Every climbing gym has an older climber or two who talk about how hard they could climb back when they were younger. The last time I overheard that comment I began to wonder at what age are rock climbers climbing their best. In an effort to find out, I compiled the ages of 61 current professional rock climbers (30 male and 31 female) and ran the numbers.
The average age of professional rock climbers is 25 years old. The majority of professional climbers are between 21 and 30 years old. Rock climber’s physical ability typically peaks between 24 and 27 while their technical ability won’t peak until after a decade of consistent climbing.
The age at which climbers peak depends on a multitude of things including amount of climbing experience, natural ability, and how well they are able to maintain their fitness. In addition to this, female climbers seem to peak earlier than male climbers. Potential reasons for this are provided below along with the ages of the 61 climbers included in this “study”.
Ages of 30 Professional IFSC Male Climbers
A total of 30 professional male climbers were looked at for the purpose of this “study”. All of these climbers are competing in IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) climbing competitions. Some specialize in a single climbing discipline (speed, bouldering, or sport climbing) while most do a combination of the events. The majority of the climbers listed below competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
By only selecting climbers of this caliber, we will be able to see what the typical age rock climber’s climbing performance peaks at and when it starts to drop off.
The table below details the age of 30 professional IFSC male climbers. These ages are discussed further following the table below.
| Professional Climber | Age |
| Adam Ondra | 28 |
| Alberto Ginés López | 19 |
| Aleksei Rubtsov | 33 |
| Alex Megos | 28 |
| Alfian Muhammad Fajri | 25 |
| Bassa Mawem | 37 |
| Colin Duffy | 18 |
| Danyil Boldyrev | 29 |
| Dmitrii Timofeev | 28 |
| Jakob Schubert | 31 |
| Jan Hojer | 30 |
| Jan Kriz | 26 |
| Jernej Kruder | 31 |
| Jongwon Chon | 26 |
| Kai Harada | 22 |
| Kokoro Fujii | 29 |
| Ludovico Fossali | 24 |
| Meichi Narasaki | 22 |
| Mickaël Mawem | 31 |
| Nathaniel Coleman | 25 |
| Qixin Zhong | 32 |
| Reza Alipour | 27 |
| Rishat Khaibullin | 26 |
| Sascha Lehmann | 24 |
| Sean McColl | 34 |
| Stefano Ghisolfi | 28 |
| Tomoa Narasaki | 25 |
| Vladislav Deulin | 27 |
| William Bosi | 23 |
| YuFei Pan | 21 |
As seen in the table above, 70% of the professional male climbers are between 23 and 31 years old with an average age of 27 years old. The youngest professional male climber listed above is Colin Duffy at a young 18 years old while the oldest is Bassa Mawem at a more experienced age of 37.
Ages of 31 Professional IFSC Female Climbers
Similar to the male climbers listed above, the 31 female climbers are currently IFSC athletes and are competing in elite climbing competitions. The majority of them have also competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The table below details the age of 31 professional IFSC female climbers. These ages are discussed further and are compared to the male IFSC climber ages following the table below.
| Professional Climber | Age |
| Akiyo Noguchi | 32 |
| Alannah Yip | 28 |
| Aleksandra Kalucka | 20 |
| Aleksandra Mirosław | 28 |
| Andrea Rojas | 26 |
| Anouck Jaubert | 28 |
| Aries Susanti Rahayu | 26 |
| Aurelia Sarisson | 24 |
| Brooke Raboutou | 20 |
| Chaehyun Seo | 18 |
| Di Niu | 25 |
| Elizaveta Ivanova | 22 |
| Fanny Gibert | 29 |
| Ievgeniia Kazbekova | 25 |
| Indiana Chapman | 18 |
| Iuliia Kaplina | 28 |
| Janja Garnbret | 22 |
| Jessica Pilz | 25 |
| Julia Chanourdie | 25 |
| Kyra Condie | 22 |
| Laura Rogora | 20 |
| Lucka Rakovec | 20 |
| Mia Krampl | 21 |
| Miho Nonaka | 24 |
| Molly Thompson-Smith | 24 |
| Oceania Mackenzie | 19 |
| Oriane Bertone | 16 |
| Petra Klingler | 30 |
| Shauna Coxsey | 29 |
| Viktoriia Meshkova | 21 |
| YiLing Song | 21 |
As seen in the table above, 74% of the professional female climbers are between 20 and 28 years old with an average age of 24. The youngest professional female climber listed above is Oriane Bertone at a very young age of 16 while the oldest is Akiyo Noguchi at 32 years old.
When combining this with the ages of the 30 professional male athletes above, we can see that 71% of the professional climbers are between 21 and 30 years old with an average age of 25.
The average ages of professional female and professional male climbers indicate that female climbers peak approximately 3 years earlier (24 years old) than male climbers (27 years old).
Although the amount of climbers looked at is not very large in the grand scheme of things, I do believe that this makes sense. Oriane Bertone for example is currently the youngest climber to ever send a V14 bouldering problem. She managed this incredible feat at the age of 12 years old.
Female climbers tend to be shorter than their male counterparts and this leads to them developing a climbing style that more heavily relies on good body positioning and flexibility to make up for the reduced reach. This climbing style is typically better suited for lighter climbers who are able to maximize their strength to weight ratio. Younger climbers tend to be very light with high strength to weight ratios. Therefore, it makes sense that female climbers will peak on average slightly earlier than their male counterparts.
If you are curious to see just how much height matters in climbing and if there is an ideal height to be, check out my article linked here.
Average Peak Age For Average (Not Professional) Climbers
While an average rock climber’s body may be at its peak ability during this time span, their climbing ability may not.
All of the professional climbers above are all able to climb at such high levels because they are extremely naturally gifted and have been climbing for many years (in some cases over two decades). Starting their climbing journey at an early age in life allows them to build their technique and provides them with a lot of experience at a young age. This large base of climbing experience allows them to take full advantage of their physical peak and be some of the best climbers in the world.
If you are 24 and have never been climbing before, do not think that your climbing will start to decline after the age of 28. For many climbers who have started “later” in life (in their 20’s), they will typically see a peak in their low to mid 30’s after they have developed good climbing technique.
While their bodies may not be at their true physical peak, they will have increased their climbing technique substantially to the point where they are climbing harder grades than they were when they were younger and stronger.
For those of you who are looking to start climbing at a more matured age in life, just know that your climbing peak will not come until after you have spent years training and developing good technique. If you are interested in tips for older climbers and if there is an “age limit” for climbing, I recommend checking out my article linked here.