Climbers

References

[1] https://gripped.com/profiles/jean-pierre-ouellet-addicted-to-cracks/

John Gill is one of the pioneers of bouldering, putting up many hard first ascents in the US at a time when bouldering was not understood as an activity in its own right.

With a background in gymnastics, Gill applied a similar mentality to rock climbing, transferring some of the training ideas and using gymnastic chalk.

For Gill, as in gymnastics, elegance of execution was as important as difficulty. This did not stop him from establishing many extraordinarily hard problems however, and for decades his problems were amongst the hardest in the world.

When he applied his skills to taller routes, Gill also excelled. His route The Thimble, climbed solo and ground up in 1961 and considered around 7A+, was well ahead of its time. After attempting to repeat the line, Royal Robbins said of it:

I considered my greatest failure to be my efforts on the thimble. I could see that even if I worked on it forever I would never achieve it.

Gill has researched bouldering history and his website johngill.net remains an invaluable resource.

References

[1] https://www.climbing.com/people/john-gill-father-of-bouldering/

[2] Pat Ament, John Gill, Yvon Chouinard, Rearick, Dave. John Gill: Master of Rock: The Life of a Bouldering Legend. United Kingdom: Vertebrate Publishing, 2018.

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FdMLil9lNU

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yaGXFkC8M

[5] Reflections of a Middle-Aged Boulderer, orignally presented at the BMC conference in March 1986, then reproduced in Mountain 110 /file/c4606b9f-a73c-ab1b-25eb-2d7f66dc3515/reflections_of_a_middle_aged_boulderer.txt

Josh Muller is a Canadian climber and owner of Bolder Climbing in Calgary, Alberta.

References

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

[2] https://bolderclimbing.com/profile/josh-muller/

[3] https://shop.frictionlabs.com/blogs/climb-your-impossible/climbings-power-couple-regan-kennedy-josh-muller

References

[1] Interview with Björn Pohl (2009) https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2009/11/keith_bradbury_interview-54652

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YRk3NE3NqLF7hMdWtrNtS

References

[1] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/272530562813126

[2] https://www.facebook.com/climbing.in.the.80s/photos/a.270388289694020/337350586331123

[3] https://open.spotify.com/episode/0dNau6mGsCiEUa3sfQH5PZ?

References

[1] Interview with Ben Sanford (2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu8kTmfv9mI