview with Niall Grimes.

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

Dave Cuthbertson is an extremely influential Scottish climber who was operating at his peak in the 1980s. He was responsible for some of the hardest routes of the era, for example his route Requiem was established in 1983 and features ~8a climbing on trad gear, making it the hardest route in the UK at the time.