John Ewbank (climber)
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John Ewbank (1948- ) was born in Yorkshire, England in 1948, and emigrated to Australia at age 15. Having learned rockclimbing in his native country, he quickly became involved in the fledgling Australian rockclimbing scene, and went on to pioneer hundreds of new routes on crags around the country, particularly in the Blue Mountains in his home state of New South Wales. Many of the climbs which Ewbank put up are still regarded as classics of Australian climbing. Amongst these climbs, Janicepts (21) at Mt Piddington stood as the hardest climb in Australia for many years.
In addition to climbing, Ewbanks also established Australia's first rockclimbing magazine, Thrutch. His most lasting legacy was the development of an entirely new system for grading climbs. To overcome the problems at that time with English grades being limited to Extremely Severe, and American grades limited to 5.9, Ewbank proposed an open ended range from 1 to (currently) 34. This approach to grading - known as the Ewbank System - subsequently became in widespread use throughout Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Ewbank retired from climbing in the late 1970's.
