I recently purchased a new point-and-shoot for climbing use. I zeroed in on getting the widest-angle lens I could. I settled on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-500, which has a short focal length of 25mm (equivalent to a 35mm film camera). This is very short, although many point-and-shoots have 28mm short focal lengths which is probably close enough to 25mm.
The lens is Leica and has an optical zoom of 5x so the 35mm equivalent focal length range is 25mm-125mm. So far I have happy with it although under high magnification the files are a bit noisier than some other cameras. It is a matter of degree, however.