In Yosemite, Barbara Zangerl has just achieved an exceptional feat that no-one else has managed before. She completed thirty pitches of Freerider on El Capitan (7c+ or 5.13a), without a single fall. Thirty-one years after Lynn Hill’s first free Nose on the same El Capitan wall, it’s once again a woman who is making free climbing history on The Captain, by setting the coveted first “flash” on the big stone.
Those who follow Barbara Zangerl’s career will not be surprised. Familiar with Yosemite, the Austrian climber is in great shape, having just repeated one of Yosemite’s most difficult trad climbing routes, Magic Line, at the end of October. Nevertheless, the “flash” ascent of Freerider, on El Capitan, is without doubt one of the most sought-after objectives for the best climbers – by which I mean men – in… years.
Freerider is the slightly easier, or slightly softer, version of Salathé Wall. This version, or variant of Salathé Wall, makes it possible to climb the famous Salathé Wall headwall while avoiding its two 8a pitches (US grading 5.13b). However, Freerider, created by brothers Alex and Thomas Huber in 1998, offers a 7c+ bouldering passage (US 5.13 a) and a collection of seventh-degree pitches.
Barbara Zangerl, roped up with her companion Jacopo Larcher, who also attempted the challenge but failed when he fell in the key passage, succeeded in one of Yosemite’s last challenges. Thirty-one years after Lynn Hill, climbing history is once again being made by women on El Capitan.