Chris Sharma

Chris Sharma is one of the greatest and most influential rock climbers of all time, distinguished by his preternatural ability and visionary first ascents. He set the standard for world class climbing while pushing the sport forward via new disciplines.

Chris found climbing as a kid in Santa Cruz, California at Pacific Edge Climbing Gym and describes himself as "one of the first climbing-gym-generation kids.” From the beginning, Sharma was considered a prodigy in the climbing world. At 14, he won the adult 1996 US Open Bouldering Nationals and one year later, he freed Boone Speed's project Necessary Evil, 5.14c, in the Virgin River Gorge, the hardest sport climb in North America at the time. Just a few years later, he went on to establish the world’s first 5.15a, Biographie, in Ceuse, France. That ascent led him to dominate sport climbing for over a decade, and he went on to establish the world’s first 5.15b, and the second-ever 5.15c during that period, as well as numerous other routes of the same grades.

Chris spends his life searching the planet for the most beautiful and difficult rock climbs, devoted to discovering and climbing singular, aesthetic and seemingly impossible routes. This journey led Sharma to the “psicobloc” discipline, climbing ropeless over a body of water with nothing to protect you in the event of a fall. His signature route in that style is Es Pontas, 5.15a, which climbs the underbelly of a magnificent arch in the middle of the ocean in Mallorca, Spain.

Today, Chris owns several climbing gyms in both California and Spain. He also developed the first ever climbing competition series on film, a television show debuting on HBO in 2023, The Climb, with his childhood friend Jason Mamoa.

Chris lives in Barcelona with his wife, Jimena Alarcón, and their two children.