NEW MEMBER OFFER!

Get 40% off KAYA PRO, the ultimate climber’s toolkit

GET TICKETS NOW

GET MORE WITH OUTSIDE+

Enjoy 40% off KAYA PRO, the ultimate climber’s toolkit

UPGRADE TODAY

Bouldering

Climbers invented bouldering as a training tool for mountaineering and traditional rock climbing, beginning on the gritstone outcrops of the United Kingdom and on the sandstone boulders of Fontainebleau, France, with some of the earliest forays onto the boulders of Font coming as far back as the 1870s.

In the United States, bouldering was seen, at best, as “practice climbing” until the gymnast John Gill applied the strength and skills he’d cultivated as a gymnast to pursue and evolve bouldering as its own pursuit, beginning in the 1950s. Pushing the sport basically on his own, Gill proposed a new bouldering grading scale (B1 through B3), and in the 1960s and 1970s established problems that would today be V10 (i.e., very difficult) on the modern bouldering scale, the “V Scale.”

Now, bouldering is a sport of its own—gaining popularity in indoor and outdoor environments all over the world. It’s the simplest, easiest-to-learn and to-practice form of climbing: All you need is rock shoes, a chalk bag or chalk pot, a toothbrush for cleaning the holds, some crashpads, and friends to spot you. In bouldering, climbers tackle boulder “problems,” usually five to 20 feet tall, but in some cases higher (this is called “highball bouldering”). The current most difficult boulder problems are given 9A on the French scale or V17 on the V Scale, and involve wildly dynamic moves on minuscule holds up overhanging panels of rock.

Culture

Adam Ondra: The Future of Climbing

Adam Ondra is arguably the best climber in the world— he flashes 5.14d, has more 5.15c ticks than anyone, and has topped the podium in a half-dozen international competitions. Ondra represents the potential of a new generation born to climbing parents and raised in gyms. his career is a case study in what happens when enormous talent and desire find their life’s purpose at an early age.

Published
Travel

Tepui-Top Bouldering in Venezuela

When the pursuit of virgin rock led seven climbers to Venezuela, they found what they came for—first ascents and lifetimes of untouched boulders—but they also learned lessons they’ll never forget.

Published
Back Next