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Saturday, January 11, 2020

First Ascentionists Over Time (Female and Male)

I have always been interested in the history of rock climbing. Lately, I tried to collect data about male and female first ascentionists to visualize climbing progression over tine. However, it turned out difficult to find a lot of data (particularly for female climbers). An exception to the rule is this really nice site http://stara.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/  from which I got a lot of information.

It would be great if someone could point me to further sources, and help me correcting the existing data! I find it particularly difficult to get information about, among others,

  • first onsights and flashes (who was the first to onsight 8a or flash 8b+?)
  • first successful female and male bouldering ascents
  • early first female ascents (does anyone know who did the first female 7a?)
  • 'first' second ascents (who did the second 8c in the world?)
For routes with disputed gradings, such as Chilam Balam first redpointed by Bernabè Fernandez in 2003, I took the majority grade by all repeaters (9a+/9b in that case).

Graphs below, data (including sources) is available here via Google Spreadsheet or via ClimbStat GitHub (here you can also find the R-code to create the individual graphs. They have been merged together externally to one GIF). Further below you can find an excerpt.





Year Ascensionist Route Grade (YDS) Grade (French) Sex Confirmed?
1979  Lynn Hill Ophir Broke 5.12d 7c female Yes
1985  Catherine Destivelle Fleur de Rocaille 5.12d/5.13a 7c+/8a female Yes
1986  Luisa Iovane Comeback 5.13b 8a female Yes
1988  Catherine Destivelle Chouca 5.13c 8a+ female Yes
1988  Isabelle Patissier Sortileges 5.13d 8b female Yes
1990  Lynn Hill Masse Critique 5.14a 8b+ female Yes
1998  Josune Bereziartu Honky Tonky 5.14b 8c female Yes
2000  Josune Bereziartu Honky Tonk Mix 5.14c 8c+ female Yes
2002  Josune Bereziartu Bain de Sang 5.14d 9a female Yes
2005  Josune Bereziartu Bimbaluna 5.14d/5.15a 9a/9a+ female Yes
2017  Margo Hayes La Rambla Extension 5.15a 9a+ female Yes
2017  Angela Eiter La planta de shiva 5.15b 9b female Yes
1961  John Gill Thimble 5.12a 7a+ male Yes
1967  Greg Lowe Macabre Roof 5.12c 7b+ male Yes
1970  John Gosling English Hanging Gardens 5.12b 7b male Yes
1975  Steve Wunsch Psycho Roof 5.12d 7c male Yes
1977  Ray Jardine The Phoenix 5.13a 7c+ male Yes
1979  Tony Yaniro Grand Illusion 5.13b 8a male Yes
1983  Jerry Moffatt The Face 5.13c 8a+ male Yes
1984  Wolfgang Güllich Kanal im Rücken 5.13d 8b male Yes
1985  Wolfgang Güllich Punks in the Gym 5.14a 8b+ male Yes
1986  Antoine Le  Menestrel La Ravage 5.14a/5.14b 8b+/8c male Yes
1987  Wolfgang Güllich Wallstreet 5.14b 8c male Yes
1990  Ben Moon Hubble 5.14c 8c+ male Yes
1991  Wolfgang Güllich Action Directe 5.14d 9a male Yes
1995  Fred Rouhling Akira 5.15b 9b male No
1996  Alex Huber Open Air 5.15a 9a+ male Yes
2003  Bernabè Fernandez Chilam Balam 5.15a/5.15b 9a+/9b male Yes
2012  Adam Ondra Change 5.15c 9b+ male No
2017  Adam Ondra Silence 5.15d 9c male No

Research article looking at climber ability and route difficulties by Dean Scarff

Dean Scarff made me kindly aware about his extremely interesting arXiv article Estimation of Climbing Route Difficulty usingWhole-History Ra...