Photo by Holly Webb
History of climbing
British climbing ‘started as a Victorian pursuit with Victorian gentlemen and the occasional lady going off to the Alps and getting guided up mountains’, says British Mountaineering Council chief executive Dave Turnbull. By the turn of the 20th century, small groups of students were scaling cliffs in the Peak District and beyond with whatever ropes they could find, he says. It wasn’t until the late 1970s, though, when technology made a much wider range of rock faces safe to climb, that the sport really started taking off around the world.
Although the practice of rock climbing was an important component of Victorian mountaineering in the Alps, it is generally thought that the sport of rock climbing began in the last quarter of the 19th century in at least three areas: Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony near Dresden, the north of England; including the Peak District and Lake District, and the Dolomites in Italy. Rock climbing evolved gradually from an alpine necessity to an athletic sport in its own right, making it imprudent to cite a primogenitor of the latter in each of these three locales.
In recent years that expansion has reached new heights in the UK. Just as cycling pedalled its way into the mainstream 15 years ago, climbing seems to be the latest outdoor pursuit attracting middle-class urbanites with a taste for fresh air and expensive gadgetry.
Rock climbing first appeared as a sport in the late-1800s. Early records describe climbers engaging in what is now referred to as bouldering, not as a separate discipline, but as a playful form of training for larger ascents. It was during this time that the words “bouldering” and “problem” first appeared in British climbing literature. Oscar Eckenstein was an early proponent of the activity in the British Isles. In the early 20th century, the Fontainebleau area of France established itself as a prominent climbing area, where some of the first dedicated bleausards (or “boulderers”) emerged. One of those athletes, Pierre Allain, invented the specialized shoe used for rock climbing.
For more information, see 1, 2, 3 and 4.
History of indoor climbing
The earliest artificial climbing walls were typically small concrete faces with protrusions made of medium-sized rocks for hand holds. Schurman Rock in Seattle, WA is believed to be the first artificial climbing structure in the United States, constructed in 1939.
The modern artificial climbing wall began in the UK. The first wall was created in 1964 by Don Robinson, a lecturer in Physical Education at the University of Leeds, by inserting pieces of rock into a corridor wall. He went on to found DR International Climbing Walls in 1975, of which he is still Chairman and Executive Director. The first commercial wall was built in Sheffield, traditionally England’s centre for climbing due to its proximity to the Peak District. The first indoor climbing gym in the U.S. was established by Vertical World in Seattle, WA in 1987.
Another source says:
Many people believe that Don Robinson was the first to build an indoor climbing structure, but this is a myth. The first indoor climbing wall was created at The Ullswater School in Penrith, England in 1960. Their climbing wall was constructed in the school’s new gym and used bricks and stone for hand and foot holds. This structure even had a top-rope bar.
In 1961, Colin Murtlock created an indoor climbing wall in the sports hall at Royal Wolverhampton School in West Midlands. He glued wooden slats to the wall and used them to train finger strength and stamina in the off-season.
In 1962, The Meadow Boys Club built a climbing wall in Nottingham, England to train personal skill levels, not just teach the fundamentals and safety rules of climbing. It was similar to the wall created at Ullswater School, but the new wall introduced aid climbing across the steel framed roof as well. They used an architect wall, and added bricks to various cavities to increase difficulty levels for training purposes.
Don Robinson created his iconic wall at the Leeds University in 1964. He had witnessed experienced climbers injuring themselves due to lack of training during the off-seasons, and decided to try to make a training tool to prevent this. He used glued-on rocks and stones on an existing brick wall to simulate movements that climbers would make outside. Climbers expanded on the original traverse to create their own routes and games to train. Inspired by the success of his wall, he went on to create the DR Climbing Wall company in the mid 70’s.
For more information see 1 and 2.
A growing sport
The indoor rock climbing industry has exploded over the last 20 years, and new gyms are opening every day. Youth competitive climbing teams are becoming a fun alternative to traditional team sports for children. Indoor Rock Climbing will be an official Olympic sport in 2020, which will only create more demand for the indoor climbing experience. Climbing gyms started as a way to train during off-seasons for outdoor climbers, but have evolved into so much more.
In the north of England and Ireland, Awesome Walls, the biggest, and for a long time the only, independent climbing wall chain, is continuing to expand. Founder Dave Douglas started in Liverpool in 1998 and didn’t open his second centre in Stockport until 2007. But the next ones followed rapidly: Stoke-on-Trent in 2010 and franchises in Dublin and Cork in 2012 and 2014. A £1m wall opened in Sheffield, the UK’s climbing capital, in 2013 and customers increased 30% in its first year.
‘If you were born in a city, grew up in a city, went to university in a city, and live and work in a city, then going to do something like climbing or mountaineering is quite exotic really,’ says Climb magazine editor David Pickford.
But it’s often not the great outdoors itself that’s luring new climbers. Indoors in Bermondsey, south London, pretty much as far away from weather-beaten rock faces as it is possible to be, leggings-clad twenty and thirtysomethings hang out in clusters as they wait their turn to climb three to four metres up various coloured plastic hand and footholds without ropes. The Arch Climbing Wall is attracting around 500 customers a day to its two bouldering centres, up from 300 a year ago, according to 33-year-old director Fred Stone, who started the business with more than £100,000 of his own money in 2007.
There are now around 280 climbing walls in the BMC’s Climbing Wall Directory, up from 200 in 2008. Dave Douglas thinks the sector is close to saturation point. ‘Obviously the industry’s growing, but not at the rate climbing walls are growing,’ he argues. ‘You might lose 30% of your trade to a new wall 10 miles down the road.’
Stone disagrees: ‘There’s a massive misconception in the climbing industry, which is that’s there’s a finite pool of customers. Whereas it’s the opposite really … a new wall creates new customers.’
Debates aside, everyone can agree on one thing. ‘Indoor climbing walls are the driving force for the rest of the climbing industry,’ Stone says. ‘We’re selling shoes to people who have never climbed outdoors, who have got no interest in climbing outdoors.’
Sport climbing is scheduled to make its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and was previously tested at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.
In September 2015, sport climbing was included in a shortlist along with baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, and karate to be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics; and in June 2016, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that they would support the proposal to include all of the shortlisted sports in the 2020 Games. Finally, on August 3, 2016, all five sports (counting baseball and softball together as one sport) were approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program.
The proposed format for Olympic sport climbing will require participants to compete in all three disciplines – lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering – an approach that has been widely criticized by potential competitors and followers of the sport. However, the format has been adopted by the International Federation of Sports Climbing, who has already celebrated worldwide competitions with the Olympic format in 2018.
Technology is starting to change the indoor climbing world. The TruBlu Autobelay impacted the industry in a major way, allowing people to climb top-rope routes without a partner. Recently, the Augmented Climbing Wall was released and could change the way gyms work entirely. According to the website, the “Augmented Climbing Wall combines projected graphics and proprietary body tracking to create interactive games and training applications.” This will allow numerous routes to be created on smaller spaces and give feedback to help you with your climbing technique.
Climbing gyms have come a long way since their humble beginnings. They started as a way for seasoned climbers to train and have become a place to exercise and meet people. Thousands of people visit climbing gyms every day, from professionals to newbies, and it will be interesting to see how the industry adapts and changes with emerging technology and growing demand.
Where is climbing headed next? Climbing gyms have come a long way since their humble beginnings. They started as a way for seasoned climbers to train and have become a place to exercise and meet people. Thousands of people visit climbing gyms every day, from professionals to newbies, and it will be interesting to see how the industry adapts and changes with emerging technology and growing demand.
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