Ahem now then, the origin of modern day climbing started with the mountaineers hell bent on being the first to climb a particular summit and as you know there are loads of incredible stories about guys who were the first to climb Monte Blanc, The Matterhorn, Mount Everest and so on. In those days technology wasn't as advanced, hence the clothing, climbing equipment, weather forecasting etc. were very basic (i.e. crap), so it was an incredible achievement for those mountaineers just to survive let alone reach the summit. Given these circumstances more often than not theses pioneer style mountaineers chose the easiest routes to reach the summit.

As the sport of mountaineering matured and became more popular, climbers looked for other (often more difficult) routes to scale the mountains. This led to the need for climbers to train and practice their technique and thus they looked for climbing opportunities closer to home. What they found were cliffs, crags, buttresses, gullies and when they started to climb they realised that it was damn good fun, and rather than just a form of practice, that it could be a sport in its own right and hence Rock Climbing and Ice Climbing were founded. Many years later the climbers began to train in the winter months on indoor walls, and in time this too has become a separate sport.