National Parks Traveler

New Names For Old Routes

The climbing community reckons with a route-naming tradition that has allowed derogatory and offensive terms to endure.

By Kim O’Connell

Editor's note: Some readers might find language in this article offensive.

One of Angela Amos’s favorite places to go climbing is Annapolis Rocks along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, a quartzite rock formation in Maryland with long layers of horizontal features. There, as she bends her fingers into cracks and holds, and presses her toes against the crag, all she thinks about is getting to the top. She doesn’t stop to think about being a Black woman in a sport that is still dominated by white men, or about how often Black people are made to feel unsafe or unwelcome in the outdoors. But those thoughts inevitably come later.

Recently, Amos weighed in on a discussion forum in the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club's Mountaineering Section, based on a request I’d made looking for members to talk to about growing national conversations about offensive climbing route names and efforts to change them. These conversations have ramped up in the last year as protests and ongoing dialogues about race and equity have happened across many sectors.

Traditionally, climbing routes are named by their first ascensionists—the first person to ascend the route—and are informal monikers. This means that they tend not to be endorsed by the National Park Service or other agencies and emblazoned on signs, but they are often found in climbing handbooks and websites. At best, names are often funny attempts at puns or riffs on pop culture references, reflecting climbing’s long counterculture roots. But at worst, route names are often what many would call racist, sexist, discriminatory, and otherwise offensive.

In 2020, the trade publication SNEWS (which changed its name to Outside Business Journal earlier this year), in collaboration with the 57Hours adventure app, surveyed readers and mountain guides about climbing route names. Among readers, 91 percent said they had encountered racist, misogynistic, or discriminatory route names “several times,” and 65 percent of mountain guides said the same.

On the Mountain Project website, which provides climbing details for nearly 250,000 routes (mostly in the United States), dozens of known routes in national parks feature names that have been deemed offensive. For example, multiple routes in the United States are called Trail of Tears, evoking the name of the 19th-century forced removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands, including a route in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

A climbing route at Joshua Tree National Park widely known as Thin Line was originally named Limp Wristed F*ggot (and that name is still included as an alias on Mountain Project). A bouldering route at Mount Rushmore National Memorial is called Slant Eyes. And at New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, route names include references to the racist Sambo character, and several use the word "Tigger" in ways that suggest the n-word, such as "Another Tigger in the Morgue." Several route names include the word “p*ssy,” and there are routes originally called “Happiness in Slavery” (supposedly a reference from The Story of O) and “Slavery Wall.”

At New River Gorge, Eve West, chief of interpretation, visitor services, and cultural resources, says that the park has had some conversations with climbing groups about the name issue and takes route names into account when issuing climbing permits. "If a permit is approved, one of the conditions is that the park must approve the route name so we can make sure that it is consistent with park values," West says. (In response to our questions, officials at National Park Service headquarters in Washington have not yet provided a comment on this issue.) 

In response to my query on the PATC site, a member named Ernesto Moreira wrote that such discussion was “divisive” and an “uphill battle” given that the club is majority white and male (the presumption being that white people and males don’t want to discuss such things). “IMHO, who gives a rats tail about a climbing route’s name?” Moreira wrote. “In climbing, if you have an issue [with] the routes name, don’t climb it, period…or whatever. Simply no one cares.” (Moreira authorized that his comments could be shared with me.)

Another climber wrote, “Racy doesn’t necessarily mean misogynistic, it's all about context and the mindset of the FA’ers [first ascensionists]. For folks to come along and alter history out of ignorance is a shame.”

PATC climber Carol Clayton leads some Girl Scouts on a rock climbing adventure along the C&O Canal. / Kim O'Connell

“As a general matter I don’t understand why people are so committed to preserving and promoting injustice,” Amos says. “In the climbing route context, it’s not the same level of people getting slaughtered in the street. A climbing route name doesn’t kill people; I get that. But I’m surprised by how unwilling people are to talk about it or consider that there could be an issue.”

Although Mountain Project now redacts offensive names such as those listed above, the original names can still often be found in comments sections about each route. And a quick perusal of a long, multi-page thread on the topic on the Mountain Project page found that a significant portion of climbers claimed that changing route names is akin to censorship or a violation of free speech. Many users mocked and criticized those who thought re-evaluating some climbing route names was warranted. “I propose more penis, fart and homophobe names!” one person wrote. “PIs unite. Or just climb and shut the vag up!”

One group that has led this discussion about discriminatory and culturally appropriative route names is Brown Girls Climb, an organization that is designed to bring together women of color in the outdoors and help make the nation’s climbing routes more inclusive and welcoming. Another is the American Alpine Club (AAC), which has launched the Climb United initiative as a way to examine climbing traditions, including derogatory route names, that the organization says are exclusionary.

“The climbing community as a whole is accountable for the language we use to identify and describe the places where we climb,” said the AAC in a joint statement issued with Appalachian Mountain Club, Colorado Mountain Club, Mazamas, and The Mountaineers in August 2020. “We must own the toxicity in the practice of naming routes. It’s time for change.”

The groups have committed to working collaboratively with climbers to change exclusionary route names, provide anti-racism and anti-harassment training, and determine how to audit and edit publications and websites to remove offensive route names. This initiative includes the Climbing United Route Name Task Force, a group of climbers and publishers (including Climbing and Alpinist magazines and Mountaineers Books) working on developing best practices around publishing route names, including an ever-expanding list of unacceptable words.

The Access Fund is another group working on the route name issue. “Although blatantly bigoted or cruel route names may be an easy call for revision, many routes fall into a gray area,” the Access Fund wrote in an article on the topic. “But there is a line—there is no place for racism, misogyny, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry within our community….We can maintain climbing’s counterculture roots and celebrate our independent spirit without using language that harms fellow climbers.” These efforts often include reaching out to first ascensionists to offer them the chance to change their own route names.

“A lot of people are saying that this is window dressing, that it’s performative and not going to change anything,” says Carol Clayton, another PATC climber. “My attitude is that yes, it’s performative, and the performative has a place. We don’t do all the deep digging and changing [on difficult issues] and then say ‘let’s get to the fringe things.’ This kind of stuff sparks conversation.”

“It’s encouraging that these conversations are happening,” Amos says. “And already some routes have been renamed. I see the momentum building.”

A climber at Joshua Tree National Park. / NPS Lian Law