50 Fun Facts About Rock Climbing

In June 2017 Alex Honnold became the first person to free solo a full route on El Capitan. Which route?

He climbed the 2,900-foot 5.13a route in 3 hours and 56 minutes with no rope.

What did Free Solo, the 2018 film about Honnold's climb, win at the 91st Academy Awards?

Free Solo was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who worried the cameras were adding pressure.

Free soloing means climbing rock without ropes or protection. What may the soloist use?

Ice climbers get the same deal with tools and crampons.

Roughly how tall is El Capitan's tallest face from base to summit?

The granite is about 100 million years old and unusually free of joints, which is why glaciers left it so sheer.

How long did the first ascent of the Nose on El Capitan take Warren Harding's team in 1958?

They used siege tactics with fixed ropes over more than a year; the last push in November took a week.

Who made the first free ascent of the Nose in 1993, famously declaring 'It goes, boys!'?

She came back a year later and freed it in under 24 hours.

How many days did Caldwell and Jorgeson's first free climb of the Dawn Wall take in 2015?

Adam Ondra repeated it in eight days the following year, leading every pitch himself.

Tommy Caldwell climbs some of the world's hardest rock despite losing most of which body part to a table saw?

Doctors reattached it, but he had the useless finger removed so it would not get in the way.

In 2000 Caldwell and three other climbers were held hostage by militants in which country?

The ordeal is covered in the 2017 film The Dawn Wall.

Adam Ondra's route Silence, the first climb graded 9c (5.15d), is in a cave in which country?

The Hanshelleren Cave at Flatanger; the route remained unrepeated as of 2026.

In which year did Ondra make the first ascent of Silence?

He had bolted it in 2012-13 while working on Change, the world's first 9b+, in the same cave.

In 2001 Chris Sharma made the first redpoint of a consensus 9a+ (5.15a) route. What is it called?

He followed it with the first consensus 9b, Jumbo Love, in 2008.

Wolfgang Güllich's 1991 route Action Directe was the world's first at which grade?

He also introduced the campus board and doubled for Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger.

Güllich worked as a climbing double for which actor in the 1993 film Cliffhanger?

Ron Kauk doubled alongside him; Güllich died in a car crash the year before the film came out.

The Yosemite Decimal System was devised in the 1950s by members of which organisation?

Class 1 was a hike and class 5 technical roped climbing; letters a-d were added from 5.10 upward.

In the Yosemite Decimal System, at which grade do the letters a, b, c and d start being added?

The letters happened to match the American movie rating codes of the time.

What was the hardest grade on the Yosemite Decimal System scale as of 2025?

It is an open-ended scale, so the number climbs whenever someone climbs harder; 5.15d (9c) was first reached by Adam Ondra's Silence in 2017.

The V-system used to grade boulder problems is also known by what name?

It originated at Hueco Tanks in Texas; Europe mostly uses the Fontainebleau system.

Nalle Hukkataival climbed Burden of Dreams, the first V17 boulder problem, in which country?

He spent four years projecting the 4-metre red granite block at Lappnor.

In bouldering, what are 'crash pads'?

They opened up areas that would once have been too dangerous to climb ropeless.

The forest around which French town is famous as the birthplace of bouldering?

Parisian alpinists trained on its sandstone from around 1900, and its climbers are called Bleausards.

In sport climbing, what does the lead climber clip the rope into for protection?

It began in early-1980s France, where climbers wanted to climb blank faces with no cracks for gear.

In traditional climbing, spring-loaded camming devices are commonly nicknamed what?

Their arrival in the 1970s dramatically raised the grades trad climbers could safely attempt on cracks.

Climbing chalk is powdered what?

Gymnasts and weightlifters use the same drying agent; liquid chalk is a popular variant.

The Grigri, one of the most popular assisted-braking belay devices, is made by which company?

A camming mechanism pinches the rope on a sudden load; the tubular ATC stands for 'air traffic controller'.

The tubular belay device known as the ATC takes its name from what?

Figure-eight devices, by contrast, are often banned in gyms because they twist the rope.

Modern climbing shoes are known for a tight fit, sticky rubber soles and what shape?

The rubber compounds were developed specifically for climbing and vary in stickiness and durability.

Competition climbing made its Olympic debut at which Games?

Held in 2021 because of the pandemic, it controversially rolled lead, speed and bouldering into one medal.

How many disciplines were combined into the single Olympic climbing event in Tokyo?

Lead, speed and bouldering; Shauna Coxsey noted no boulderer had ever transitioned to speed.

For Paris 2024, how was the Olympic climbing format changed?

That doubled the medal events from two to four.

Which Slovenian became the first female Olympic climbing champion and repeated in 2024?

She is widely regarded as the greatest competition climber of all time.

In which year did Adam Ondra win World Championship titles in both lead and bouldering?

By 2013 Rock & Ice said he had 'more or less repeated every hard route in the world—easily'.

The first artificial climbing wall was commissioned in 1937 by the king of which country?

Leopold III had it built near his palace; Don Robinson's 1964 corridor wall at Leeds University is the modern ancestor.

Don Robinson built the first modern climbing wall in 1964 in a corridor at which university?

He was a lecturer in physical education there.

Single-pitch rock climbing began before 1900 in the Lake District and in which German region?

Rudolf Fehrmann's 1913 rulebook for Saxon Switzerland protected its soft sandstone and still shapes local ethics.

Which Greek island became a sport climbing hotspot after Andrea di Bari's 1997 bolting?

It now has more than 3,000 routes on limestone and a climate that allows year-round climbing.

In 2006 Chris Sharma free soloed the first-ever 9a+ deep-water solo route, Es Pontàs, which is where?

Deep-water soloing uses the sea as the crash pad.

In which US state is the bouldering area Hueco Tanks?

The Buttermilks in Bishop, California and Mount Blue Sky in Colorado are other classic American areas.

Which climber pioneered big-wall free soloing around 1980 and is called the first free-solo 'superstar'?

His Nabisco Wall solos in Yosemite set the template Honnold later followed.

In 2005 Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden became the first couple to do what?

They were only the third and fourth people ever to free the route; two days later Caldwell did it again in under 12 hours.

How long did Alex Honnold's ropeless 2017 ascent of El Capitan take him?

He topped out before mid-morning on June 3, 2017, with Jimmy Chin's cameras rolling for the film that followed.

How tall is the standardised wall used for competition speed-climbing world records?

The holds are identical everywhere and the route is only about 5.10c, which is why the men's record has dropped below five seconds.

Aleksandra Mirosław, who set a 6.06-second speed record in 2024, climbs for which country?

The women's mark was broken 20 times between 2013 and 2024, falling from 7.85 seconds to her 6.06.

Adam Ondra's 2016 second free ascent of the Dawn Wall, leading every pitch, took how many days?

The 32-pitch 5.14d route had taken its first ascensionists 19 days on the wall the previous year.

At what age did Adam Ondra redpoint his first sport route graded 5.14d?

By 2013 Rock & Ice reckoned the Czech prodigy had 'more or less repeated every hard route in the world—easily'.

The 'Stoveleg' cracks on the Nose got their name because early pitons were made from what?

Pitches 8 to 11 are hand- and fist-sized cracks, and Warren Harding's team hammered in the improvised hardware during the 1958 siege.

Royal Robbins' team made the 1960 second ascent of the Nose, without sieging, in how many days?

It was the first continuous push up the route, even with 125 bolts already in place from the first ascent.

In what year did Beverly Johnson and Sibylle Hechtel become the first all-female team up El Capitan?

They took the Triple Direct, which borrows the first ten pitches of the Salathé Wall before heading up the middle of the face.

John Gill, 'the father of modern bouldering', brought which gymnastics aid into climbing?

Gill also devised a closed-ended B1 to B3 grading scale and pushed a dynamic, strength-based style years before anyone else.

Which British climber won men's combined boulder-and-lead gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

He was 19 and became Britain's first climbing-related Olympic medallist since the 1922 Everest expedition members were honoured in 1924.