A history of climbing equipment.

Pitons, nuts and cams have their own pages: Salathe's and Gallwas's hard steel pitons are on Yosemite and the big walls, and nuts and cams on clean climbing and cams. Crash pads are on Fontainebleau and bouldering. This page covers the rest.

Carabiners

Accounts gathered by Toni Hiebeler in Mountain magazine (issue 33, 1974), as quoted by climbing-history.org, credit the Munich climber Otto Herzog with adapting the pear-shaped carabiners carried by fire brigade members for use in climbing. The witnesses named include his rope partner Gustav Haber, the hut guardian Franzl Fischer and Herzog's nephew Franz Hofmann.

Who used them first, and when, is disputed:

• A letter from Franz Nieberl recalls Hans Dulfer showing him a belaying method with rudimentary carabiners in 1910, probably in July (climbing-history.org).
• Herzog told Nieberl of his own earlier experiments on the east face of the Fleischbank (climbing-history.org).
• Another source gives 1911 for Herzog's experiments.
• Grivel, a maker, dates Dulfer's use to 1912 in its own history (seen as a search summary).

Ropes

Edelrid says it developed the first kernmantle rope, a stretchy braided design made of polyamide fibres, in 1953, and that the design is now standard. That is the maker's own claim.

The first dynamic rope is credited two ways:

• Edelrid and Mammut together, 1964: Wikipedia credits both makers with the first dynamic ropes, the forerunners of today's dynamic climbing rope.
• Edelrid alone, 1964: a search summary of Edelrid's history says Edelrid developed the first dynamic rope able to hold several falls that year. The Edelrid page we read does not give the 1964 date, so this version is unconfirmed.

The UIAA and the first safety standards

The UIAA says it began creating safety standards in 1960 by testing ropes, and that it has since written standards for more than 25 types of equipment. It says its Safety Label was created in 1960 and approved internationally in 1965. In a 13 May 2025 article marking the anniversary, the UIAA dates its Safety Commission to 1975, when its Ropes and Belaying Methods Commissions merged, and says it began developing standards in the early 1960s.

The UIAA says the European (EN) standards were derived from its original standards, which it calls the first of their kind. According to a search summary of the UIAA's document, its rope standard, UIAA 101, is in its ninth edition (2025) and is based on EN 892:2012+A3:2023 with added requirements. What these markings mean today is explained on standards and markings.

Harnesses

Several people are credited with early harnesses, and our research did not settle who was first:

Wikipedia says Troll made a harness designed by Don Whillans for the 1970 Annapurna South Face expedition, and that it went into mass production soon afterwards and became popular around the world; a Troll brand history on UKHillwalking, seen as a search summary, agrees.

A search summary of the BSI catalogue lists BS EN 12277:1998, the European standard for mountaineering harnesses, as published on 15 November 1998 and withdrawn on 30 April 2007. Today's harnesses are on harnesses.

Helmets

Search summaries of the BSI and other standards catalogues list BS EN 12492:2000, the helmet standard for mountaineers, as published on 15 May 2000 and withdrawn on 31 May 2012. It was replaced by EN 12492:2012, whose Annex B lists the technical changes from the 2000 edition. The UIAA says its current helmet standard, UIAA 106 edition 4 (2025), is based on EN 12492:2025 with extra requirements. We did not find the date of the first UIAA helmet standard. More is on helmets.

Belay devices

• The Sticht plate. A search summary of Wikipedia says Fritz Sticht designed the Sticht plate, described as the first mechanical rope brake, and patented it with Hermann Huber for Salewa in 1970. We could not confirm this from another source.
• The first tube. The same summary credits Jeff Lowe with the earliest tubular belay device, the Latok Tuber, in 1983. This is also unconfirmed.
• The GriGri. According to a search summary of Wikipedia, Petzl completed its GriGri assisted-braking device in 1991, with later versions in 2011 (GriGri 2), 2017 (GriGri+) and 2019.

Today's devices and the standards they are tested to are on belay devices.

Shoes

Pierre Allain developed what are generally considered the first soft, rubber-soled shoes made for serious rock climbing, in the 1930s, and wore them on Fontainebleau sandstone and Alpine granite (Wikipedia and climbing-history.org, seen as search summaries; LaCrux, 2026). The shoe was known as the PA, and Allain did not patent his designs.

The later history of the shoe rests only on search summaries we could not confirm, and the versions differ:

• The EB. One source says Edouard Bourdonneau bought Allain's PA business in the 1950s and made the EB with softer rubber; another says Allain went into partnership with Bourdonneau around 1960; a third names "Emile" Bourdonneau and dates the connection to 1948.
• Sticky rubber. One source credits Boreal with the first sticky-rubber climbing shoe in 1980; a climber's memoir recalls buying the Boreal Fire in 1981 or 1982.

Shoes as they are made now are on shoes.

The CE mark for climbing gear

The CE mark on climbing gear comes from the EU's rules for personal protective equipment (PPE). Search summaries of SATRA and EUR-Lex say the PPE Directive 89/686/EEC, drawn up in 1989, required all PPE placed on the EU market to carry the CE mark. The amending Directive 93/95/EEC let PPE that met older national rules be placed on the market until 30 June 1995 (Article 16, as amended). Regulation (EU) 2016/425, as adopted, repealed Directive 89/686/EEC with effect from 21 April 2018 and applies from that date (Articles 46 and 48, legislation.gov.uk). The European Commission and KAN say the Regulation was adopted on 9 March 2016 and published on 31 March 2016.

Products made under the old directive could still be placed on the market for one year after it was repealed. The end of that period is given as 20 April 2019 by the UK's HSE and 21 April 2019 by SATRA, according to a search summary.

The main dates on this page also appear in the timeline.