THE HISTORY OF TRAINING FOR CLIMBING
From what I can tell, there is zero distinction between climbing mountains and climbing rocks.  It’s NOT like comparing running to swimming.  Climbing is climbing; it’s going up (and sometimes sideways).  Using strength, power, technique and the whole while struggling against the psychological twist of possibly falling off to an unforgiving landing zone.

Climbing is the act of using hands and feet to defy gravity and ascend a steep object.

However, it’s important to note that we use different tools for each style and trade. For example: A boulder mat, a rope, ice tools and crampons and we also use different techniques for different problems, but the underlying PRINCIPLE of climbing is all the same.  Going up.  In fact, we use all the same muscles and it’s easy to see that climbing a tree is no different than climbing a building, than climbing a boulder, than scaling a cliff, or ascending a mountain. It’s all climbing, or as some purists call it, vertical crawling.

So this brings us back to the topic of this article, “The history of training for climbing”. 

Depending on when you picked up our wonderful activity will likely determine what you know about its history.  Some climbers think training all started with John Bachar and John Long in the early 1970’s.  Or maybe was it Wolfgang Gullich and Lynn Hill in the 1980’s.  It would even seem possible that Fredric Nicole reinvented bouldering in the mid 1990’s and back then, many people considered bouldering only training for climbing, but Fred trained for bouldering.  I often hear that the Grandfather of modern bouldering is John Gill who began his courtship with the blocks in the 1950’s, but this too is starting much too late.  John was (and still is) a hero to many of us, but he did not invent the art of bouldering nor training for bouldering.  Like Chris Sharma, John merely took them to higher places.

Nobody can say for sure when training for climbing began.  I like to think that climbing is training and therefore we’ve been preparing ourselves for millions of years.  But when did climbing get so organized that we decided to keep track of our feats and ascents?  Obviously, this began in the mountains (more importantly, the highest mountains) and worked its way through the system until we started cleaning, climbing, naming and grading every little stone bigger than our breadbox.

According to local legends Alpinists from Paris wandered through the magical forests of Fontainebleau as early as 1874 in search of proper training grounds for their mountain climbing.  They scrambled over the sandstone rocks mastering techniques and developing new ones. It is certainly possible that this was the first time in history that training for climbing was documented and thus the art of bouldering, as we know it today was born.

In 1880 a burly gymnast by the name of Oscar Eckenstein took to the rocks of Great Britain to test his metal.  Apparently Oscar was capable of a one-arm-chin-up and applied his strength to the boulders of the Lake District.  As the story goes, he managed to ascend blocks that other talented climbers could not repeat.  John Gill states on his website that this was “evidence of a more sophisticated competitive environment, eclipsing the role of bouldering as merely training for the mountains.  Eckenstein may well have been the first true master of the sport; a climber who not only sets new standards of difficulty, but contributes in a substantial way to the evolving philosophy and practice of bouldering.”

Even in Australia rock climbing was taking flight.  Between 1920 and 1930 Albert Salmon had made numerous first ascents of short cliffs and rocks near Brisbane and normally did so without ropes or protection.  Salmon was one of the original free soloists before the term was coined.

By the 1930’s and 40’s a small group of climbers led by Pierre Allain took to the boulders of Fontainebleau and began to separate their style from the alpinists.  They realized that bouldering was not just training for other forms of climbing, but that this was a style all on its own and Font was the place to develop it.  However, the sandstone blocks were still used as a training ground.

By 1947 Fred Bernik had designed the famous Font “circuits” of the forest.  These were created as training exercises for the alpine environment.  It was around this time that other countries were seeing the benefits of rock scrambling and bouldering to make them more efficient climbers, so they too began to experiment with training practices.  The small cliffs of England became the stepping-stones for the big cliffs and the big cliffs were stones for the mountains.  A great example of this theory was Joe Brown and his Peak District exploits.  Training builds strength, power and endurance, all the things necessary to ease the pain of climbing’s hardships.

It was during this time that a climber from London, England established a 1,000 ft traverse along the cliffs of Harrison Rocks.  Training for climbing was quickly evolving.

In the early 1950’s a talented and bright-eyed John Gill, (the gymnast, the mathematician, the legend) threw himself at the boulders of America with chalk on his hands and a swing in his step.  John single handedly initiated the bouldering movement in the USA.  He applied his gymnastics background to the short blocks and steep cliffs of the South-East and the Mid-West.  Gill showed the world what true dynamic movement was all about and how it could elevate the standards of free climbing.  He even invented a separate grading system and specific training devices to increase his climbing specific power.  John was renowned for his feats of strength, his front levers, and even his one arm front levers.  When Gill took up climbing he was a 140lbs – during his marvelous climbing career, John packed on over 40 pounds of pure muscle and made the most demanding rocks appear effortless.

When the Alpine Journal published his essay “The Art of Bouldering” in 1969 there were already several other climbers who embraced this practice.  Pat Ament, Pete Cleveland and Jim Holloway to name a few.   Bouldering and climbing for difficulty was officially set in stone as a universal activity.

Gymnastics and climbing have always had an indirect association.  The use of an inverted wooden ladder as exercise can be traced as far back as the 1700’s.  Teachers used these for physical education class. Both climbing on top without the use of hands to increase balance and core, (not unlike the slack line today) as well as the climbing on the underside without feet, pulling up, matching hands and ascending the ladder without fear.

Rope climbing was also a major apparatus for training the upper body and still continues as a competitive sport today.  Try climbing an eight-meter rope, from the sitting down position, without feet in 7 seconds.  Campusing was not invented by the late Wolfgang Gullich, nor was the Bachar ladder invented by John Bachar, they merely re-developed these concepts and were well known faces who exposed these tools to the masses of climbers looking to make leaps in their personal quest for excellence.  These men WERE however – the masters.  In other words, use these things and send your project, just watch-out for tendonitis.

Although some practices have come and gone, there is no denying that John Bachar set the standard for both style and difficulty, often free soloing 5.11 in the mid 1970’s, a feat that was beyond the grasp of any other climber on earth.  Bachar was determined to be great and used strength training to accomplish his goals.  His influence extended to each generation after, most notably to Wolfgang Gullich and Ben Moon who used sport specific training for their most cutting edge rock climbs and first ascents.  After endless sessions in the “school room” (a training heaven for the worlds elite) Ben Moon climbed Hubble the world’s first 5.14c (8c+).

Not long after, came Action Direct, one of Wolfgang’s visionary creations.  At 5.14d (9a) Action Direct set the bar higher than anyone could have known.  Still 17 years later their hard work and strength training proved legendary.  Action Direct has only seen 10 repeats, which is quite astounding when you think about it.  Many top climbers have trained rigorously to achieve the unthinkable.  Perhaps the best known training practice was the “campus board” a slightly overhanging board with a series of horizontal wood strips simulating rock ledges, which were climbed up and down without the help of feet, and sometimes with only one or two fingers for purchase.  This device can separates the men from the boys.  Raw fire power and vice grip strength.

Today, many climbers have taken what they learned and have applied it to modern day rock climbs. Standards continue to soar.  Many of the worlds elite, only use small overhanging climbing walls known as a “Woody” to prepare for their most challenging and enduring climbs and in some cases nothing more than a few wooden edges hung over a doorway. In combination with weights, good nutrition, cardio workouts and obviously climbing on real rocks outside as much as humanly possible, one can develop all the power they need to achieve their true potential. Remember, all climbing is training, but not all training is climbing.  Lifting weights, heavy finger rolls and mental visualization are all things that can be done to elevate your performance.  Strength builds confidence.  The end.

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Ah, finally the day has come at last, where WE (that’s you and me) can write and people can read without the strangle grip of an inpatient editor who wants to chop up what you wrote and re-write it themsevles and send you fifty bucks on your merry way.  For better or for worse  (I’m an optimist) today is a world of self publishing and if it’s any good people will read it.

So go ahead and write, dribble, say anything and everything, fuck it all up, spell evryting rong and don’t be shy to say what you want, the editors can’t stop you now man.  Nobody can.

Okay – so in regards to this short story essay thingy, well by no means have I attempted to cover every aspect of training for climbing in this article, it’s obviously not a how to for dummies, it’s a short history lesson.  Nor have I covered each and every key contributor to this amazing art.  I merely took what I knew from 12 years of climbing, did a tad bit of research and wrote it all down in a “Cole’s Notes Version” for the quick once over.  I hope you have enjoyed at least some of it, I certainly enjoyed writing it and if you have any comments to make, tell a friend because we don’t want to hear them.  joke.  Also, if you have anything important I may have missed to add, feel free to huck it all down, the more information the better.  Have a nice day!