Beth Rodden is the keynote speaker at Calgary’s Mountain Film Festival April 22nd to 26th, 2009. Her Bio: In 2000, Beth freed Lurking Fear (5.13c) on El Cap. Since then she has focused on climbing in the mountains and has many first female ascents of hard trad routes, including onsighting the Phoenix (5.13a), Grand Illusion (5.13c) and Country Boy (5.13d). She recently established the Optimist, 5.14b, at Smith Rock, her third 5.14, and the hardest route an American woman has climbed. Beth is the only woman after Lynn Hill to have free climbed the Nose on El Capitan, and the only woman to free climb 3 major routes on El Cap.