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Vid: Angela Eiter Becomes First Female to Send 5.15b

Angela Eiter has sent La Planta de Shiva 5.15b at Villanueva del Rosario, Spain, and become the first female to climb the grade. Watch the send below.

Not only that, she becomes one of only a few climbers, male or female, to climb the still-groundbreaking grade.

The climber’s site 8a.nu broke the news on Oct. 22 and noted, “Angy’s husband, photographer Bernie Ruech, says that they plan to take pictures tomorrow.” Be sure to follow below for more on her historic climb.

Eiter, 31, is one of the best competition climbers ever, with four World Championships and dozens of World Cup podiums to her name.

The 5.15b she climbed is one of Adam Ondra’s and Jakob Schubert made the second ascent. On 8a.nu, Ondra noted, “One of my hardest so far, pure endurance climbing with few rests, continuously hard with minimum of rests.”

Eiter had been training specifically for the climb, as noted on 8a.nu, and has climbed four 5.14ds. She sent the first 5.14b pitch of La Planta de Shiva two years ago.

Margo Hayes became the first woman to climb 5.15a earlier this year with her send of La Rambla in Spain. She followed it up this fall by climbing Biographie/Realization 5.15a in France.

This summer, Anak Verhoeven made the first ascent of Sweet neuf 5.15a at Pierrot Beach in France, becoming the first female to make a first ascent of the grade.

The first 5.15b recorded was by Fred Rouhling in 1995 at Charente, France. He called it Akira and it has not been repeated or confirmed. Chris Sharma then sent Jumbo Love 5.15b at Clark Mountain, California. It was repeated by Ethan Pringle and remains 5.15b.

More to come on Eiter’s send. Watch Schubert climb La Planta de Shiva below.

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