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50 free Climbing trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free climbing trivia questions with answers. From the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 to Adam Ondra's 9c in a Norwegian cave, this quiz covers climbing in all its forms. Forty-two questions take in the mountaineering milestones (Hillary and Tenzing, Mallory's disappearance, Messner without oxygen, Junko Tabei, the 1996 Everest disaster, K2 in winter, the Eiger's Mordwand and the Seven Summits) and the rock side too: Warren Harding's 47 days on the Nose, Lynn Hill freeing it, Honnold's rope-free El Capitan, the Dawn Wall, John Gill inventing modern bouldering, the V-scale and YDS, and sport climbing's Olympic debut in Tokyo. Easy questions ask which mountain is highest and who first stood on top; the hard ones want the Nose speed record to the second, the grade of Silence and how many died on the Eiger's north face. Suits climbers, hikers and anyone who has watched Free Solo through their fingers. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the mountains, routes and climbers involved, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who made the first documented ascent of Mount Everest in 1953?
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary
They went up the Southeast Ridge; the North Ridge was first climbed by a Chinese team in 1960.
Q 02According to the 2020 Nepal-China survey, how tall is Everest?
8,848.86 m
The figure includes the snow cap, and it settled a long dispute between the two countries.
Q 03Everest's Nepali name Sagarmatha means what?
Head in the great blue sky
The Tibetan name Qomolangma means 'holy mother'.
Q 04The mountain was named after Sir George Everest, who held what job?
Surveyor General of India
His successor Andrew Waugh proposed the name in 1856, though Everest himself objected.
Q 05Which climber, who vanished on Everest in 1924, is credited with the reply 'Because it's there'?
George Mallory
His body was found in 1999 at 8,160 metres, but whether he reached the top remains a mystery.
Q 06In what year was Mallory's body found on Everest?
1999
The Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found it some 688 vertical metres below the summit.
Q 07Who first climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen, in 1978?
Messner and Habeler
Reinhold Messner went back in 1980 and did it solo, again without oxygen.
Q 08In 1986 Reinhold Messner became the first person to complete what?
All fourteen eight-thousanders
The South Tyrolean lost his brother Günther on Nanga Parbat in 1970 during his first.
Q 09Who became the first woman to summit Everest, on 16 May 1975?
Junko Tabei
The Japanese climber had survived an avalanche twelve days earlier and later became the first woman to finish the Seven Summits.
Q 10How many climbers died in the blizzard on Everest on 10-11 May 1996?
Eight
Guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were among them; Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air told the story.
Q 11Which journalist on assignment for Outside magazine survived the 1996 disaster and wrote Into Thin Air?
Jon Krakauer
The 2015 film Everest dramatised the same events.
Q 12As of May 2024, roughly how many people had died on Everest?
Around 340
The Khumbu Icefall, avalanches and altitude sickness are the main killers on the standard route.
Q 13K2, the world's second-highest mountain, stands in which range?
The Karakoram
At 8,611 metres it straddles Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Chinese territory.
Q 21The Eiger's north face has earned what German nickname because of the number of deaths on it?
Mordwand
At least sixty-four climbers have died on the 1,800-metre face since 1935.
Q 22In what year was the Eiger's north face first climbed, by a party including Heinrich Harrer?
1938
Harrer later wrote Seven Years in Tibet.
Q 23Who was the first person to climb the Seven Summits, finishing on 30 April 1985?
Richard Bass
His list used Australia's Kosciuszko; Messner's rival list swaps in Puncak Jaya, and Pat Morrow finished that one first in 1986.
Q 14K2's nickname 'the Savage Mountain' came from a remark by George Bell, a climber on which team?
The 1953 American expedition
George Bell said it was 'a savage mountain that tries to kill you'.
Q 15Climbers from which country made the first ascent of K2 in 1954?
Italy
Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni summited on an expedition led by Ardito Desio.
Q 16K2 became the last eight-thousander climbed in winter in January 2021, by a team from which country?
Nepal
Nirmal Purja and nine other Nepali climbers summited together on 16 January.
Q 17In 2019 Nirmal Purja climbed all 14 eight-thousanders in how long?
Six months and six days
The former Gurkha and SBS soldier's Project Possible became the Netflix film 14 Peaks.
Q 18Which was the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed, in 1950?
Annapurna I
Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal of a French expedition summited on 3 June; both lost toes and fingers to frostbite.
Q 19The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 is traditionally considered the start of what?
Modern mountaineering
Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard collected a reward offered by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.
Q 20Edward Whymper's party made the first ascent of which peak in 1865, losing four men on the way down?
The Matterhorn
The 4,478-metre peak sits on the Swiss-Italian border above Zermatt.
Q 24The Messner version of the Seven Summits replaces Kosciuszko with which peak?
Puncak Jaya
The Indonesian peak, also called Carstensz Pyramid, is a real climb rather than a walk-up.
Q 25El Capitan in Yosemite rises about how far from base to summit on its tallest face?
3,000 feet
The name is Spanish for 'the captain'.
Q 26The Nose of El Capitan was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding's team over how many days?
47
The siege was spread over more than a year, with fixed ropes and pendulum swings across the face.
Q 27Who made the first free ascent of the Nose in 1993, then did it in a day the following year?
Lynn Hill
Her 23-hour ascent set a standard that went unrepeated for years.
Q 28Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell set the Nose speed record in 2018 at what time?
1:58:07
The 3,000-foot route usually takes parties three to five days.
Q 29Which route did Alex Honnold free solo on El Capitan on 3 June 2017?
Freerider
The 3-hour-56-minute climb was captured in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.
Q 30Free Solo won which award at the 91st Academy Awards?
Best Documentary Feature
Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi collected the statuette.