Wikipedia:WikiProject Climbing/Article recommendations

Climbing sources

Articles about contemporary climbers should include reliable sources from the main climbing media (older/historical climbers may not always be referenced in the climbing media) per Category:Climbing and mountaineering magazines and journals. Climbing WP:BLPs, whose main notability is based on climbing, but who have no record in these publications, are unlikely to be notable.

Quality sources from the climbing media (with well-regarded editorial control), who maintain online-accessible archives, include:

• Major climbing journals: Alpine Journal, American Alpine Journal, Canadian Alpine Journal, and the Himalayan Journal.
• Major climbing magazines: Alpinist, Bergsteiger (in German), Climbing, Desnivel (in Spainsh), Grimper (in French), Klettern (in German), Montagnes Magazine (in French), National Geographic, Outside, Planinski Vestnik (Polish), Summit, and Rock & Ice.
• Established climbing magazines/websites (some still have a print edition): summit (now the British Mountaineering Council website), Climber (have a magazine), Gripped Magazine (Canadian), PlanetMountain (Italian/British), UKClimbing (British), Vertical (in French).
• Websites with an editorial process that includes fact-checking: ExplorersWeb.

Unsuitable sources include those that fall within WP:UGC or are listed in WP:RSP. For example, Summitpost.org and Mountainproject.com, are not appropriate because they are crowd-sourced websites with no editorial oversight or peer review.

Cautionary areas

Notability for climbing BLP articles should follow the guidelines of WP:GNG and WP:SIGCOV, with a reliance on "climbing sources" where the main platform of the notability is climbing-derived. Notable climbers will have SIGCOV pieces in "climbing sources".

Editors should be cautious of modern climbers of eight-thousanders (especially normal routes on Mount Everest, Cho Oyu, and Makalu), which are now achievable by ambitious tourists with $50,000, but little climbing skills. These ascents are no longer covered in climbing media per above, although they are often covered in blogs run by touring companies to promote their guiding business to eight-thousanders. Their ascents can be covered in local/non-climbing media (i.e. "X is the first person from Miami to climb Everest"), but a BLP would be the main "plank" in their notability.

Editors should be cautious of Seven Summits climbers as this is no longer notable in the climbing media; however, Seven Summits climbers can get attention in local/non-national non-climbing media, and often write books and launch motivational speaking businesses from their feat. Such cases, despite being non-notable in climbing, aim to "construct" notability from local/non-national RS coverage (i.e. "X is the first Bostonian to complete the Seven Summits"), and some WP:NAUTHOR (again, from local/non-national book reviews); thus Wikipedia becomes the most important "plank" in their notability. They are often made by WP:UPEs with the article, plus a glossy photograph, made in a few edits, by an editor who then disappears.

Editors should be aware of WP:NEWSORGINDIA, as there have been cases of climbing BLPs that have no obvious notability as climbers (i.e. non-notable climbs), but whose Wikipedia notability is based on articles in general Indian news sources covering their non-notable climbs. A dubious website called the High Range Book of World Records also often features where climbers can pay to have non-notable records noted (i.e first person from an Indian province to climb an easy peak like Mount Kilimanjaro).

Medals and awards

Major international competition climbing dates from the mid-1980s with Sportroccia. Medals won at the two IFSC rock climbing events (sub-divided into lead, bouldering, speed, and combined), or the IOC Olympic rock climbing event (a single combined event of lead and speed), are notable:

• IFSC Climbing World Cup, an annual event with several individual legs in the year, per Category:IFSC Climbing World Cup overall medalists
• IFSC Climbing World Championships, a biennial event held every two years, per Category:IFSC Climbing World Championships medalists
• Sport climbing at the Summer Olympics, since 2020, climbing is a Summer Olympics event, per Category:Olympic medalists in sport climbing

The awarding of the Piolet d'Or, the most important prize in mountaineering and alpinism, is also notable, per Category:Piolet d'Or winners

WikiProject

• {{WikiProject Climbing}}: talk page about climbers and climbing; people should only be in WP Climbing if they are notable as climbers.
• {{WikiProject Mountains}}: talk page about mountains; mountains should only be in WP Climbing if there is extensive coverage of climbing history.

Infobox

• {{Infobox climber}}: any articles about climbers (e.g. Wolfgang Güllich, Catherine Destivelle, Chris Sharma)
• {{Infobox climbing area}}: any articles about climbing areas (including crags) (e.g. Ailladie, Saxon Switzerland climbing region, Fontainebleau rock climbing, Fair Head)
• {{Infobox climbing route}}: any article about a specific climbing route (can be within a climbing area) (e.g. Action Directe, Realization, Jumbo Love, Silence, The Nose, Midnight Lightning)
• {{Infobox mountain}}: any articles about mountains

Navigation

• {{Climbing sidebar}}: at the top of top-level climbing articles
• {{Climbing navbox}}: a fuller expanse of climbing-related articles and topics

Grades

• {{Climbing grade}}: convert from Yosemite Decimal System to French grades or vice versa.
• {{Boulder grade}}: convert from V-scale (Hueco) grades to Fontainebleau grades or vice versa.

Mountains

Articles on mountains should follow the guidelines on naming conventions for landforms and guidance of WikiProject Mountains.

Routes

Route articles should be named according to the name given in reliable sources, which by convention is the name given at the first ascent of the route. In the case of duplicate route names (i.e. two routes with the same name), the location of the route shall be included. In the case of wider name duplication (i.e. other non-climbing articles use the route name), the qualifier "(climb)" should be used (and not "(rock climb)" etc.). Route names should be italicized, while the formation on which the route lies should not. For example: The Nose of El Capitan.

Other examples of B-class route articles include: Action Directe (climb), Realization (climb), and Silence (climb).

People

Mountain climbers are categorized in Category:Mountain climbers by nationality, or if unknown, in Category:Mountain climbers. Other appropriate categories include Category:Summiteers of Mount Everest. Mountaineers should not be added to Category:Mountaineering.

Rock climbers are categorized in Category:Rock climbers (which splits by nationality). Other appropriate categories include Category:Free soloists, and Category:IFSC Climbing World Championships medalists. Rock climbers should not be added to Category:Climbing.

Mountains

If an article is added to the project, please also add it to one of the mountain categories: e.g. Category:Mountains of Canada, Category:Mountains of France, Category:Mountains of the United States. Also consider adding a link to the article to the appropriate list article, such as List of mountains of the United States, Canada, etc.

If a country specific mountains category does not exist, then add it to one of the continent specific categories such as Category:Mountains of Europe or Category:Mountains of Asia. If those are not applicable, then add it to Category:Mountains. For a country that does not have a specific category yet, the general rule is to create a category for the country only when the number of existing mountain articles is five or more.