Top-10 climber ever

what about Fred Rouhling?

what about Fred Rouhling?

Honestly, could one imagine a list of the top ten climbers ever? This is such a diverse subject to announce ten people the best. It would make more sense if it was the best at bouldering or route climbing, etc., but only one division for ten of the worlds best?                                               -Senya Iaryguine

Monkeys Geckos Lizards Ants Poison Ivy Spiders Sloths Snakes Muir Cats Lynn Hill

hey meesh! what about me! i don't quite know how to put this but...i'm kind of a big deal. i'm very important. i have many important leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany! i've also climbed 8 feet! above protection one time!

tori allen, nate gold, obe.....

The big problem with ranking the best climber ever is that it covers Traditional, Sport, Bouldering and even big-wall and alpine?! Rank the climbers by the "Type of Climbing" or rank them by how they performed in all types! Hill must take the all round crown! Bouldering: Nicole Sport: Too many Trad: No idea???

nate gold and obe?? are you kidding?

There's so many different ways this could go down. So many different disciplines... influence, accomplishments, diversity. They all play a part. And I won't presume that I even know all of the climbers in the world who deserve a mention. But it seems that if I've heard of them, not just in passing, but mentioned over and over again, there's a reason. I don't even have to mention the one's that enter most of our minds. And there's probably more than 10. I think lists of each discipline (bouldering, sport, trad, big wall, solo, ice, aid, mountaineer) would be appropriate. Certainly any climber can receive honors in more than one category, but it would take a committee to decide which particulars deserve more "points", i.e. who is "better": the strongest climber, physically, ever (but only in, say sport climbing), or the more prolific, well rounded climber (climbing slightly less difficult routes, but across all disciplines), or even the climber putting up the most hard FA's, making them more proactive in the sport itself, more "creative", shall we say? How can you say a 9A boulderer who just never had an interest in roping up (but could probably send 8c routes) is less worthy than any roped climber? Who deserves more honor?  From my personal witnessing, no one has made routes and boulders I struggled up look easier than Mike Reardon and John Bachar, so I can only imagine that the other intensely strong free soloists like Macleod do the same, and this mental and physical strength is worthy of mention, even if we are reserved in our glorification of such a "dangerous" version of our passion. Sharma has been the most prolific developer THAT I KNOW OF in my generation. Hard routes, boulder problems, quietly running up hard trad routes in the desert, and deep water soloing at an intensely difficult level for a sustained period of time makes it hard to argue he's up there somewhere. But there are others who have done it longer who just haven't been in every video on the shelf, and younger faces like Ethan Pringle and Daniel Woods putting those old benchmark projects to bed with the quickness, with whom only time and expereince set them apart from those we already know.  Of course, can't forget that Lynn Hill has done more difficult climbs in all disciplines than any other woman I know of. She gets a seat for sure. And as you can see, I know no ice climbers or mountaineers, but have respect for the skill necessary to perform those feats just as well, but how do we compare. Whose the better athlete, Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan.... they both play with a ball, and try to put it in a hole, it's the same right? This is a tough game, but there is a lot of respect to be given to a lot more than 10 people. Split it up and everyone will be able to be a lot more agreeable I think...  Cool to think about though!

this would be easier (and by easier I mean far less hilariously improbable) if you split the "rankings" into decades.  that way you can eliminate cross-decade comparisons and  look at relative impact on the sport.  that is, it is impossible for, say, Dave Graham or Dani Andrada to compare to John Gill or Wolfgang Gullich.  sure, they can climb the same lines and even put up harder routes, but they live in a different historical moment for climbing that doesn't allow the same 'type' of bedrock -ground floor - impact.

Bad question. Jet set point of vue, no intererest It could be much more interesting to (try to) know, who was the most (one of the ) influencing climber in the the "modern era of free clibming" then you have a good chance to find/ John Bachar. Remember, ALL the climbers of the world have done a pilgrimage in Cam 4 in the late seventies and early eaghties. And then they copy (and improve) a model founded in the USA. Free climbing, solo, training etc....  

Fred Beckey? Voytek Kurtka? Messener? Viesturs? Doug Scott? Greg Collins? Hammish MacInnes... Come on guys...

Umm whomever mentioned the nose having yet to be repeated open a magazine its been repeated and in a day.  Obe...i mean no disrespect to the man he is strong but nowhere close to the rest of these mutantly strong people this list is like asking what are the ten best climbs in the world cant be answered

just go out climbing!

This list must be segmented And i prefer a HALL OF FAME LIST. I will take a shoot at: Alpine (no ranking): The Everest explorers not just the FA team but all of them Whymper Bonatti Cassin Profit Marsigny Kurtyka Kokuska Messner Fowler Scott Whillams Boavin

In several years, one name will easily top this list IMO.  Adam Ondra.  Expect him eventually to onsight 9a+.  God knows what he may one day send. 

Currently, he seems to be dispatching anything he touches and only 15 years of age! It will be great to see what he can accomplish in the next decade for sure!

I think it might be impossible to fit in only ten climbers to the list, so much has been done over the years, and there has been/still are a lot of diffrent climbers raiseing the bars in diffrent ways. But I think that defenetly Dave Macleod should be on the list. And don't forget Jean - Baptiste Tribout, hes been a top climber for so long time now hes defenetly one of the pionners.

This subject is four years old, a lot has changed since then.