Climbers

Leo Houlding is a british climber, mountaineer and adventurer. Initially known for his hard trad climbing in the UK, particularly in North Wales and the Peak District, he quickly moved on to climbing big walls in Yosemite with very impressive ascents such as his near-onsight of El Niño. He then moved on to more remote big walls from Greenland to Antarctica.

References

[1] Houlding, L. (2022). Closer to the Edge: Climbing to the Ends of the Earth. United Kingdom: Headline.

[2] Top Gear segment, 2005 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKLsBk5CijQ

[3] https://www.base-mag.com/leo-houlding-soul-in-the-game/

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] Features in La Obsesión

[2] Interview with 8a.nu, 2018 https://www.8a.nu/news/dani-andrada-4-015-routes-and-boulders-8a-or-harder

References

[1] One new problem from V0 to V14 in a day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vD8fymekC8

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SisJOwqwhllLtqX0yZXrb?

[2] Podcast with Sonnie Trotter, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDX7_mDDTmE

Udo Neumann:

There are two factors which determine the quality of movement: Precision on one side, speed on the other. If you are very precise, like Marc le Menestrel, you tend to be rather slow. If you are fast you tend to be sloppy. It's always a trade-off. In my opinion, Klem is the climber at the moment who balances these factors best and potentially can climb the hardest things.

Of course there is more to hard climbing but this gives you an idea of Klem's style - very accurate and very speedy. A friend once described Klem as "digital", either 'on' or 'off'.

Spending time around him is like being surrounded by a nice, comforting but blurry cloud, whereas Klem himself seems to live in this ultrasharp, high contrast environment where things and thoughts happen very quickly. When tired or bored Klem falls asleep instantly, with little awareness of what's going on around him. [1]

References

[1] Klem Lostkot by Mike Robertson, On The Edge Issue 114, page 54

References

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/how_tim_clifford_tamed_the_wild_west-65

North wales based crusher and first British woman to climb 9a (skipping 8c+!) with her ascet of Big Bang at Lower Pen Trwyn in 2019.

References

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

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

A pioneer of hard bouldering in Fontainebleau, throughout the 1980s and '90s Godoffe established dozens of the forest's classic modern testpieces.

His ascent of C'Était Demain (8A) in 1984 set a new level for bouldering in Europe. Coming just a year after L'Abbé Résina (7C), the climb was a significant step up in difficulty. With its difficulty concentrated into just a couple of hard moves, it is still regarded as a hard 8A and may have only been flashed once (Dave Graham, 2000).

In 1993 he raised the bar again, establishing Fatman, a contender for the first 8B in the forest. His relentless pursuit of both quality and difficulty saw him projecting what would later become The Big Island (8C), though a successful ascent eluded him.

In the early '00s Godoffe pioneered the art of indoor routesetting. His books on the subject are essential reading for those in the trade.

Success in climbing is just the tip of the iceberg. The most important thing for me is how to deal with such an important passion and also the rest of life. I am lucky to have had 5 children, and none of them never ever climbed, so at home at least I'm just a human trying to surf on the waves of life. This is a way harder than the most difficult boulder I ever climbed. [1]

References

[1] Interview in The Project Magazine (2017) https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2017/5/13/jacky-godoffe-interview

[2] Bleau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIreNKro7QU

[3] https://escaladepanorama.htm-fr.com/francais/bleau/itw/bl_jg-interview.htm

References

[1] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/markus-bock-4-hard-new-climbs-in-the-frankenjura.html

[2] https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/germany/area/9984708447/routes/by/Markus%20Bock/?sortby=when-history%2Casc

Mina Mason is a British climber. She started out as a comp climber before transitioning to bouldering outdoors, and then on to sport climbing.

References

[1] The Curious Climber Podcast

[2] Interview with RockClimbingUK

Neil Gresham is a British climber who is notable for his hard trad ascents and deep water solos, whilst being an influential coach and early training guru.

Trad achievements include early repeats of testpieces such as Johnny Dawes' Indian Face (E9) and Neil Bentley's Equilibrium (E10), as well as making his own contributions Final Score (E10) and Lexicon (E11).

Gresham was an early adopter of deep water soloing in the UK, making the first ascents, or first DWS ascents, of some of the hardest DWS lines in the UK, including:

• Cutlass 8a
• Excalibur 8a
• San Simian 8a
• Hydrotherapy 8a+
• Olympiad 8b

Gresham was also an early training guru, writing a regular column in On The Edge magazine in the '90s, and being among the first to offer commercial coaching services.

References

[1] Interview with Dave MacLeod 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2wgXc_blao

[2] Interview with Niall Grimes part 1, 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/4H9lcr8Fp4lR6lMMmJa8Yt?

[3] Interview with Niall Grimes part 2, 2024 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5cac0uPMB1TYDaUF8XN06f?

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