Shauna Coxsey Climbs V14 in a Session
During a trip to Spain, Coxsey climbed several difficult problems including Fotofobia
Shauna Coxsey has repeated Fotofobia in La Pedriza, Spain, a problem first climbed by Ignacio Gonzalez at the grade of 8b+ or V14. She needed only one session to send the fingery test-piece.
“Big moves on tiny crimps on an overhanging wall,” said Coxsey. “It’s such an amazing piece of rock and the moves did not disappoint. I tried to climb the original line from Nacho. It seems there are a few new bigger holds at the end to the right that have been cleaned up. I decided to avoid those and stay left of the obvious seam.”
Coxsey’s first V14 came in 2014 when she repeated New Base Line at Magic Wood, Switzerland. At the time, she was only the third woman to climb V14. About the grade for Fotofobia, she said, “As for the grade, I really don’t know. It’s been a while since I have climbed this grade so I don’t feel I am in a position to fully comment just yet. It went down pretty quickly so I am tempted to say it may be closer to 8B but I also don’t think I could design a climb to suit me more than this.” Jesús Muñoz Vaquero and Carlos Ruano, who both repeated Fotofobia, both said it was soft V14.
In 2016, Coxsey was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire for contributions to the climbing community. In the Tokyo Olympics, Coxsey was recovering from a bad back injury but still finished 10th overall.
Check out the latest buyer's guide:
