50 Fun Facts About Climbing

Who made the first documented ascent of Mount Everest in 1953?

They went up the Southeast Ridge; the North Ridge was first climbed by a Chinese team in 1960.

According to the 2020 Nepal-China survey, how tall is Everest?

The figure includes the snow cap, and it settled a long dispute between the two countries.

Everest's Nepali name Sagarmatha means what?

The Tibetan name Qomolangma means 'holy mother'.

The mountain was named after Sir George Everest, who held what job?

His successor Andrew Waugh proposed the name in 1856, though Everest himself objected.

Which climber, who vanished on Everest in 1924, is credited with the reply 'Because it's there'?

His body was found in 1999 at 8,160 metres, but whether he reached the top remains a mystery.

In what year was Mallory's body found on Everest?

The Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found it some 688 vertical metres below the summit.

Who first climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen, in 1978?

Reinhold Messner went back in 1980 and did it solo, again without oxygen.

In 1986 Reinhold Messner became the first person to complete what?

The South Tyrolean lost his brother Günther on Nanga Parbat in 1970 during his first.

Who became the first woman to summit Everest, on 16 May 1975?

The Japanese climber had survived an avalanche twelve days earlier and later became the first woman to finish the Seven Summits.

How many climbers died in the blizzard on Everest on 10-11 May 1996?

Guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were among them; Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air told the story.

Which journalist on assignment for Outside magazine survived the 1996 disaster and wrote Into Thin Air?

The 2015 film Everest dramatised the same events.

As of May 2024, roughly how many people had died on Everest?

The Khumbu Icefall, avalanches and altitude sickness are the main killers on the standard route.

K2, the world's second-highest mountain, stands in which range?

At 8,611 metres it straddles Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Chinese territory.

K2's nickname 'the Savage Mountain' came from a remark by George Bell, a climber on which team?

George Bell said it was 'a savage mountain that tries to kill you'.

Climbers from which country made the first ascent of K2 in 1954?

Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni summited on an expedition led by Ardito Desio.

K2 became the last eight-thousander climbed in winter in January 2021, by a team from which country?

Nirmal Purja and nine other Nepali climbers summited together on 16 January.

In 2019 Nirmal Purja climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in how long?

The former Gurkha and SBS soldier's Project Possible became the Netflix film 14 Peaks.

Which was the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed, in 1950?

Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal of a French expedition summited on 3 June; both lost toes and fingers to frostbite.

The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 is traditionally considered the start of what?

Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard collected a reward offered by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.

Edward Whymper's party made the first ascent of which peak in 1865, losing four men on the way down?

The 4,478-metre peak sits on the Swiss-Italian border above Zermatt.

The Eiger's north face has earned what German nickname because of the number of deaths on it?

At least sixty-four climbers have died on the 1,800-metre face since 1935.

In what year was the Eiger's north face first climbed, by a party including Heinrich Harrer?

Harrer later wrote Seven Years in Tibet.

Who was the first person to climb the Seven Summits, finishing on 30 April 1985?

His list used Australia's Kosciuszko; Messner's rival list swaps in Puncak Jaya, and Pat Morrow finished that one first in 1986.

The Messner version of the Seven Summits replaces Kosciuszko with which peak?

The Indonesian peak, also called Carstensz Pyramid, is a real climb rather than a walk-up.

El Capitan in Yosemite rises about how far from base to summit on its tallest face?

The name is Spanish for 'the captain'.

The Nose of El Capitan was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding's team over how many days?

The siege was spread over more than a year, with fixed ropes and pendulum swings across the face.

Who made the first free ascent of the Nose in 1993, then did it in a day the following year?

Her 23-hour ascent set a standard that went unrepeated for years.

Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell set the Nose speed record in 2018 at what time?

The 3,000-foot route usually takes parties three to five days.

Which route did Alex Honnold free solo on El Capitan on 3 June 2017?

The 3-hour-56-minute climb was captured in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.

Free Solo won which award at the 91st Academy Awards?

Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi collected the statuette.

A 2016 brain scan showed which part of Honnold's brain barely activates in response to disturbing images?

The pattern is typical of high sensation seekers.

Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's January 2015 first free ascent of the Dawn Wall took how many days?

Adam Ondra repeated the route in eight days in November 2016, leading every pitch.

Silence, the first route in the world proposed at grade 9c, is in a cave in which country?

Adam Ondra climbed the 45-metre overhang in Flatanger's Hanshelleren Cave in 2017, and it stayed unrepeated for years.

Who made the first ascent of Silence in September 2017?

The Czech climber's route is graded 5.15d on the American scale.

In the Yosemite Decimal System, which grade band covers technical roped rock climbing?

Classes 1 to 4 are hiking and scrambling; the letters a-d subdivide grades from 5.10 up.

The fifth class of the Yosemite Decimal System was refined in the 1950s at which Southern California crag?

The scale is open-ended, topping out at 5.15d as of Silence in 2017.

Who is called 'the father of modern bouldering' for combining gymnastics with climbing in the late 1950s?

He also introduced chalk to keep hands dry and championed dynamic movement.

The V-grades for boulder problems are also known by what other name?

It began at Hueco Tanks in Texas and is open-ended; the hardest problems as of 2024 are V17.

As of 2024, what is the highest V-grade assigned to any boulder problem?

Bouldering is done without ropes on short walls, with crash pads for protection.

Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at which Games?

The controversial format combined lead, speed and bouldering into one event.

Which Slovenian won the first women's Olympic climbing gold?

Spain's Alberto Ginés López took the men's title.

The single Olympic climbing event in Tokyo combined lead, bouldering and what?

The format was split into separate events for Paris 2024.

Which French peak's 1492 ascent, using ropes and ladders, is called the birth of mountaineering?

Antoine de Ville, a military officer, led the climb, the first ascent of real technical difficulty to be officially verified.

The world's first mountaineering club, the Alpine Club, was founded in which year?

Sir Alfred Wills's 1854 ascent of the Wetterhorn had made the sport fashionable in Britain, launching the Golden Age of Alpinism.

Who became the first woman to climb Mont Blanc, in 1808?

Henriette d'Angeville followed in 1838; the mountain's first ascent had come in 1786 after Horace-Bénédict de Saussure offered a reward.

Which Alaska-Yukon border peak did the Duke of the Abruzzi's party summit in 1897?

The same decade saw Kilimanjaro climbed in 1889 by Ludwig Purtscheller and Hans Meyer, and Mount Kenya in 1899 by Halford Mackinder.

Bouldering as a discipline began at which forest area near Paris?

Pierre Allain pioneered it there in the 1930s before John Gill added gymnastic influences in the 1950s.

French pioneers like Patrick Edlinger pre-drilled bolts into crackless faces, creating which style?

The safer format sent grades soaring, spawned artificial walls and campus boards, and produced the first professional climbers.

Which two big-wall pioneers wrote a famous 1972 essay calling for hammerless 'clean climbing'?

Harding's 1958 first ascent of the Nose had hammered in 600 pitons and 125 bolts, and its heavy aid use drew criticism.

What is the climbing technique of using shoe rubber for grip on a featureless face called?

Welsh climber Johnny Dawes is its most famous exponent, even climbing extreme routes with no hands on slabs such as the Indian Face.