20 Historic Moments in Black Climbing History, from 1889 Until Now

This Black History Month, we’re looking back at the Black athletes who have helped push the sport of climbing forward.

From mountaineers to speed climbers, first ascensionists to Olympians, here are 20 times that Black climbers set new records, solved the impossible, achieved a generational feat of greatness, or challenged assumptions about what a climber looks like.

Our timeline traces all the way back to 1889, with the first ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and takes us right up to the present day. Step in and take a ride through history.

1889: Mwini Amani guides the first ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro

Mwini Amani was just 28 when he led the German Dr. Hans Meyer and Austrian Ludwig Purtscheller up the first ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341ft). Born in Pangani, a coastal town in modern-day Tanzania, Amani was a charismatic, resilient, and experienced traveler who had trekked as far east as Uganda. He spoke multiple dialects of Swahili and had what Meyer called “an iron constitution” and “great powers of endurance.” On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, Amani did the bulk of the work required to get Meyer and Purtscheller up the mountain; he handled all camp meals, collected firewood, carried the Europeans’ sleeping sacks, tent, and heavy clothing, slept between rock crevices instead of in an insulated tent, and survived below-freezing temperatures in ragged pants and slippers.

Amani was not provided an ice axe or proper gear to trek beyond their high camp at 15,260 feet. But while Meyer and Purtscheller went on to claim the glory of the first ascent, it was Amani’s support, physical labor, and survival skills that brought the summit within reach. Today, the strategy of slowly acclimatizing via high camps is a standard feature of Kilimanjaro ascents.

Read about the fight for workforce equality on Kilimanjaro in Alpinist

1964: Charles Crenchaw summits the roof of North America

On July 9, 1964, just one week after the Civil Rights Act formally ended racial segregation in American public spaces, Charles Madison Crenchaw became the first Black mountaineer to summit Denali (20,310ft), the highest peak in North America. During World War II, Crenchaw served in the U.S. Air Force as a flight engineer, and after his service, he earned a doctoral degree in engineering from the University of Chicago and moved to the Pacific Northwest to work on the Apollo space program.

In his spare time, he tackled Seattle’s biggest mountains, including Mount Rainier and Mount Baker. Eventually, he accepted an invitation from his fellow Seattle Mountaineers members to climb Denali along the Karstens Ridge. His successful ascent later inspired Expedition Denali, a nine-person team of African-American mountaineers who set out to climb Denali in 2013. But on summit day, the team was forced to turn around due to a thunderstorm.

Crenchaw went on to serve on the board of directors of the Mountaineers and the American Alpine Club. His accomplishments are featured in Mountaineer Magazine, the American Alpine Journal (1966, 1969, 1970, and 1973), and The Adventure Gap by James Edward Mills, who produced a documentary called An American Ascent about Expedition Denali.

Read more about Crenchaw from the U.S National Park Service, check out one of his journal entries from the 1964 Denali expedition, and watch An American Ascent online.

1950s: Charlie Hankey establishes cutting-edge routes on Table Mountain

In 1931, a group of Black South African mountaineers including Carl Fisher, ‘Binder’ Petersen, Cecil Townshend, Henry Flowers, and Bill Steyn formed the Cape Province Mountain Club (CPMC) to support Black climbers that the white-only Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA) refused to consider. By the 1950s, Charlie Hankey was the CPMC’s leading climber, making several first ascents on Table Mountain, the 3,558-foot sandstone formation that rises above Cape Town.

In 1956, despite the formalization of Apartheid in South Africa, Hankey partnered up with MCSA member and white climber Barry Fletcher to establish Postern Buttress (19/5.10), one of the hardest routes in the Cape at the time.

Learn more about how Cape Province Mountain Club persevered during Apartheid and read Fletcher’s account of nearly falling 110 feet to his death on the first ascent of Postern.

1970s-1990s: Ed February puts up more than 500 first ascents throughout Africa

Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, Edmund “Ed” February was the world’s best-known Black climber. Born in Cape Town in 1955, seven years into South Africa’s 46-year formal Apartheid, February grew up attending student riots and leading walk-outs over racist history lessons. At 16, he joined the Cape Province Mountain Club but struggled to find partners, and spent many years relying on his brother to belay him.

In the 1970s, February took on a protégé: a young white climber Andy de Klerk. He mentored him through more than 500 first ascents together. When February visited Yosemite Valley in the 1980s, he was the first Black person on record to aid climb Half Dome’s Regular Northwest Face (5.9 C1; 2,200ft) and the Nose (5.9 C2; 3,000ft) of El Cap.

Throughout his life, February established new routes across continental Africa, appeared in two BBC documentaries, and climbed extensively in Europe and North America. In 1996, February dropped out of the eventually disastrous South Africa Mount Everest expedition, citing a lack of transparency from the group leader. After earning a doctoral degree in botany, February joined the University of Cape Town’s Department of Biological Sciences in 2000 and taught as a professor for 20 years until his retirement.

Read more about February, check out an interview with him in Alpinist, and watch him speak about his climbing at FEAT Johannesburg 2012.

1970s-1980s: Mike Freeman sends the hardest routes in the Gunks

From the late 1970s through the 1990s, trailblazing trad climber Mike Freeman opened new routes in the guide-access-only Skytop crag in New York’s Shawangunks. Some of Freeman’s most notable Gunks ascents include Nector Vector (5.12d R); a 90-foot ascent up an overhanging prow; and French Connection (5.12d), one of the hardest climbs in the Gunks at the time.

Around 1981, Freeman’s discussion of Kansas City (5.12) with his friend and climbing partner Jack Mileski resulted in the first official “beta” spray. “Let me run the ‘Betamax’ tape for you,” Mileski reportedly told Freeman. “So, Mike, here’s the beta!” Freeman also climbed with Lynn Hill, Russ Clune, and Hugh Herr.

When he wasn’t climbing, Freeman worked as a technical draftsman in the engineering department of Princeton University, where, in 1989, he designed an overhanging arête to expand Princeton’s indoor climbing wall. Freeman was named as a mentor by Chuck Odette, who sent 5.14 well into his sixties.

Freeman has been recorded climbing in Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Hueco Tanks, Smith Rock, and the Northern Highlands of Scotland, where he put up a 1975 team first ascent on Beinn Dearg. In 2024, he was spotted climbing in northwest Sicily at age 82 and now resides in Carbondale.

Read more about Freeman’s posse of Gunks legends

2001: Chelsea Griffie climbs El Capitan in a push

In 2001, Chelsea Griffie became the first Black woman to aid climb El Capitan, which she did in a 26-hour push via Lurking Fear (5.7 C2; 2,000ft) with two other women. She also teamed up with fellow El Cap climber Jacqueline Florine on Zodiac (5.7 C3; 1,800ft).

Raised in suburban Chicago, Griffie got her first exposure to the mountains on a trip to Brazil, where she ended up climbing at Pao de Acucar, a gneiss mountain near Rio de Janeiro. Later, she took classes with the National Outdoor Leadership School, made trad first ascents in Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Park, and worked as a business manager for Yosemite Guides.

After five years working as a program director for Bay Area Wilderness Training, which teaches adults how to lead camping and backpacking trips for kids, Griffie moved to Los Angeles and founded a similar program in that vein: Los Angeles Wilderness Training.

Listen to this 2024 podcast with Griffie and read her blog post in Earth Island Journal.

May 2003: Sibusiso Vilane summits Mount Everest

Born in 1970 in a rural village of South Africa, Sibusiso Vilane worked as a game ranger at Malolotja Nature Reserve, Swaziland, until one day, his hiking partner suggested that he try mountaineering. The first mountain Vilane ever climbed was Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341ft) in 1999. After a muddy success, he descended with one goal in mind: Everest.

On May 26, 2003, Vilane became the first Black African climber to summit Mount Everest (29,031ft). Two years later, he summited Mount Everest again, this time from the less-popular north side. Within five years, he had summited his last of the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each continent.

In late 2007, Villane teamed up with a fellow South African climber, Alex Harris, and made an unsupported and unassisted trek to the South Pole. On January 17, Villane became the first Black person to reach the South Pole. Then, just a few months later on April 12, he arrived at the North Pole, becoming the first Black person to reach both poles and the first African to complete the Explorers Grand Slam.

In February 2026, at age 55, Vilane summited Chile’s Ojos del Salado (22,614 ft) and completed the world’s highest marathon from its summit, running through 44% oxygen levels and into freezing winds at up to 62 mph.

Read more about Vilane and follow him on Instagram.

October 2003: Emily Taylor aids the Nose

On October 8, 2003, Emily Taylor (she/they) became the first Black woman to complete an aid ascent of El Cap’s most famous route, the Nose (5.9 C2; 3,000ft). They took six days to summit the iconic line.

For the past ten years, Taylor has been running Brown Girls Climbing, a weekly outdoors program in the Bay Area, of California for female and non-binary members of the global majority. They are the subject of the in-progress film Coach Emily, which has followed Brown Girls Climbing since 2019.

Follow Taylor on Instagram and check out Brown Girls Climbing

May 2006: Sophia Danenberg becomes the first Black woman to summit Mount Everest

Growing up between Japan and the United States, Sophia Danenberg didn’t discover climbing until she had already graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and accepted a Fullbright fellowship in Tokyo. While in Japan, she began rock climbing and eventually got into ice climbing and mountaineering.

After building up experience on Mount Rainier, Denali, and Ama Dablam, Danenberg reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 19, 2006, becoming the first Black woman and first African-American climber to do so.

Danenberg went on to have a successful career in aerospace, with a focus on air quality. Today, she serves as the Washington State Park Commissioner and holds board positions at NatureBridge, She Jumps, and the National Institute of Reproductive Health.

Read more about Danenberg at Melanin Base Camp and follow her on Instagram.

2012: Kareemah Batts starts the Adaptive Climbing Group

In 2009, New Yorker Kareemah Batts was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer that resulted in a partial leg amputation. Two years later, she attended the Colorado Mountain School and began rock climbing, eventually becoming the first female paraclimber to compete in a USA Climbing competition.

In 2012, Batts founded the Adaptive Climbing Group, a national program that helps make paraclimbing more financially accessible for all ages. Since then, the Adaptive Climbing Group has funded eight years of free competition training camps in preparation for USA Paraclimbing Nationals.

Read more about Batts and follow the Adaptive Climbing Group on Instagram

November 2017: Molly Thompson-Smith makes history at the Kranj World Cup

Molly Thompson-Smith is a London-born climber of Bajan heritage who fell in love with climbing after trying it for her birthday party at seven years old. Today, she is a five-time national champion, Olympian, and ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council.

In 2017, Thompson-Smith won bronze in Lead at the Kranj World Cup in Slovenia, becoming the first Black climber and first British woman ever to win a medal in Lead or Boulder at a World Cup. In 2020, she also won bronze in Lead at the European Championships—and did so while wearing a mask in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

After qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games on Team Great Britain, Thompson-Smith competed in the combined Boulder / Lead event in Paris and earned 19th overall. She is now based in Sheffield, England.

Watch Life After Plastic, a short film about Thompson-Smith, and follow her on Instagram.

May 2019: Saray N’kusi Khumalo summits Mount Everest

The first three times that Saray N’kusi Khumalo attempted to summit Mount Everest, the elements did not cooperate. In 2014, an avalanche killed 16 guides on the slope, ending her attempt. In 2015, an earthquake in Nepal halted all ascents, and in 2017, bad weather forced her to retreat. But finally, on May 16, 2019, Khumalo made it to the summit of Everest, becoming the first Black African woman to do so.

Throughout her life, Khumalo has raised more than $90,000 and built more than 16 libraries across South Africa through her nonprofit Summits with a Purpose. She has also completed the Seven Summits and skied to the South Pole.

Watch this video about Khumalo’s accomplishments and read her memoir My Journey to the Top of the World.

Summer 2021: Meagan Martin ushers in the first climbing Olympics

Meagan Martin is a professional climber, American Ninja Warrior champion, TV host, and a legendary broadcast analyst for climbing. In addition to competing in five World Championships and 15 World Cups as one of the only Black members of Team USA, Martin has also competed on eight seasons of the obstacle course challenge TV show American Ninja Warrior (ANW).

In 2021, she won the ANW Women’s Championship without falling once. That same year, she helped introduce the world to the new Olympic event of sport climbing, calling on her ESPN broadcasting experience to commentate the first Lead, Boulder, and Speed events that had ever been shown to an Olympics audience. In 2023, Martin co-hosted the first major climbing reality competition show, HBO’s The Climb, and in 2024, she reprised her commentator role for the Paris Olympics.

Read an interview with Martin about American Ninja Warrior and follow her on Instagram

Summer 2021: The Mawem brothers face off on the world stage

For the first climbing event in Olympic history, French brothers Bassa and Mickaël Mawem took both of France’s spots in the men’s combined event that involved Lead, Boulder, and Speed. Both brothers qualified for the final, but during Bassa’s Speed qualification, he ruptured his biceps tendon and was forced to withdraw from the final. Mickaël went on to place fifth.

In the Paris 2024 Olympics, Bassa got a second chance, qualifying in Speed and taking seventh place overall.

Follow the Mawem brothers on YouTube and Instagram.

November 2021: Eddie Taylor sends Moonlight Buttress

In November 2021, Boulder-based Eddie Taylor became the first Black person on record to free Zion National Park’s iconic route, Moonlight Buttress (5.12c; 1,200ft) in a day, leading the cruxes and taking no falls on the entire route.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg with Taylor’s accomplishments. The former decathlon athlete and current high school teacher has also summited the highest mountains in the world, including Everest (29,031ft), Aconcagua (22,831ft), Mount Kenya (17,057ft), Pico de Orizaba (18,491ft), and Denali (20,310ft), which he skied from the summit in 2017.

In 2020, Taylor became the first Black person in recorded history to climb El Capitan in a day. Since then, he has climbed El Cap eight times, including via Lurking Fear in nine hours, as well as the Salathé, Zodiac, and the Nose, which he linked up with Half Dome in 2024 for a 24-hour, 36-minute push.

A well-rounded athlete, Taylor has ticked 5.13 in both sport and trad, climbed Out of Africa (5.11d; 1,900ft) in Madagascar’s Tsaranoro Valley, and completed more than 100 laps on Boulder’s classic Naked Edge (5.11b). From 2022 to 2025, he served on the board of directors of the American Alpine Club. He currently balances his professional climbing career with teaching, advocacy work, and parenting two young daughters.

Follow Taylor on Instagram and listen to him talk about a few of his notable ascents.

May 2022: The first all-Black expedition summits Everest

In spring 2022, Phil Henderson organized the first all-Black expedition to Mount Everest and called it Everest Full Circle. The party included Americans climbers Henderson, Eddie Taylor, Fred Campbell, Manoah Ainuu, Adina Scott, Evan Green, Demond “Dom” Mullins, Rosemary Saal, Thomas Moore, Abby Dione, and Kenyan guide James “KG” Kagambi. On May 19, all members except Henderson, Campbell, and Scott reached the summit at 29,031 feet. Before 2022, it was estimated that only eight to 10 Black people had summited Everest, so the Everest Full Circle expedition nearly doubled that amount.

Read an interview with Kagambi and learn more about the expedition

Fall 2022: Caleb Robinson boulders V13 in just four years

Bouldering phenom Caleb Robinson didn’t start climbing until age 17, but within four years, he topped his first V13, Bust a Lung, at the Rock Shop near Lander, Wyoming. Since then, he’s ticked Zef (V14), climbed four V10s in a day, and conquered testpieces in Joe’s Valley, Fontainebleau, Rocklands, and Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Currently based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Robinson is in the process of converting a Ford Transit into a mobile home. Once it’s complete, he plans to hit the road for full-time climbing.

Follow Robinson on YouTube and Instagram

February 2024: Kai Lightner sends his first 5.15

As a child, Kai Lightner dominated the elite competition climbing circuit, winning the Youth National Championships in Boulder, Lead, or both every year from 2010 to 2016 and winning a handful of Pan-American and World Youth Championships. When he switched to the Open division, he won the National Championship in 2015 and 2017 and became the Pan-American Champion in Lead climbing.

On rock, Lightner showed early promise when he climbed his first 5.14c, Southern Smoke, at age 13. As an adult, he’s continued to push the boundaries of the sport. On February 29, 2024, he made the first ascent of Death of Villains (5.15a) in Utah’s Hurricave. He followed this up with a trip to Santa Linya, Spain, where he became one of the only climbers in history to send three 5.14d routes in a single week.

Lightner is the founder of Climbing for Change, a nonprofit that supports BIPOC climbers and advocates for inclusivity and diversity within the sport.

Follow Lightner on Instagram, read his essay about navigating his eating disorder, and watch Death of Villains on Reel Rock.

September 2025: Genevive Walker wins Horseshoe Hell for the sixth year in a row

Horseshoe Hell is a notorious, 24-hour climbing endurance competition that takes place every year in Jasper, Arkansas. Professional climber and AMGA Rock Guide Apprentice Genevive Walker has competed every year since 2019, and for the last six years, she’s won at least one first place trophy in the elite women’s category, and several in the team category, too. In 2023, she not only claimed the women’s overall record again, but also beat the men in most trad routes, most feet climbed, and most number of pitches—and nearly doubled Alex Honnold’s standing record of maximum number of pitches in 24 hours.

Walker complements her legendary endurance with a well-rounded set of skills and meaningful projects, including a 2023 trip to Malawi to bolt routes as part of the Global Climbing Initiative. She’s also bouldered up to V9, climbed 13b sport, and regularly teaches BIPOC-centered skills courses at climbing festivals such as Blk Out Fest, Flash Foxy, Werk the Red, Color the Crag, the International Climbers Festival, and her own series, BIPOC Climb and Camp.

Read about Walker’s Malawi trip and follow her on Instagram

November 2025: Teddy Eyob becomes the first Black climber to free climb El Capitan

On November 30, 2025, 30-year-old Teddy Eyob made an eight-day ascent of Free Rider (5.13a; 3,300ft), becoming the first Black climber in history to free climb El Capitan. He flashed every pitch up until the Boulder Problem at pitch 23, and solved it after just a few hours of rest.

The 30-year-old first got into climbing six years earlier, while living in Vancouver and working as a bike mechanic. He tested his limits on Squamish granite, bouldering up to V10 and ticking 5.13a trad routes like Trippett Out and The Free Grand on his way to El Cap.

Read more about Eyob’s send of Free Rider and follow him on Instagram.

About the photographer: Michael S. Morris, who took the photo of Mike Freeman hanging one-handed from Nector Vector, can be reached at msmpix.com.

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