Era Vella’s Fourth Female Ascent
Belgium climber, 18-year-old Anak Verhoeven, made the fourth female ascent of the famous Chris Sharma route Era Vella 5.14d at Margalef, Spain.
“Anak Verhoeven Climbing for Jesus” are the first words you read when visiting Verhoeven’s blog. Religion is often left off climber’s websites, but we’re all climbing for someone and most of us aren’t climbing 5.14d.
Verhoeven is currently ranked fourth in the world as a competition climber. She wrote on her blog after the send of Era Vella, “During my nearly 23-minute ascent there was a lot of thunder and lightning, as if a battle was going on in heaven. I was hoping it wouldn’t start raining since the top catches the rain, but luckily it didn’t.”
Lately, Era Vella’s 9a (5.14d) grade has been under fire as being graded too soft and some suggest it be downgraded to 8c+ (5.14c).
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