Abstract: Rock climbing has developed rapidly since featured in the Summer Olympic Games programme, at the same time its cultural and ethical concerns have also been raised. Based on the methodology of historical sociology, the first public ethical conflict "Piton Dispute" in the history of rock climbing is taken as the main case to construct the historical background and the ethical conflicts of rock climbing with the introduction of Bourdieu's social practice theory are analyzed. It states that the main content of the dispute includes four aspects including the use and abuse of equipment, personal adventure and social responsibility, elitism restriction and mountain freedom, and the relationship between human and nature. The trigger of the dispute is the "hysteresis" of the agent's habitus in the changing practical spaces. The historical roots are respectively the aesthetic distinction that originated from the mountaineering in the romantic aesthetic division and the reproduction under the heteronomy of cultural elites, as well as the returning of humanitarian survival needs brought about by the position changes of the working-class guides caused by the technological progress. At present, there are theoretical analogies between some new issues and the "Piton Dispute": The "value at risk" can be regarded as symbolic capital, and its logic needs to be understood through practice. The "environmental protection" can be regarded as a real problem since the distinction was broken. Except special maintenance, the aesthetic concept can also be reestablished through natural education or other means. The "alienation" problem reflects the unavoidable heteronomy owing to the political and commercial factors. The key to the sustainable development of rock climbing is to give full play to the role of the government and sports organizations.