The stack was first climbed by mountaineers Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey in 1966.[10][11] On 8–9 July 1967, an ascent featured in The Great Climb, a live BBC three-night outside broadcast, which had around 15 million viewers.[12] This featured three pairs of climbers: Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, whilst two new lines were climbed by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis, and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston.[13]
Red Szell became the first blind person to climb the Old Man, despite suffering from retinitis pigmentosa that left him with 5 per cent vision. With assistance from Martin Moran and Nick Carter, he scaled the stack in 2013.[14][15][16]
There are seven routes up the stack, the most commonly used of which is the original landward facing E1 (Extremely Severe).[17][18] A log book in a Tupperware container is buried in a cairn on the summit, as an ascensionists' record.[16][19] As many as fifty ascents of the stack are made each year.[19]
BASE jump
Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchinson-Brown and Tim Emmett made the first BASE jump from the stack on 14 May 2008.[20] Hutchinson-Brown died 11 days later during a jump in Switzerland.[21]