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bobtheboulderer
Apr 29, 2002, 8:32 PM
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I was wondering if anybody knows of bouldering as an end to itself BEFORE John Gill started making it the end all be all of climbing movement?
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darkside
Apr 30, 2002, 8:42 AM
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To my knowledge it may well have started in Britain. In the dark of winter, some climbers started to bolt rocks onto the walls of their cellars to allow them to train year round. Between the brick walls and the first bolt-on holds, a training method was born. It may be these cellars with their low roofs that led to them being referenced as caves.
Of course I have no proof of this so maybe someone has the real reason.
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jmlangford
Apr 30, 2002, 9:20 PM
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jgill
Jun 2, 2002, 4:55 AM
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I wish I could give a definitive answer to that. When I formulated my ideas (chalk, dynamic moves, rating structure) in the mid and late 1950s I wasn't aware of anyone in this country who shared my perspective. But, I had a friend tell me in the early 1960s that families would picnic and climb the boulders in Fontainebleau. I got a film from the French Cultural Services in the early 1960s that showed a climber in shorts doing some bouldering moves as practise for a trip to the Alps. Then it showed him climbing routes there. I think the French used resin powder on footholds at this time.
The German magazine Rotpunkt of May, 2000 discusses the origins of bouldering in both Europe and America. Also, Hector Del Campo Allende(Desnivel) has written a book on bouldering that discusses developments on both continents.
But, I didn't know of any role-models in the climbing community in the 50s. Actually, my idea of bouldering came from imagining a sort of hybrid of Hermann Buhl, the great Austrian climber, and Albert Azaryan, the great Soviet still rings champion. Had Azaryan decided to display his athletic talent on small rocks, I would have been humiliated, and the young hot shots of today would still be playing catch up!
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climbjs
Jun 7, 2002, 9:14 PM
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John Gill is God!
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clymber
Jun 15, 2002, 3:10 PM
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I though it was just before the ice age when somecave man was getting chased by a saber tooth tiger..get yourhappy a$$ up that or be eaten...that would make me pull a V10
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malachi
Jun 25, 2002, 1:16 AM
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1889 is the date of the first definitive record of bouldering at Font.
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socialclimber
Jul 6, 2002, 11:18 AM
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There are a number of eratic boulders left behind by glaciers in Mt. Cook National Park that have been climbed on since at least the early 50's. I guess they wern't called boulder problems then.
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