Today, there are many ways to become “famous” in the modern world. Whether you’re on Instagram or Youtube, you can develop a following by sharing content that others find interesting or in some way appealing. Among those mentioned here are some climbers from today’s social media generation and others from before social media. In our opinion, this list includes the top rock climbers in history. In addition, we will mention a few of the best rock climbers of all time in the brief biography of each. There are only a few big climbing stars who are known to people who aren’t involved in the climbing community, unlike some sports like soccer, basketball, and others. Almost everyone in the western world knows who Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James are, but ask someone who Alex Honnold is, and (unless they’re a climber) it’s unlikely they’ll know.
The purpose of this post is to explain why. Our goal is to give people an idea of who the most famous rock climbers ever were, and why they were so famous. Who are these people, and what are their accomplishments? What are their claims to fame? Let’s learn more.
Table of Contents
Alex Honnold
If you talk about rock climbers, you can’t ignore Alex Honnold. Honnold is one of the biggest climbing stars of any era, renowned for his spectacular free solo climbs, but according to Honnold, only 5% of his climbs are solos. He listens mainly to rock and punk music as he climbs free solo and only turns the music off for more difficult problems. While he says he has never been scared of dying while free soloing, that is not to say he has never been afraid of death.
Alex Honnold, a native of California, prefers to climb in Yosemite Valley and the Nevada mountains. Honnold lives in a van most of the time, however, so he can go wherever “the weather is good”. While he does not like living in a van, he appreciates the freedom of living wherever he wants.
The most notable film he has appeared in is “Free Solo” (2018). Honnold’s climb of El Capitan, a granite rock face around 3,000 feet high, is the subject of the film “Free Solo”. A childhood dream of his was to climb “El Capitan,” and he decided to take the plunge at 32. He was the first person (and is still the only person) to free solo this route in 3 hours and 56 minutes. There are currently two awards for the film: the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and the BAFTA for Best Documentary. David Roberts and Alex Honnold co-authored a book together called “Alone on the Wall: Alex Honnold and the Ultimate Limits of Adventure”.
In addition, Honnold has been featured in numerous seminars and podcasts, and has appeared on TV shows telling his stories, which have motivated, inspired, and shocked audiences around the world.
In addition, he holds the world record for the fastest ascent of the “Yosemite Triple Crown,” which lasted 18 hours, 50 minutes. Yosemite Triple Crown is a combination of three different routes: “Mount Watkins”, “The Nose”, and “Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome”. Furthermore, he holds many other free solo/climbing world records.
Alex is a vegetarian, an atheist, a feminist, and straight edge, which means he doesn’t drink or use drugs. Before ascending “El Capitan,” Alex changed his diet to almost vegan, but he still ate eggs, and he also forbidden himself to eat desserts.
Alex Honnold can be found on Instagram under the handle @alexhonnold
Chris Sharma
Known for his first ascents and climbing ability, Chris Sharma was once considered to be the world’s best rock climber. He started climbing at the age of 12 in Santa Cruz, California. Sharma won the Bouldering Nationals just two years later when he was just 14 years old. In his 15th year, he completed the highest-graded climb in North America at that time, a climb named “Necessary Evil” rated 8c+. After that time, Sharma has redpointed routes that have been rated 9b, 9b+, and 9a+.
“La Dura Dura” (Spanish for “The Hard Hard”) was a difficult route Chris had trouble completing. He tried different moves and techniques, but couldn’t imagine how they would connect on the wall. It seemed impossible to put the moves together on their own because they were so difficult on their own. Finally, he resigned himself to the fact that he probably wasn’t cut out for climbing. He eventually gave up the ascent and began climbing with Adam Ondra, another outstanding climber (probably the best rock climber in the world today). After helping Ondra on other routes and offering him advice, Sharma was astonished at Ondra’s talent, motivation, and love of the sport after collaborating with him on a few routes. As a result, Sharma mentioned “La Dura Dura” to Ondra, saying that it was the perfect route for him to take his climbing to the next level. After completing “La Dura Dura” together, the two of them competed to be the first to redpoint the climb, sharing the beta with each other. Watching Adam combine some of the moves he thought were impossible, Chris became excited. Furthermore, he discovered how much fun it was to share beta with another extraordinary climber on an extremely hard climb. Over time, Sharma was able to connect some moves better than Ondra. However, one day Sharma took a rest day, and Ondra decided to attempt “La Dura Dura” again, even though he was feeling extremely weak from climbing the day before. Although he wasn’t feeling his best physically, the lack of worries and doubt weighing on his mind were the driving force behind his success on the particular climb. Chris completed “La Dura Dura” despite feeling unwell. In 2013, around a month before his 32nd birthday, he completed La Dura Dura.
With the help of his sponsor Walltopia, Sharma opened a rock climbing gym in California called Sender One Climbing in 2013. Sharma has completed many of the hardest climbs in Catalonia since moving to Barcelona. The Sharma Climbing BCN, a climbing gym he opened in 2015, is the largest indoor rock climbing gym in Europe. The Sharma Climbing Madrid gym is slated to open this year.
In addition to “Into The Light”, “Point Break”, “King Lines”, and “Above the Sea”, Sharma has worked on at least 21 other films.
Chris Sharma can be found on Instagram at @chris_sharma
Adam Ondra
As mentioned in the section about Chris Sharma, Czech-born Adam Ondra is one of the world’s best rock climbers today. Despite being born in February 1993, Ondra is still quite young – as of this writing, he is 26 years old. Ondra was already onsighting 7b+ routes when he was 8. He redpointed his first 9a at the age of 13. It’s famous that he grunts and growls on techniques and moves he finds difficult, showing an intense level of emotion in every transition he makes. His focus on the task at hand seems extraordinary. You can hear the passion and anger in Ondra’s voice if he falls off the climbing wall – he screams, roars and curses because of his failure. This shows that he is passionate and driven, which is probably why he is the best in the world. Ondra may not look the part, being lanky, skinny, and lacking a lot of visible muscle, but he is surprisingly strong when he is climbing a wall. To know whether Adam Ondra is the best climber or not, check out this article.
As well as winning multiple Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals at the World Championships, Ondra has won multiple World Cups in lead climbing, bouldering, and a combination of the two. The first 9c redpointed by him was called “Silence”. Additionally, he redpointed “La Dura Dura”, “Vasil Vasil”, and “Change,” all rated 9b+. There is no wonder why many people who know anything about climbing consider him the best climber in the world today.
Adam Ondra‘s Instagram account is @adam.ondra
Peter Croft
Peter Croft is a Canadian rock climber who has written many books about the different climbs he’s undertaken around the world. He hasn’t only been a successful author on the subject of climbing, he has also made a number of “first ascents,” including in free solo climbing. A number of these first ascents were made in High Sierra. In fact, Croft wrote a book about high Sierra rock climbing called “The Good, the Great, and the Awesome: The Top 40 High Sierra Rock Climbs.”
Croft never wanted to climb rocks in the first place. He considered it an out-of-bounds sport. He realized that he had to at least give it a shot after reading “I Chose to Climb” by Chris Bonnington. Croft has led numerous “Climbing Clinics” at indoor climbing gyms, outdoor climbing events, and other venues where he provides advice to climbers and fans.
One of his favorite climbs of all time is to link the two ascents in the Yosemite Valley called “The Nose” and “Half Dome,” especially since he climbed it with his hero John Bachar. Moreover, he admires the Charakusa Valley in Pakistan, which he compares to Yosemite Valley if Yosemite were topped with ice faces and needle sharp summits.
Croft believes that Chris Sharma represents the sport of climbing well, because he’s a good guy and a great climber, and he thinks Beth Rodden is the most inspirational female climber. In Croft’s opinion, climbers who are in it for the love of climbing are more valuable than those who boast about their abilities.
Dan Osman
One of the first practitioners of extreme sports to bring sports such as free soloing and rope jumping into the mainstream was Dan Osman. Dan Osman worked as a part-time carpenter in California. In response to the question of whether he had a death wish, he said he had a life wish. Adrenaline addicts believe that Osman was.
The Guinness World Record for the longest rope jump was set by Osman with a jump of over 1,000 feet. The act of rope jumping involves falling from the top of a cliff and being stopped by a safety rope.
On “Lover’s Leap” in Yosemite Valley, Honnold broke Osman’s record for the fastest free solo speed climb. As he scaled the 400+ feet climb, Osman recorded a record time of 4 minutes, 25 seconds. Honold set a new record of 4 minutes, 15 seconds, beating Osman’s previous time.
When Dan Osman was 35 years old, he was killed by faulty safety ropes while performing a rope jump in Yosemite Valley. Weathering on the rope has been attributed to it having been left outside for more than a month before, leaving it exposed to rain and snow. Chris Harmston, a representative of Black Diamond Equipment, and the National Park Service investigated the accident. According to Harmston, the main jump rope was made up of many ropes tied together, and a change in jump site angle could cause the rope to cross and catch on a knot when it fell. It was believed that this was the reason why the rope would cut itself – probably from melting. He also argued that the rope seemed to be in good condition, despite being left outside in bad weather conditions for over a month. The accident left Dan Osman’s daughter, Emma, without a father. Andrew Todhunter wrote a biography about Osman after his death titled “Fall of the Phantom Lord: Climbing and the Face of Fear”. Dan Osman is on the list of the most famous rock climbers of all time for obvious reasons.
Shauna Coxsey
The English rock climber Shauna Coxsey MBE is most famous for winning the IFSC Bouldering World Cup in 2016 and 2017 at 23 and 24 years old respectively, making her one of the best female boulderers of all time. Coxsey sent her first 8B (aka V13) bouldering problem in 2013 after topping “Nuthin’ But Sunshine”. She finished second in the IFSC Bouldering World Cup in 2014, just missing the top spot. After topping “New Baseline” in Magic Wood, she became the third woman to send an 8B+ (aka V14) bouldering problem. It’s the first time a British woman has climbed boulders rated V12, V13, and V14
During the birthday honors in 2016, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her climbing services.
She says Catherine Destivelle, a French climber, inspired her to start climbing when she was four years old. There is a lot of fame surrounding her in the climbing community, especially on social media, where she has over 330k followers on Instagram and she posts a lot about her travels, training, climbing and life. She can be found on Instagram under the handle @shaunacoxsey
Janja Garnbret
Slovenian rock climber Janja Garnbret has won numerous competitions over the years in lead climbing, bouldering, and combining in the IFSC World Cup. This is in addition to the numerous gold medals she has received in World Championships. Having been born on March 12, 1999, she is 20 years old at the time of writing. A mere 17 years old, Janja won the IFSC World Cup in Lead Climbing and Combined in 2016! She also won the gold medal for lead climbing at the World Championships that year. In 2019, Garnbret completed some thing no person has ever been capable of do earlier than in opposition hiking – she gained 6 activities out of 6 on the Bouldering World Cup, fixing seventy four out of seventy eight problems. She is effortlessly one of the excellent girl opposition and/or recreation climbers alive today. Garnbret is likewise very gifted at out of doors hiking having climbed an 8c+ whilst she changed into simply sixteen years old. Just years later she clipped the anchor of her first 9a rated hassle. This proves that Janja isn’t simply executed at indoor opposition hiking. Janja has over 134k fans on Instagram and posts very inconsistently, displaying simply how well-known she is withinside the hiking network on the age of simply 20. Her Instagram cope with is @janja_garnbret
Tommy Caldwell
Born in Colorado, USA, Tommy Caldwell is an executed climber withinside the disciplines of recreation, trad, velocity and unfastened hiking. His dad and mom had been climbers and mountain guides. It changed into his father who were given Tommy into hiking. Tommy doesn’t have any extraordinary opposition hiking achievements, but he has climbed a number of the toughest routes withinside the United States which includes “Kryptonite” rated 5.14c/d and “Flex Luthor” rated 5.15a. He has many extraordinary unfastened hiking ascents including the ones on “El Capitan” in Yosemite Valley – “The Dawn Wall”, “Lurking Fear”, “Muir Wall”, “West Buttress”, “Salathé”, “Zodiac” and “Magic Mushroom”. Caldwell has definitely regarded in hiking documentaries – one surrounding his ascent of the “Dawn Wall” on “El Capitan” with fellow climber Kevin Jorgeson which changed into referred to as “The Dawn Wall”. The different documentary changed into referred to as “Free Solo” – this changed into the movie surrounding Alex Honnold’s unfastened solo ascent of “El Capitan”. In “Free Solo”, Caldwell is worried in interviews and is proven assisting Honnold together along with his preparation. Caldwell changed into taken hostage with fellow climbers Beth Rodden, John Dickey and Jason Smith with the aid of using rebels in Kyrgyzstan in August 2000. The climbers had been held hostage for 6 days – the abduction ended after Caldwell driven a captor named RavshanSharipov off a cliff believing to have killed him withinside the process. Caldwell then rushed to locate authorities officers to tell them of the abduction. Later the climbers observed out that Sharipov – the captor who Caldwell had driven off the cliff – had now no longer died. Another climber and mountaineer named Greg Child wrote a ee-e book approximately the ordeal referred to as “Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers’ Kidnap and Escape withinside the Mountains of Central Asia”. Caldwell did a TEDx communicate detailing those activities. Tommy additionally sawed off part of his index finger. Doctors reattached it however Tommy had it eliminated as it impacted his hiking negatively. Tommy Caldwell has a big following on Instagram with over 550k fans and makes use of the cope with @tommycaldwell
Lynn Hill
In the Eighties and 1990s, Lynn Hill changed into seemed as one of the excellent aggressive recreation climbers withinside the global. Born in January 1961 in Michigan, Lynn is well-known because the first man or woman to ever whole a unfastened ascent on “The Nose” on “El Capitan” in Yosemite Valley. Not simplest has Hill been defined as one of the excellent FEMALE climbers of all time, she’s additionally been defined as one of the excellent climbers ever period. Hill could be very well-known withinside the mountain climbing global due to her public talking on the subject of hiking and gender equality. Lynn Hill has regarded on tv and in documentaries, so it’s simplest herbal we positioned her in this listing as one of the maximum well-known climbers of all time. Her autobiography “Climbing Free: My Life withinside the Vertical World” changed into co-written with Greg Child and changed into posted in 2002. Hill changed into continually very athletic – being a gymnast and a weightlifter at a younger age. She began out hiking early in her lifestyles and changed into reputedly a herbal at the game. She set many statistics each in first ascents and primary girl ascents. For example, she changed into the primary lady to redpoint a 5.14a(8b+) rated climb – “Masse Critique” in Cimaï, France. Hill has additionally on-sighted a 5.13b (8a) rated climb after hiking “Mingus” withinside the Verdon Gorge.She gained the Lead Climbing IFSC World Cup in 1990. In 1992 she took 0.33 area withinside the identical event. She changed into aside of the hiking network at Camp four in Yosemite Valley. Lynn Hill may be observed on Instagram and has the cope with @_linacolina_
Catherine Destivelle
Catherine Destivelle changed into born on July 24 1960 and began out her hiking adventure on the age of 12 at Fontainebleau in France regarded for its herbal bouldering rocks. Her mother and father had been each French, but she changed into born in Oran, French Algeria. Her father changed into a newbie climber, so that you can possibly expect he changed into her idea for starting. Catherine additionally favored to cliff climb in Burgundy and changed into worried in alpinism withinside the Massif des Ecrins. Catherine changed into a herbal at mountain climbing, displaying loads of ardour for the game in addition to athletic cappotential and staying power. Destivelle is a extraordinary climber having many first ascents withinside the Alps, and plenty of unfastened solo ascents across the global. She’s additionally the primary lady to solo ascend the north face of the “Eiger” which she despatched in 1992. However, the cause she’s in this listing as one of the maximum well-known rock climbers ever is due to the a couple of movies she been worried in and books she’s written. She’s written or been the co-creator of 10 a hit books (typically written in French) and been worried in 10 movies (maximum of which had been French), a number of which had been very famous.
Sean McColl
Sean McColl is a Canadian opposition climber and lives in Chambery, France. Although he generally climbs in competitions, McColl has climbed one of the toughest routes in Canada, sending a 2d ascent on “Dreamcatcher” that is rated 5.14d. He additionally flashed “Nagual”, which is a bouldering hassle rated V13 even as competing in an out of doors bouldering opposition referred to as the Hueco Rock Rodeo. In 2012 he gained the general IFSC Climbing World Championships. He additionally gained the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Combined hiking in 2014 and 2016. Sean has over 171k fans on Instagram, posting each day and presenting content material that hiking lovers love to look which includes clips from his opposition climbs, hiking education videos, pics with fellow climbers, and staying power education videos. You can locate his Instagram web page with the aid of using looking the cope with @mccollsean Nonaka
Miho Nonaka
Miho is a girl opposition climber from Japan who specializes in bouldering. She gained the 2018 IFSC World Cup in bouldering whilst she changed into simply 21 years old. In 2016 she took the silver withinside the IFSC World Championships in bouldering. When she changed into simply nine years old, her father and sister delivered her to hiking which might alternate her lifestyles forever. She’s now in education for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this means that she has needed to begin that specialize in lead and velocity hiking. For extra facts approximately the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, I’ve written a completely distinct article which you may locate with the aid of using clicking this link. Nonaka is famous on Instagram that is why she’s in this listing as one of the maximum well-known climbers of all time. She has over 103k fans and posts nearly every day content material that might hobby her fans.
Fanny Gibert
Fanny Gibert is a French bouldering champion who has completed silver and bronze medals withinside the IFSC World Cup, reaching various three global cup ratings in 2018 and 2019. Gibert is from Montpellier however grew up on an island referred to as Reunion which is a branch and place of France. She began out hiking at 10 years old. She is a scholar of mechanical engineering along with being an expert climber. It might normally take 5 years to complete the mechanical engineering route she is taking, but, due to her hiking, her route will take eight years to the whole. She is an energetic poster on Instagram and boasts over 73k fans. Her Instagram cope with is @fannygibert974
