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Traditional climbing is a type of free climbing in rock climbing where the lead climber places the protection equipment while ascending the route; when the lead climber has completed the route, the second climber then removes the protection equipment while climbing the route. Traditional climbing differs from sport climbing where the protection equipment is pre-drilled into the rock in the form of bolts.
Alexander Huber is a German rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of rock climbing. Huber came to prominence in the early 1990s as the world's strongest sport climber after the passing of Wolfgang Güllich. He is the second-ever person to redpoint a 9a (5.14d) graded route by ascending Om in 1992, and has come to be known as the first-ever person to redpoint a 9a+ (5.15a) graded route from his 1996 ascent of Open Air.
Fred Rouhling is a French rock climber and boulderer, noted for creating and repeating some of the earliest grade 9a (5.14d) sport climbing routes in the world, including Hugh in 1993, the first-ever French 9a (5.14d) sport route. Rouhling is also known for the controversy from his proposed grading of 9b (5.15b) for his 1995 route Akira, which would have made it the world's first-ever 9b-graded sport route; 25 years later, it was graded at 9a (5.14d).
Steve McClure is a British rock climber and climbing author, who is widely regarded as Britain's leading and most important sport climber for a period that extends for over two decades, starting from the late 1990s. In 2017, he created Rainman, Britain's first-ever 9b (5.15b) sport route, and by that stage was responsible for developing the majority of routes graded 9a (5.14d) and above in Britain. Although mainly known for sport climbing, McClure has also been one of the most successful British traditional climbers, and British onsight climbers.
Dai Koyamada is a Japanese rock climber and known as one of the leading boulderers of his generation who established some of the first-ever boulder problems at 8C (V15). He has also established and repeated, some of the hardest sport climbs in the world.
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines – bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall climbing – can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advanced by Pierre Allain in the 1930s, and John Gill in the 1950s. Big wall climbing started in the Dolomites, and was spread across the Alps in the 1930s by climbers such as Emilio Comici and Riccardo Cassin, and in the 1950s by Walter Bonatti, before reaching Yosemite where it was led in the 1950s to 1970s by climbers such as Royal Robbins. Single-pitch climbing started pre-1900 in both the Lake District and in Saxony, and by the late-1970s had spread widely with climbers such as Ron Fawcett (Britain), Bernd Arnold (Germany), Patrick Berhault (France), Ron Kauk and John Bachar (USA).
Adam Ondra is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. In 2013, Rock & Ice described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014) and is one of the two male athletes to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines.
Sonnie Trotter is a Canadian professional climber, known for his strength in many rock climbing disciplines – particularly traditional climbing – and contributing to hundreds of first free ascents around the world.
In rock climbing, a crack climb is a type of climbing route that follows a system of crack(s) or fissure(s) that the climber uses to ascend the route. The width of the crack dictates the techniques needed, and crack-climbs are further differentiated by the body parts that can be 'jammed' into them, such as finger cracks, hand/fist cracks, arm cracks, and body cracks. Off-width cracks are some of the most awkward, being too wide for the hands or arms, but too narrow to accommodate the body. The rarer top-to-bottom uniform-width crack is called a splitter crack.
Ethan Pringle is an American rock climber with notable ascents in sport climbing, in traditional climbing, and in bouldering. He has also been active in competition climbing, winning the American national competition lead climbing championships in both youth and adult formats, and silver at the World Youth Championships.
Hazel Findlay is a British traditional climber, sport climber and big wall climber. She was the first female British climber to climb a route graded E9, and a route graded 8c (5.14b). She did the third ascent of the Yosemite traditional route Magic Line 5.14c (8c+). She has free climbed El Capitán four times on four different routes and made many first female ascents on other routes. Climbing magazine gave her their Golden Piton Award (Alpine) for traditional climbing in 2013.
Maurizio "Manolo" Zanolla is an Italian rock climber and mountaineer, and a pioneer of sport climbing in Italy during the 1980s and 1990s.
Silence, is a 45-metre (148 ft) severely overhanging sport climbing route in the granite Hanshelleren Cave in Flatanger Municipality, Norway. When Czech climber Adam Ondra made the first free ascent on 3 September 2017, it became the first rock climb in the world to have a proposed climbing grade of 9c (5.15d), and it is an important route in rock climbing history. To complete the route, Ondra undertook specialist physical and mental training to overcome its severely overhanging terrain. As of December 2024, Silence remains unrepeated.
Hamish McArthur is an English professional rock climber and competition climber, who specialises in competition bouldering and competition lead climbing events.
Century Crack is a 120 ft (40m) long offwidth roof crack climb in the White Rim Sandstone, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, graded at 5.14b (8c). It is one of the hardest and longest offwidth crack climbs in the world. The first aid ascent of the route was done by Steve Bartlett in 2001, and the first free ascents were by crack specialists Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, known as the Wide Boyz.
Tom Randall is a British professional rock climber. Randall and his climbing partner Pete Whittaker, known as the Wide Boyz, are some of the best crack climbers in the world, known for their the first free ascent of Century Crack 5.14b (8c) in 2011. They also produce crack climbing media content, and equipment such as crack volumes for indoor crack climbing training.
Alex Waterhouse is a British rock climber, known for competition climbing and achieving ascents on difficult outdoor boulders and lead routes. He was a member of the GB climbing team.
Barbara Zangerl is an Austrian rock climber who is widely considered as one of the best all-round female climbers in the world. At various stages in her career, she has climbed at, or just below, the highest climbing grades achieved by a female in every major rock climbing discipline, including bouldering, traditional climbing, sport climbing, multi-pitch climbing and big wall climbing.
Rhapsody is a 35-metre (115 ft) long traditional climbing route up a thin crack on a slightly overhanging vertical basalt rock face on Dumbarton Rock, in Scotland. When Scottish climber Dave MacLeod made the first free ascent in 2006, it became Britain's first-ever E11-graded route, and at the grade of 5.14c (8c+), Rhapsody was the world's hardest traditional route. It set a grade milestone in traditional climbing that stood for over a decade until the ascent of Tribe at grade E11-12 5.14d (9a) in 2019 and of Bon Voyage at grade E12 5.14d (9a) in 2024.
References
- ↑ "Mari Salvesen flashes Belly Full of Bad Berries, notorious off-width at Indian Creek, USA". PlanetMountain.com.
- ↑ "Century Crack, the hardest offwidth in the world?". PlanetMountain.com.
- ↑ "Wideboyz Climb Century Crack Placing Gear". www.ukclimbing.com.
- ↑ "2016 Golden Pitons: Vision Award". Climbing . Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ↑ "Freerider flashed by Pete Whittaker". 20 October 2014.
- ↑ "Pete Whittaker rope solos El Cap's Freerider all free in a day - Alpinist.com". www.alpinist.com.
- ↑ Walsh, Anthony (1 December 2021). "Wide Boyz Tackle The Great Rift (5.13) Roof Crack Under 2,500-foot Cement Bridge".
- ↑ "Pete Whittaker on Crown Royale, 9a". www.ukclimbing.com.
- ↑ "Pete Whittaker makes first ascent ascent of trad project Crown Royale". www.ukclimbing.com.
- ↑ "NEWS: Third Ascent of Recovery Drink by Pete Whittaker". www.ukclimbing.com.
- ↑ "Kaabah 8c+ for Whittaker and Walker". www.ukclimbing.com.
- ↑ "Climbing The World's Hardest Crack Boulder (Kraken 8B)". Wide Boyz. 24 July 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
- ↑ "Wide Boyz, 2012". Letterboxd . Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ↑ "WideWide Boyz II – Slender Gentlemen, 2014". Letterboxd . Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ↑ "Bridge Boys, 2022". Letterboxd . Retrieved 17 October 2023.