Digital image correlation (DIC) method has been widely used in displacement and strain measurements because of its simple optical path and good adaptability. It is particularly important for improving the speed of DIC matching in large displacement measurements. This paper proposes an improved climbing algorithm that corrects the shortcomings that result in the traditional climbing algorithm easily approaching the local extremum. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm improves the search speed, making it suitable for large displacement measurements. It is tested and compared with simulated-speckle patterns. The results show that the overall search speed and precision of this method are better than those of traditional climbing algorithms. When the step-size change coefficient is appropriate, the algorithm can quickly obtain the accurate result.