These Seven Women Have Climbed V15
Janja Garnbret made history this week by becomming the first woman to climb the famous Bügeleisen Sit V15
In the year 2000, Fred Nicole made the first ascent of Dreamtime and proposed a never before seen grade of V15 for it. There are now dozens of V15s and many people have climbed the grade, including the following seven women, who are all considered to be among the best boulderers in the world: Ashima Shiraishi, Mishka Ishii, Kaddi Lehmann, Katie Lamb, Brooke Raboutou, Jana Švecová and Janja Garnbret.
In 2020, Oriane Bertone made the first ascent of Satan I Helvete Low and graded it V15, but after several repeats, the grade has settled at V14, which Bertone agrees with.
Ashima Shiraishi: At 14 years old, Shiraishi repeated Horizon V15 in Hiei, Japan; a problem first climbed by Dai Koyamada. It was one of the biggest news stories of 2016. Since then, Shiraishi has gone on to climb several V14s.
Kaddi Lehmann: In 2018, Lehmann made the third ascent of Kryptos, an aesthetic limestone V15 in the Swiss Jura. Kryptos was established by Franz Widmer in 2009 and repeated by Fred Nicole.
Mishka Ishi: In 2019, Japanese climber Ishi became the youngest climber and third woman to send V15 with her tick of Byaku-dou “The Road to Heaven” on Mount Hourai, Japan. Ishi started climbing at the age of six and had already climbed a number of V12s, V13s and a V14. Byaku-duo took Ishi 20 sessions over a year and has 22 hard moves.
Katie Lamb: In 2023, Lamb become the first woman to climb a boulder that had been given the grade of V16 with her fourth ascent of Box Therapy, a steep problem first climbed by Daniel Woods in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. It was later downgraded by Brooke Raboutou, which Woods agreed with.
Brooke Raboutou: Brooke Raboutou and her brother Shawn Raboutou repeated Box Therapy shortly after Katie Lamb. “Shawn and I managed to do the ultimate dream: sibling send of Box Therapy, same day, back-to-back tries,” Brooke said. About her grade suggestion, she said, “Grades are tricky because they truly are subjective and can feel different for everyone. Here’s my opinion: after chatting with my brother and others who have done the climb, I feel like V15 is an appropriate grade especially if I compare it to some of the benchmark V15s I’ve tested.”
Jana Švecová: Also in 2023, Švecová made the first ascent of Nova in the Czech Republic, which she graded V14. However, V17 climber Will Bosi repeated it and upgraded it to V15.
Janja Garnbret: This week, Janja Garnbret climbed the Austrian test-piece Bügeleisen Sit V15 in Maltatal. As Garnbret noted after her send, this was the first female ascent of the problem. It’s also her first of the grade. After climbing it, she did it again for a video. Watch below.
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