Route Names ……Are They Really Harmful?

If you’re a first ascender on a route (the first person to climb the route), you get the honors of naming the route for future climbers. Originally, route names came from indigenous people and explores. They normally contained descriptive features about the climb that would be helpful to the next climber. In the 1980s route naming became a bit more loose and crazy. People would name climbs after songs they were listening to or events going on in their lives. Routes went from names such as Grey Face (1940), Northern Pillar (1941), and Big Chimney (1942) to Shit or Go Blind (1974), The Jane Fonda Workout for Pregnant Women (1985) and Slavery Wall (1980s).

Dan Michael established Slave to the Rhythm in 1987, which is named after the 1985 Grace Jones song he was listening to as he climbed. At the time this name didn’t rub people the wrong way. However, after George Floyd death in 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement irrupted and swept across the country. The movement challenged the merit of racist and sexist names on all fronts: street names, buildings, monuments and yes climbing routes.

People were demanding change. However in climbing, changing a route name without the input or permission of the first ascensionist is similar to renaming a work of art without the artist’s consent. Should this be allowed? Where should the line be drawn?

Mountain Project, the popular app used to find outdoor climbing routes, redacted the names of many routes during this time, Slave to the Rhythm included. It was reported that over 6000 names were “under review” due to the offensive naming. Nick Wilder, the admin of the app at the time, said this was not an initiative to rename routes but instead an effort to place limits on “what we will publish on Mountain Project. For names we won’t publish, we show “[Redacted].’” In 2023 this is still an ongoing matter.

This debate as brought more awareness to the climbing community. And now many apps give people the ability to report offensive / inappropriate route names. Mountain Project has implemented a ”route name review process”, which leaves the name redacted until the first ascensionist rename the route. If they’re dead Mountain Project reaches out to the friends and family and works to create another route name.

🔥🔥🔥 Hot Take 🔥🔥🔥

 Stick to the gym if you want the warm and fuzzies from route names.

PS: These are not my personal opinions - this is meant to spark discussion

My Thoughts

I’ve never really put a lot of weight into the actually weight of words / names. I used to think actions and intentions are more important and what should be looked. How someone interprets something is up to them and if they’re choosing to take in a negative way that’s on them. Society can’t cater to everyone because people can’t agree on anything anyways.

However, in the past few years my thoughts on this have shifted a bit. I’ve learned that while I might not be bothered by something there are many people who are. If a simple name changes is all that’s needed to keep the positive vibes flowing in the climbing community then I’m all for it. Climbing is meant to be an inclusive, fun and respectful sport. Plus the original ascenders are dead and I’d like believe they wouldn’t choose the same names today as they would’ve back then.