Sport climbing and the arguments over bolts.

The first redpoint, 1975

According to Wikipedia, Kurt Albert made the first "Rotpunkt", or redpoint, in 1975 on the Streitberger Schild in the Frankenjura, Germany. He freed an aid route, the Adolf-Rott-Gedachtnis-Weg (graded V+/A1 as an aid climb). Albert painted a red X on fixed pitons he was avoiding, and a red dot at the foot of the route once he had climbed it without touching them; a fall meant starting again from the ground. The English word "redpoint" is a direct translation of the German. Gripped gives Albert's dates as 1954 to 2010.

Two details of the story differ between sources:

• The grade of the freed route: Wikipedia gives about 6a+ (5.10b); Advnture gives 5.10a.
• Where the red dot came from: Wikipedia says the idea came from the logo of a German maker of coffee pots and kettles; Advnture says it is thought to have come from a red dot on a coffee pot in the climbers' house.

Wikipedia says that by the 1980s the redpoint was linked mainly with sport climbing on bolted routes, and that traditional climbers took it up later.

France in the 1980s

Wikipedia gives Patrick Edlinger's dates as 15 June 1960 (born in Dax) to 16 November 2012. It says he became the first climber to onsight 7b+, on Captain Crochet at Buoux in 1982, and the second to onsight 7c, on La Polka des Ringards there. Jean-Paul Janssen's 1982 film "La Vie au Bout des Doigts" made him known internationally and was nominated for a Cesar in 1984, with "Opera Vertical" following in 1984. Wikipedia says Edlinger made the first free ascent of Ca Glisse au Pays des Merveilles at Buoux in 1983, one of the first 8a sport climbs in France.

The Buoux onsights are recorded inconsistently:

• Wikipedia's text dates La Polka des Ringards to 1982, but its own list of notable climbs gives 1980.
• A Swiss gallery blog, seen as a search summary, calls the Buoux climbs the first onsights ever at both 7b+ and 7c, where Wikipedia says Edlinger was second at 7c.

Germany, Australia and Britain: the grade race

ExplorersWeb (24 October 2025) says Wolfgang Gullich, born 24 October 1960 in Ludwigshafen, made three redpoints that were each described as a world first at their grade:

ExplorersWeb and Wikipedia say Gullich proposed a grade of XI for Action Directe, between 8c+ and 9a, and that later ascents settled the grade. ExplorersWeb also says he invented the campus board in 1988; no other source in our research confirms that. As published history: ExplorersWeb says Gullich crashed on the A9 near Ingolstadt after a radio interview on 29 August 1992 and died two days later, aged 31.

In Britain, Wikipedia says Jerry Moffatt made the first ascent of Liquid Ambar at Lower Pen Trwyn, Wales, in 1990, first graded 8c and raised after repeats; climbing-history.org gives 8c+. Ben Moon made the first free ascent of Hubble at Raven Tor, England, on 14 June 1990, according to Wikipedia.

Which was the first 9a?

• Action Directe (Gullich, 1991) is widely called the first 9a (ExplorersWeb; Wikipedia).
• Hubble (Moon, 1990) is called the first consensus 8c+ by Wikipedia, while the description of Moon's biography "Statement", seen as a search summary, says Hubble is widely recognised as the world's first 9a.

How these grades relate to other systems is on grading systems.

Smith Rock, Oregon

Gripped (25 May 2018) says Alan Watts first came to Smith Rock in 1975. Watts recalled that in 1979 the hardest grade there was 5.11b, almost every route was traditional, and the few bolts on face climbs had been placed on lead. Gripped says Chris Jones and Bill Ramsey made the first free ascent of Monkey Face in 1979, which Watts described as essentially a sport route, with some bolts placed on rappel and some on lead.

Wikipedia says Watts began using sport climbing ethics at Smith Rock in 1983 and that the park is "generally considered" the birthplace of modern American sport climbing, though it marks that claim as needing a citation. The date of Watts Tots (5.12b), a route the Bend Bulletin ties to the change, is given two ways: a Gripped photo caption shows Watts on its first attempt in 1982 and 57hours dates it to 1982, while the Bend Bulletin says it marked the change in American sport climbing in early 1983 (the last two seen as search summaries).

To Bolt or Not to Be, 1986

Wikipedia and Climbing magazine say Jean-Baptiste Tribout made the first ascent of To Bolt or Not to Be (5.14a, 8b+) at Smith Rock in November 1986, on a route bolted by Watts, and describe it as the first 5.14 in the United States. The details differ, all from search summaries:

• The day: 11 November 1986 (climbing-history.org) or 7 November 1986 (Gripped).
• Who established it: one state-park listing credits Watts himself.
• The first American: Mountain Project calls Scarface (Scott Franklin, 1988) the first 5.14 by an American.

The arguments over bolts

A Mountain Project forum history, seen as a search summary, calls the 1980s and early 1990s in places such as Yosemite and Joshua Tree the "bolt wars", in which traditionalists chopped bolts placed on rappel. That forum account, including its specific stories of routes being chopped, could not be confirmed. The fight had an earlier precedent in Yosemite in 1971, on Yosemite and the big walls, and an older one in Paul Preuss's 1911 piton dispute, on the birth of rock climbing.

The National Park Service's climbing history (2021) describes the mid-1980s to the early 1990s as a time of explosive growth in climbing, with shifts in style and ethics, more route development and bolted climbs, more impact on the land and debates over fixed anchors. It says several parks studied climbing's impact in the late 1980s and wrote climbing management plans in the 1990s. That story continues on access history.

Britain's bolt policy

In the UK, BMC documents seen as a search summary say the BMC's 1992 AGM unanimously agreed a national policy that backed protection placed by the leader, limited bolts to agreed quarries and sections of limestone crags, and opposed retro-bolting, with the lists kept by local area committees. Regional policies followed, such as Avon and Cheddar, agreed in 1994, which prohibits retro-bolting. A UKClimbing guest editorial and BMC documents, also seen as search summaries, record disputes continuing, for example a BMC South West vote over bolts at Carn Vellan in Cornwall in the 2000s. The BMC's current policy is described on access and ethics.

Bolts themselves, and the standards they are made to, are on bolts. The style of climbing as it is practised now is on sport climbing.