There’s a surprise mention of Crowley and, less surprisingly, of Oscar Eckenstein, in today’s health.Telegraph:
The sport was invented (as much as an activity like this can be said to be invented) in the 1890s by an Anglo-German scientist and engineer called Oscar Eckenstein. A keen Alpinist who invented the prototype of the modern crampon, Eckenstein devised the basic bouldering techniques in the Lake District while studying chemistry in Britain.
Accompanied by the eccentric Midlands mystic Aleister Crowley, Eckenstein went on to make several expeditions to the Andes and the Himalayas, including the first serious attempt at the summit of K2. But Eckenstein’s new sport of bouldering languished in obscurity until the 1950s, when it was modernised and popularised by the pioneering American climber John Gill. “Eccentric Midlands mystic” is far more accurate, of course, than most mentions of Crowley in the media!