With the Olympics coming up and the outdoor climbing season in full swing, I decided to take a look at some of the top rock climber in the world and answer the question: who amongst them is the best?
The best rock climbers in the world include:
- Stefano Ghisolfi
- Shauna Coxsey
- Rishat Khaibullin
- Jakob Schubert
- Ashima Shiraishi
- Sebastian Bouin
- Tomoa Narasaki
- Janja Garnbredt
- Alex Megos
- Adam Ondra
The above list is based on a variety of factors that attempts to balance the indoor and outdoor accolades of these athletes. I’ve taken their achievements over the entire span of their careers, with more weight being lent towards the more recent achievements of these athletes (which is why Chris Sharma is notably absent from this list. Sorry, Chris). I’ve tried to balance lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing all together to come up with the answer as to who the best overall climber is.
One thing to note: because of the Corona virus, there has been very little going on in the climbing world in 2020. Therefore, most of the competition stats and ascents I use are dated to 2019 or earlier.
Disagree with my ranking? Great! Shoot me an email and I would love to hear your reasoning or to be told about any undercover crushers that I overlooked.
The 10 Best Climbers in the World
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at who the best climbers in the world are.
10: Stefano Ghisolfi
Kicking off the list at #10 is the Italian sport and competition climber, Stefano Ghisolfi. Ghisolfi is a standout for his outdoor accolades, with a rap sheet that includes:
- Being one of only five people to ever redpoint 5.15c (9b+) with his ascent of Perfecto Mundo
- Climbing 11 other 5.15 routes, including one first ascent
- Onsighting the 5.14b (8c) route Fish Eye
- Sendig five V14 (8B) bouldering routes
In a world of indoor competitors and artificial holds, Ghisolfi remains an outdoor purist with a talent for projecting hard climbs. His single-pitch sport resume is up there with some of the best climbers in history, and his ability to also send hard boulder problems marks him as a true crusher.
Where Ghisolfi lacks a little bit is on the competition scene. His failure to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics is a bit of a sore spot on his resume, despite the fact that he won 9 lead World Cup medals between 2016 and 2018. If Ghisolfi can ever figure out the competition scene, it could easily vault him into a top-5 placement on this list; even without that, though, he remains one of the best climbers of this generation.
9: Shauna Coxsey
Shauna Coxsey has come a long way from the 4-year-old girl who saw a video of Catherine Destiville climbing while on vacation in Mali. A bouldering specialist who’s now turned her attention towards the competition scene, Coxsey is one of a handful of women who has a real shot at winning gold in the Tokyo Olympics.
Coxsey climbed her first V13 boulder problem at age 20; one year later, she became only the third woman to ever climb V14 (8B), with her ascent of New Baseline. In the 2019 Olympic Qualifiers in Hachioji, Coxsey put in a career performance and placed third in the overall . Now, with an entire extra season to work on her lead and speed climbing, expect to see Coxsey gunning for first place at the Olympics.
Coxsey is defined by her explosive style and insane strength. These skills have lent themselves well towards the transition into speed climbing. Additionally, her outdoor experience means that she can hold her own on the lead routes, too.
8: Rishat Khaibullin
I know, I know, I know.
For anyone who considers themselves to be a rock-climbing purist, I’ve just committed a cardinal sin. Including a ~speed climber~ on this list? Do I have no respect for my sport? Do I care at all about the perseverance of climbing? What would Royal Robbins think?
The thing is, Rishat Khaibullin isn’t a speed climber. He’s a sport climber who happens to be able to be incredibly good at speed climbing. Raised by his father (a traditionalist mountaineer) in Kazakhstan (about 200km away from the nearest speed wall), Khaibullin is a phenomenally well-rounded climber who just happens to be one of the fastest speedsters in the world.
With a short, compact frame, good route-reading skills, and strength for days, Khaibullin is built to excel at all three disciplines. He’s still learning the intricacies of competition-style bouldering, and his endurance could use some work, but the 24-year-old has plenty of time to grow. His finger strength is up there with the best in the world, surpassing even that of the #1 climber on this list.
After placing 3rd in the Hachioji qualifiers, Khaibullin established himself as one of the primary competitors on the Olympic circuit. He’s undoubtedly the best speed climber who qualified for the Olympics, with a personal best time that’s just 0.4 seconds shy of the world record. He’s also an experienced lead climber, and his bouldering has seen massive improvements in the last couple of years.
Now, Rishat has fewer accolades than just about every climber on this list (I could only find a mention of him climbing up to 8b), which does make him a bit of a dark horse. If you follow the competition climbing scene, though, this kid passes the eye test with flying colours. There’s no denying that he has a good shot at medalling in Hachioji, which automatically makes him one of the best in the world.
Although the traditionalists might not like it, there’s no denying the Rishat Khaibullin is one of the best climbers on the planet today.
7: Jakob Schubert
Despite the fact that Jakob Schubert, age 29, should be seeing signs of physical decline, this long-time climbing icon actually seems to be entering the prime of his career.
2019 was a standout year for Schubert. He showed up big-time on the competition circuit, putting on a stellar performance to finish second in Hachioji and write himself a one-way ticket to Tokyo. After that, he flew to Cataluña and successfully became the fifth person to ever climb 5.15c (9b+) with his ascent of Perfecto Mundo. In previous years, he’s also onsighted as hard as 5.15d (8a) and bouldered up to V15.
One of the most impressive things about Schubert is his ability to stay at the top of the game for so long. He’s been sending hard routes and winning competitions since he was a teenager, and he shows no sign of slowing down. A wily vet of over a hundred climbing competitions, look out for Schubert to be a medal favourite in Tokyo.
6: Ashima Shiraishi
I agonized over where to include Ashima on this list, especially when trying to compare her to other female climbers like Akiyo Noguchi or Shauna Coxey. In the end, I settled over putting Ashima just outside of the top 5 based off of the simple and terrifying fact that her careers barely even started.
I mean, think about it. Although she’s been in the public eye for so long thanks to the Reel Rock film Young Guns, she’s still only 19 years old. That makes her the youngest climber on this list, and means that she’s got lots of room to grow in the future.
One of the difficulties ranking Ashima on this list was her lack of competition experience. At age 19, she didn’t join the World Cup circuit in 2019, and it doesn’t seem that she’s gunning for an Olympic placement. She only had competed once in 2019: the USA open championships, which she won bouldering and placed second in lead. Considering she competed against (and beat) Olympic climber Brooke Raboutou, I’m comfortable saying that Ashima is a force to be reckoned with on the competition circuit.
Where her talent really lies, however, is outdoors. She’s the youngest person to ever climb 5.14d/5.15a, and the second female to ever do so. She has 2 V15 boulder problems to her name, as well as 3 V14’s and a V12 flash.
Considering that Ashima is still only 19, expect her to be a dominant force on the climbing circuit for years to come. Her flexibility and creativity compensate for her lack of height, she’s got crazy finger strength, and (if you ask me), she’s nowhere near her prime.
5: Sebastien Bouin
If you want to identify which of your friends are amateurs, show them this list and wait for them to say ‘Who?’ when they get to #5. If they don’t know Seb Bouin, they may be a punter.
All jokes aside, Seb Bouin has more than earned his nickname as the Undercover Crusher. Coming out of the small municipality of Draguignan, France, and taking no part in the competition scene, Bouin has only one goal when it comes to his climbing: find the hardest single-pitch sport routes and crush them. In the past 5 years, he has succeeded in doing so.
After securing the third-ever ascent of Chilam Balam 5.15b (9b), Seb disappeared for a couple of years before roaring back onto the climbing scene. 2019 was by far the best year of his life, and it may be one of the best climbing years in recent history. Bouin tagged 7 routes that were 5.15a or harder, four of which were 5.15b. These routes included:
- The first repeat of Mamichula 5.15b, which Adam Ondra describes as a ‘hard’ 5.15b
- The first ascents of Dream and La Rage D’Adam
- The first repeat of Move, 5.15b/c
What sets Seb Bouin apart from other climbers (aside from his crazy strength), is his pure tenacity and bravery. No other climber in the world has dared to make the trip to Flatlanger cave and dip their hands in Ondra’s sandbox; Bouin not only did it, but he also hinted that he might someday try his luck on the mega-project Silence.
He doesn’t have the attention of the mainstream media, nor does he have any indoor climbing accolades, but the 26-year-old Bouin is one of the best sport climbers in the world today.
4: Tomoa Narasaki
On the complete opposite end of Seb Bouin is Tomoa Narasaki.
Really, the contrast between these two climbers illustrates just how hard it is to make a list like this one. The difference between Narasaki and Bouin couldn’t be starker. While Seb Bouin has never climbed in a competition in his life, Tomoa Narasaki has never done anything but indoor climbing. When it comes to indoor climbing, though, Tomoa is the best.
Using his patented explosive style, Tomoa has propelled himself to 17 world-cup boulder medals in the past 4 years and three bouldering world championships. His career-defining performance, however — and the one that earned him the #4 spot on this list — was in Hachioji.
Competing in the first Olympic qualifier, and the most important competition of his life to date, Tomoa didn’t just win; he dominated. He was flashing routes that some of the best climbers in the world, including Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra, couldn’t even top. If you watch the entire event, it seems that Tomoa is on another planet from all the other climbers. His strength, route-reading, and pure power are simply on a different tier.
Furthermore, his explosiveness translates well to speed climbing, where Tomoa’s shown massive improvements over the last year. Given that he now has 12 more months to refine his speed technique and nail down his endurance for lead climbing, the 24-year-old climber could well be a gold-medal favourite heading into Tokyo.
3: Janja Garnbredt
Janja Garnbredt is the most dominant competition climber in history. Full stop, period, no footnote attached — there has never been anyone as dominant as Janja.
To show just how crazy ahead of everyone else she is, I’ll refer to one stat: since 2015 when she turned 16, she’s competed in 31 Lead World Cup events. Out of those 31 events, she’s missed the podium only four times. That’s compared to 15 gold medals, which are complimented by another 11 gold medals (out of 14 medals total) in World Cup bouldering events.
Watching Janja climb is like watching someone from an entirely different planet. She’s so much stronger, so much more athletic than anyone else on the field, that it hardly seems fair to have her on the same routes.
She was the second person to ever win a Bouldering and Lead World Cup in the same year. She then repeated the feat in 2019 where she won the Lead, Bouldering, and Combined world championships in the sports first-ever clean sweep.
There’s really nothing else much to say. Janja is the best competition climber in the history of the sport. The only thing keeping her away from the top of this list is that she’s not as accomplished in outdoor climbing. She still has some impressive accolades, including two 5.14d (9a) ascents and one 5.13d (8b) flash, but I would love to see her venture into 5.15 territory in the near future. If she did, she could very well cement herself as one of the best climbers in history.
2: Alex Megos
When I first found out that my then-celebrity-crush Margo Hayes was in a relationship, I was gutted. When I found out that she was seeing Alex Megos, though, I realized there was nothing to be upset about, because there was no way I could ever compete with this guy.
Alex Megos is one of the best outdoor climbers, ever. He’s the first person to ever flash 5.14d (which he’s done twice), and the third person to ever climb 5.15c with his first ascent of Perfecto Mundo. What’s even crazier, though, is the pure volume of hard ascents that he has to his name. In Rotpunkt, Megos states that he’s climbed twenty-five hundred routes that are graded 5.13b (8a) or harder.
In addition to that, Megos has notched a number or boulder ascents in the V14-V16 range. He’s no slouch on the competition scene either, bagging five medals in three years. It should be noted, though, that he doesn’t compete very often.
With the Olympics coming up, however, Megos has turned his attention more towards plastic holds. He was one of the 8 climbers to qualify at Hachioji, and he remains one of my favourites to medal in 2021. His incredible lead climbing acumen (I would call him the second-best lead climber in the world), insane strength, and compact frame mean that he has the talent to excel at all three disciplines.
1: Adam Ondra
When you start a top 10 list and the only ranking that’s easy to determine is your #1 spot, you know you’re dealing with a dominant force. When it comes to climbing, Adam Ondra is that dominant force.
Ondra is not just the best; he’s the best by such a wide margin that it’s actually insane. He’s a generational talent, a once-in-a-lifetime phenom, and undoubtedly one of the best climbers in history. Some of his achievements include:
- First climber to ever climb 5.15c (9b+) with his ascent of La Dura Dura
- Only climber in the world to send multiple 5.15c routes (La Dura Dura, Change)
- First and only climber to ever send 5.15d (9c) with Silence
- First and only climber to flash 5.15a (9a+) with Super Crackinette
- First and only climber (as far as I can tell) to flash a V14 boulder problem with Jade
- Second ascent of The Dawn Wall 5.14d, the hardest big wall climb in the world
- First person to win a boulder and lead world championship in the same year
- Most 5.15 ascents of any climber in history
- Most 5.15 FA’s of any climber in history
- Seventh most ascents of hard boulder problems (graded V15 or higher)
- Fifth most FA’s of hard boulder problems
- 20 lead World Cup medals, 14 of which are gold
- 12 bouldering World Cup medals, 4 of which are gold
That’s a lot of stuff, right? Want to hear the really impressive part?
That’s the abridged version. I could legitimately write and entire new article about Adam Ondra’s accomplishments and not be starved for content. Since he was 11 years old, Ondra has been climbing on a world-class level. At 26, he remains the undisputed best climber in the world.
Ondra has earned that title by being among the best at every single discipline that climbing has to offer. In terms of variety, he’s insanely well-rounded. While other climbers like Tomoa Narasaki, Ashima Shiraishi, and Stefano Ghisolfi have a speciality, Ondra is simply good at everything.
He climbs the hardest sport climbs in the world. He has sent some of the hardest boulder problems in the world. He’s the third person to ever climb The Dawn Wall, which he did despite having almost no big wall experience. He sent Belly Full of Bad Berries, an infamously difficult offwidth climb, on his second attempt. There’s simply no one in the sport — and maybe no one in history — who’s been as well-rounded as Ondra is.
Curiously, Ondra doesn’t seem like he should be the best climber. He doesn’t have the best finger strength, or the most explosive style, or the strongest body. Instead, he sets himself apart using a combination of intelligent route-reading, good footwork, and pure perseverance.
If you want to see just how good Adam Ondra is compared to everyone else, I would recommend two videos:
- The 2019 lead World Cup in Kranj. Pay attention to holds 12 and 30, which cause some of the best climbers in the world (Jakob Schubert and Alberto Gines-Lopez) to fall. Ondra basically treats these as rest holds.
- His ascent of Jade V14 (below). With Daniel Woods, the best boulderer in the world, watching, Ondra flashes the famed route and then shrugs it off as if it were nothing.