I briefly contemplated postponing publishing my list of the five greatest climbers of all time after learning of the 11 killed in the Nanga Parbat terrorist attack at the Diamir BC. I’m unsettled and saddened by the news, but as with anyone throwing a protest or tantrum, the best thing to do is to move on as swiftly as is reasonable. So I’ll post the first climber of the five greatest at 10:30 a.m. (US East Coast Time) today and I’ll post the rest at the same time each day through Friday.

First, I want to preface what you’ll see shortly…

I reviewed about 120 climbers and focused somewhat closely on 70 of them, and scrutinized 53 of them. I was well aware of most climbers, while others I only thought I knew. What I can say is that I am in awe of many, particularly several that didn’t even make this list of the five greatest. For instance, Voytek Kurtyka, one of my personal heroes, didn’t make the cut.

What I have concluded is that the climbers today are amazing. The climbers before were pioneers, that often didn’t even pierce what was possible. However, in pioneering and being first far outweighed the modern potential.

There will be a couple of surprises on the list and I can’t wait to hear your excitement or annoyance. I should point out that the rubric I made and got your feedback on guided the selection only 90-percent. After I “scored” everyone, The factors were not weighted, so there were several “ties” at the first five slots and some decisions had to be made.

Because my list is of the five greatest with the purpose of drawing attention to greatness in climbing and ensure that newcomers to climber are not ignorant of these climbers at a minimum, I made the toughest decisions yet: Who from the top do you name as the sport’s representatives?

Well, I’ll see you at 10:30 (US East Coast Time)…

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Climbing matters, even though we work nine to five.

Click here to see who was ranked at number five.