Climbing Inspired Dog Names

Introduction

If you enjoy climbing, chances are you enjoy the great outdoors, which is likely at least one thing you and your dog have in common. While they may not be able to join you on your vertical expeditions, that doesn’t mean they can’t help represent your appreciation for the sport itself or even just pay tribute to the greats who helped to make climbing what it is. After all, just like every climber has their rock to lean on (or climb on) every dog owner has something just as reliable — and sometimes just as challenging — so why not give them a name that reflects that?

Climbing Inspired Dog Names in Pop Culture

Featured Famous Climbing Dog

Biscuit

While we mentioned in the introduction that you likely wouldn’t be able to take your dog on the most vertical climbs, that doesn’t mean that some dogs aren’t able to at all. In fact, there’s one dog that upended the entire notion of the species being able to climb anything more than the pitch of a difficult hill.

Biscuit, a Jack Russell Terrier that was raised since she was a puppy by owner Tom Kelly, quickly rose to stardom after Kelly and his companions made a 2003 documentary about climbing Colorado’s Front Range entitled “Front Range Freaks”. In the documentary, Kelly tells the story of his experience with Biscuit, who started off life with a peculiar personality. He admits that she acted strangely since she was a puppy, having a love for chasing and clinging to brooms as well as numerous other quirky behaviors.

But when he really got her outside is when her personality began to take shape. When out with his friends at a local climbing spot they liked to frequent, Kelly noticed that Biscuit was not only enjoying jumping from rock to rock, but got quite creative with how she was able to use her small frame to power up steep and difficult faces. After a few times out, she began to use the rocky crags to her advantage, wedging herself in between the gaps and scooting upwards by creating constant pressure that kept her from slipping back down. Between her powerful little toes, compact size, cleverness and determination, she was able to scale impressive faces, including those with very few holds to dig her paws into.

Eventually, Biscuit pioneered doggy routes up several famous climb spots, including D7, a sandstone climb on the Fountain of Eldorado Canyon in Colorado, which is rated as a 5.11c (hard to difficult on the average human scale). Of course, it doesn’t hurt that her routes were given dog-centric names such as her D6 route, Give a Dog a Bone.

In addition, not only was Biscuit a great climber, but had a puppy as well, Felix, who also followed in his mother’s paw steps by getting into climbing, the pair of which both starred in the 2005 follow-up “Return2Sender”.

Unfortunately, Biscuit didn’t get to reach her full potential as a climber, as she was eventually killed by a mountain lion while on a climb/hike, but is lovingly remembered in her own circle as well as that of numerous others in the universal climbing community, who believe she has set the precedent for crag dogs all over the world.

Climbing Inspired Dog Name Considerations

When trying to find an appropriate climbing-themed name, there are several things to take into consideration. The first is what kind of traits stick out about your dog? Do they have characteristic behaviors or aesthetic elements that set them apart from others? Make a list of their most prominent features and see what stands out when you rappel down our list of names (or your own for that matter).

For instance, does your dog help keep you grounded? If so, then the names Biner, Crab and Anchor would all be good choices. Do they often take big falls or spills? If so, Whipper might be a great name. If they have a ton of front-end power and can pull themselves up onto things then Mantel would be a great choice. For a dog that’s easy to pick up or handle, then Jug would be a solid name, as would Slipper for a dog that always stays close to your feet.

There are lots of different ways you can go from naming them after famous climbers, routes, or rocks to gear, techniques, and moves. Once you make a list of their traits, try flipping through a list of each and see if anything sticks hard enough to cling to.

Male Climbing Inspired Dog Names

Votes	Name	Vote
1	Davis After Steph Davis, one of the greatest female climbers in the world
1	Caldwell After Tommy Caldwell, a climbing ace and well-known adventurist
1	Rodden After Beth Rodden, youngest female climber to finish a grade 5.14a
1	Graham After Dave Graham, one of the best boulderers of his generation
1	Herrmann After Lena Herrmann, Germany's strongest female climber
1	Albert After Kurt Albert, who invented repointing
1	Pierre After Pierre Allain, who invented the first soft-rubber-soled shoes for rock climbing
1	Chouinard After Yvon Chouinard, who promoted clean, nondestructive climbing
0	Honnold After Alex Honnold, who has broken numerous speed records
0	Herzog After Maurice Herzog, who wrote Annapurna, a climbing classic
0	Reinhold After Reinhold Messner, the most influential alpinist of all time
0	Messner After Reinhold Messner, who proved Everest could be climbed without supplemental oxygen
0	Charlet After Jean Charlet-Straton, who invented the rappel
0	Watts After Alan Watts, who helped to bring sport climbing to America
0	Wiggins After Earl Wiggins, the first to ascend what's now known as the Supercrack
0	Tenzing After Tenzing Norgay, AKA Sherpa Tenzing, the other half of the first Everest ascent
0	Bear After Bear Grylls, noted survivalist and TV host
0	Grylls After Bear Grylls, one of the youngest to summit Everest at 23
0	Romero After Jordan Romero, who summited Everest at 13 years old
0	Anchor A point where a rope is attached to a climbing wall or rock
0	Cam A piece of climbing gear used as protection from falling, wedges into cracks
0	Crab Slang for a carabiner
0	Crux The most difficult move or sequence of a route
0	Hang As in Hang Dog, to rest on the rope as lead climber instead of the rock
0	Jug A large, easily-gripable climbing hold
0	Munter As in Munter hitch, a friction knot used for belaying
0	Prusik A friction knot that slides; invented by Karl Prusik
0	Rappel To descend on a fixed rope
0	Taper A tapered, passive piece of gear/protection
-1	Gill After John Gill, who introduced gymnastic chalk to rock climbing

Female Climbing Inspired Dog Names

Votes	Name	Vote
0	Sharma After Chris Sharma, who is considered one of, if not the, best climber in the world
0	Destivelle After Catherine Destivelle, a well-respected female French rock climber
0	Potter After Dean Potter, who is known for his incredible speed and route creation
0	Ondra After Adam Ondra, a Czech climber considered one of the best in the world
0	Lama After David Lama, who completed the first free ascent of Cerro Torre
0	Auer After Hansjörg Auer, known for his free solo ascent of "Path Through the Fish"
0	Megos After Alex Megos, who completed the first 9a route without seeing it beforehand
0	Sasha After Sasha DiGiulian, a female climber who has taken on many of the world's toughest climbs
0	Ashima After Ashima Shiraishi, one of the youngest and strongest female climbers in the world
0	Zangerl After Barbara Zangerl, the first woman to boulder an 8b
0	Yvon After Yvon Chouinard, one of Yosemite's pioneering climbers
0	Comici After Emilio Comici, who invented numerous tools for rock climbing
0	Harding After Warren Harding, one of the first to ascend El Capitan
0	Lachenal After Louis Lachenal, the first to climb an 8,000 meter peak
0	Jardine After Ray Jardine, who invented the spring-loaded cam
0	Lowe After Jeff Lowe, who invented the soft shell jacket and was a mixed climb pioneer
0	Nosley After Jacques Nosley, who pioneered bolt-placing on his descent instead of vice versa
0	Royal After Royal Robbins, a pioneering Yosemite climber in the 1960s
0	Hillary After Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to officially climb Mount Everest
0	Miura After Yuichuro Miura, who summited Everest at 80 years old
0	Absail A term for a controlled descent via a fixed rope
0	Bashie Malleable and tough to remove anchors that are literally bashed into the rock
0	Biner Slang term for a carabiner
0	Bivy Slang for for bivouac, a temporary encampment with little or no shelter
0	Duodess The colors/patterns of a rope used to help find the center
0	Grigri The first popular belay device in climbing
0	Mantel Using your hands to press your body high enough to get your feet up
0	Slipper A slip-on sport shoe used for climbing
0	Swami A traditional climbing harness wrapped around the waist
0	Whipper A long fall