<div><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">I am interested in the history of rock climbing. Lately I tried to collect data about male and female first ascentionists to visualize climbing's progression over time for my personal <a href="http://climbstat.blogspot.com">blog Climbstat</a>. However, it turned out difficult to find a lot of data (particularly for female climbers). An exceptionis this really nice site <a href="http://stara.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/">http://stara.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/</a> from which I borrowed a lot of information.</span></font></div><div><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">It would be great if someone could point me to further sources, and help me correcting the existing data! I find it difficult to get information about, among others,</span></font></div><div><ul><li><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">first onsights and flashes (who was the first to onsight 8a or flash 8b+?)</span></font></li><li><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">first successful female and male bouldering ascents</span></font></li><li><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">early first female ascents (does anyone know who did the first female 7a?)</span></font></li><li><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size: 13.2px">'first' second ascents (who did the second 8c in the world?)</span></font></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-size: 13.2px; color: rgba(34, 34, 34, 1); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif">Here what I have found / done so far (hope the GIF animations are working here in the forum; the data can be accessed via the <a href="http://climbstat.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-ascentionists-over-time-male.html">blog post</a>). Any suggestions are highly appreciated:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 13.2px; color: rgba(34, 34, 34, 1); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><img href="https://www.8a.nu/images/forum/77015_637143442802208575_ascensionists_over_time.png" border="0"><img href="https://www.8a.nu/images/forum/77015_637143442802208575_ascensionists_over_time.png" border="0"><img href="https://www.8a.nu/images/forum/77015_637143442802208575_ascensionists_over_time.png" border="0"></div>
Sometimes a grade has been skipped. This leads to the negative jumps because I included also grades which have been skipped and only later climbed. And yes, 9b is included (1995, Akira, albeit unrepeated, by Fred Rouhling):
Greg Lowe did, for example, 7b+ in 1967 before anyone climbed 7b which was only achieved by John Gosling in 1970 according to http://stara.emontana.cz/climbing-milestones-from-6a-to-9c/.
Fred Rouhling rated Akira in 1995 with 9b. 9a+/9b has not been done before 2003 by Bernabè Fernandez with Chilam Balam (he proposed 9b+ but recent repeaters have suggested 9a+/9b)
https://www.8a.nu/forum/news/fred-rouhling
https://www.8a.nu/forum/editorial/more-personal-grades-of-chilam-balam
It is better visible in the GIF versions which unfortunately do not work here ( see http://climbstat.blogspot.com/2020/01/first-ascentionists-over-time-male.html )
History of Rock Climbing: Information About First and Second Ascents etc.?