All female FA’s

Female climbers are a driving force in the climbing world recently, there are lots of badass females out climbing the boys these days. First ascents are the most adventurous kind of climbing, and are what create the playing field for all other climbers to challenge themselves on. First ascents call for vision, exploration, risk, experience, hard work, financial investment, and time often not spent making moves, but creating a climb for others to enjoy. First ascents embody the spirit of climbing, and are one of the best ways i can think of that a climber can give back to climbing and their fellow climbers.

What are some examples of outstanding all female FA’s?

Lynn Hill seems to be the first and last truly visionary female climber that forged ahead in a male dominated sport, with all her work in the Gunks and Yosemite, FFA(first free ascent ever) of El Cap(sorry for that) that’s a massively respectable and cutting edge achievement.

There are physically stronger women now, climbing 5.15, which were put up by men, but I’m not personally aware of any that are going out, finding hard lines, bolting them, or climbing them on gear and driving the sport forward, doing actual FF(free)As and not FF(female)As. I think this applies to bouldering as well. Are there any females finding v13s/14s/15s in obscure bouldering areas and putting them up themselves?

Everything I said is subject to change as I don’t pay particularly close attention to climbing achievements generally, except the really big headliner achievements. V17s and the hardest ascents on gear and draws, so would also be psyched to hear about more females at the cutting edge of climbing development and not climbing repeats.

Edit: Steph Davis was and still is visionary in the world of free-soloing.

Eric Marx wrote:

Lynn Hill seems to be the first and last truly visionary female climber that forged ahead in a male dominated sport, with all her work in the Gunks and Yosemite, FFA (first free ascent ever) of Half-Dome, that’s a massively respectable and cutting edge achievement.

No disrespect to Lynn but hardly. Further, Lynn did the first free ascent of the Nose on El Cap not Half Dome. The first free ascent of Half Dome via the regular route (with a variation) was in 1976. Lynn's free ascent was also after the free ascent of the Salathé. Lynn followed in many female foot steps, Molly Higgins and Barb Eastman in Yosemite, as well as Maria Cranor in Yosemite, Josh, Suicide Moly was active the big mountains as well as with Arlen Blum. As I say no disrespect to Lynn but not the first and nor the last.

Just quickly off the top of my head: Brette Harrington, Caro North, Ines Papert, Sasha DiGiulian.

Wanda Rutkiewcz, Allison Hargreaves, Dora Keen, Bev Johnson. 

Beth Rodden- Meltdown 14c https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107161194/meltdown

I believe she had other FAs as well

Allen Sanderson wrote:

No disrespect to Lynn but hardly. Further, Lynn did the first free ascent of the Nose on El Cap not Half Dome. The first free ascent of Half Dome via the regular route (with a variation) was in 1976. Lynn's free ascent was also after the free ascent of the Salathé. Lynn followed in many female foot steps, Molly Higgins and Barb Eastman in Yosemite, as well as Maria Cranor in Yosemite, Josh, Suicide Moly was active the big mountains as well as with Arlen Blum. As I say no disrespect to Lynn but not the first and nor the last.

No disrespect taken. Bit of a typo there.

I suppose climbing a 14a which was considered impossible in a time of very strong men is very futuristic IMO. I’m not aware of the other females you listed, were they doing things of similar caliber?

Hmm doing a bit of quick research shows Barb and Molly were the FF(female)A of the nose which was already established, I don’t think that’s the same caliber as forging ahead into unknown territory as a woman, unless they did other things.

Edit: More quick research into names mentioned above seems like most of them didn’t have FAs but FFAs of established lines, I’m not sure if the topic creator wants female repeats of established routes, or actual cutting edge FAs.

Lynn Hill, Nancy Feagin, (a very young) Beth Rodden, Kath Pike FA of Bravo Les Filles in Madagascar (13d/A0) in 1999.

Brette Harrington and Rose Pearson Life Compass alpine route in the Canadian Rockies (IV 5.10a M4+ 80 degrees, TD+, 980m).

Mayan Smith-Gobat has made a few trips to free Riders on the Storm in Patagonia with Brette Harrington or Ines Papert. They haven’t freed it but have added free pitches. All of these women have done numerous other FAs.

Catherine Destivelle (I’m guessing onsight) solo of Destivelle Route on the Petit Dru (VII 5.11b A5). Super hard aid from one of if not the strongest free climbing woman in the world at the time.

Hazel Findlay, lots of stuff.

Roxanna Brock has a bunch of FAs. Hell, I’m sure that all of the women above and below have a bunch of FAs.

All female FAs are a a bit difficult, but certainly there have been many FA teams where the female member was at least an equal to the male. Babsi Zangerl, Anna Pfaff, Joanne Urioste, Lynne Hill, Beth Rodden, Brette Harrington, Catherine Destivelle, Sue Nott, Sasha DiGiulian, Sue McDevitte, Jan Conn all come to mind. 

Eric Marx wrote:

No disrespect taken. Bit of a typo there.

I suppose climbing a 14a which was considered impossible in a time of very strong men is very futuristic IMO. I’m not aware of the other females you listed, were they doing things of similar caliber?

Hmm doing a bit of quick research shows Barb and Molly were the FF(female)A of the nose which was already established, I don’t think that’s the same caliber as forging ahead into unknown territory as a woman, unless they did other things.

Edit: More quick research into names mentioned above seems like most of them didn’t have FAs but FFAs of established lines, I’m not sure if the topic creator wants female repeats of established routes, or actual cutting edge FAs.

It was no disrespect to Lynn. You should do some research before posting and using descriptions like first and truly last. They are not accurate. There were many women before Lynn and many after that were and are pushing the grades and limits. I only mentioned a few from before who were pushing female ascents in all realms of the grades of the day that is the context.

FWIW the first 14a was established in 1985, Lynn did her first 14a in 1991. Others tried had tried to free the Nose before Lynn. She had the skills and got it first. Again none of what I am posting is in disrespect of what Lynn has accomplished. Just that your descriptions are not accurate.

Why do we split these up like this? Isn't climbing a sport that levels out the playing field as far as physical advantage that males tend to have in other sports? 

FA is a FA 

Allen Sanderson wrote:

It was no disrespect to Lynn. You should do some research before posting and using descriptions like first and truly last. They are not accurate. There were many women before Lynn and many after that were and are pushing the grades and limits. I only mentioned a few from before who were pushing female ascents in all realms of the grades of the day that is the context.

FWIW the first 14a was established in 1985, Lynn did her first 14a in 1991. Others tried had tried to free the Nose before Lynn. She had the skills and got it first. Again none of what I am posting is in disrespect of what Lynn has accomplished. Just that your descriptions are not accurate.

What I said was “none taken.” Meaning I didn’t think you were being disrespectful to Lynn.

I think we might be miscommunicating about “first ascents” and “first female ascents.” And also our definition of the modern cutting edge, which would we around 14d trad, 15c/d sport, and v15+ bouldering. Are there females pioneering at this level? 

Greg Miller wrote:

Fixed it for you lol

This seems pretty disingenuous. With kill artist, it seems like the wide boyz just used a different crack (variation) for the climb.

In regards to her other FAs, it seems that grading splitter offwidths is already subjective; her body size is significantly different than your average offwidth climber, possibly making the experience much different for her.
Regardless, she is still going out there, venturing into the unknown, and establishing a large quantity of really good climbs for the community. More than you can say for 99% of the climbing community, male or female

Isabelle Faus has done numerous elite-level bouldering FAs.

Adam R wrote:

Why do we split these up like this? Isn't climbing a sport that levels out the playing field as far as physical advantage that males tend to have in other sports? 

FA is a FA 

No.

Men have advantages.  At the highest levels, those physical advantages are greater.  

That's why men and women don't compete against each other in competition climbing.  

One female whom I don’t see mentioned so far on this thread is Barbara Devine, who was making cutting edge first ascents and first free in the Gunks and S.D. Needles before Lynn appeared in the Gunks. And 20 years before Barbara, Bonnie Prudden was putting up top-end FAs in the Gunks.

Jan Conn, who passed away just a few weeks ago, was mentioned by an earlier poster. In 1945, with her husband Herb, she made the first ascent of Conncourse on Cannon Cliff, NH, a serious 5.8 that was the hardest climb in the region at the time of the FA, and remained the hardest on the cliff for almost 20 years. Jan led the crux pitch in tennis sneakers with limited protection. Subsequently, after moving to the Black Hills, the Conns put up many impressive and serious FAs in the Needles, that were as hard as anything in the country at the time.

These women, and others, helped lay the foundation in this country that Lynn built upon. Lynn obviously moved the cutting edge very much further, but that doesn’t diminish what these women accomplished during their times.

 Isn't climbing a sport that levels out the playing field as far as physical advantage that males tend to have in other sports?

If first ascents are one of the playing fields in the many games of climbing, I think the responses so far would show that males have a distinctly higher performance level than females where FA’s are concerned. Certainly in quantity and cutting edge difficulty there is no contest.

When it comes to simply making hard moves, especially rehearsed, on rock, top female climbers in some cases perform close to the level of top males. Across the spectrum of sports, females are generally proven to perform at an average 10% lower level than males, however “they” make that calculation. It might average to be less than that on hard climbing moves. 

In gym and sport climbing and bouldering, male and female performance levels are a lot closer than in the FA realm. I posed the question in the OP more in the interest of seeing if there are more teams of women nowadays that are out there developing new routes and new climbing areas as teams of men have done since the birth of climbing. The high profile, cutting edge and news worthy First Ascents involving women that people have mentioned are usually the product of professional climbers and their sponsors’ funding for promotional purposes, not to mention men also are usually involved.

Are there women out there with other women exploring, making trails, cleaning cracks and sending loose rock off of unclimbed cliffs, establishing new climbs that are good or likely to become classic, but not newsworthy, for social media, or in the interest of sponsorship? IOW, purely for the sake of adventure, creativity, and contribution to other climbers? The kind of “working mans’ “ climbing, or should I say working persons’ climbing, that has built the wealth of climbing areas and routes available to climbers worldwide these days?

The climbing industry and media consistently promotes climbing as being a sport that “levels out the playing field as far as physical advantage that males tend to have in other sports”.

Is the playing field of First Ascents still an exception to that notion? If it is, I’m curious as to other climbers’ perspectives of why that is. 

Eric Marx wrote:

What I said was “none taken.” Meaning I didn’t think you were being disrespectful to Lynn.

I think we might be miscommunicating about “first ascents” and “first female ascents.” And also our definition of the modern cutting edge, which would we around 14d trad, 15c/d sport, and v15+ bouldering. Are there females pioneering at this level? 

I'll have to dig through the guidebooks, but somewhere in them there's mention of the first all-female FA of a new route at the gunks, probably in the 1960s. That could possibly be the first all female FA in the country. Its grade will surely be moderate by today's standards, but given the primitive gear, the rigorous ground-up style of the day, and the dearth of women in the sport at the time, it was surely a pioneering ascent.

Kevin, In this part of New England there are, and have been, several women very involved in the ‘nitty gritty’ of exploration and route development. Often men are also involved ( I think it is artificial to limit consideration to all-women teams as this is based on the assumption that if a male is involved, then the female’s role is inherently secondary—that is far from the case in general and, specifically, in the situations I am discussing) but not always, but, in any case, it is often the women taking the initiative and doing at least their fair share of the hard and dirty work.  These may not be cutting-edge routes ( though many are difficult) nor at well-known crags, but that isn’t the question you are asking. For fear of leaving someone out, I’m not going to list the names I know who are currently active or have been in the recent past around here, but there are definitely more that a handful.

Gunkiemike wrote:

I'll have to dig through the guidebooks, but somewhere in them there's mention of the first all-female FA of a new route at the gunks, probably in the 1960s. That could possibly be the first all female FA in the country. Its grade will surely be moderate by today's standards, but given the primitive gear, the rigorous ground-up style of the day, and the dearth of women in the sport at the time, it was surely a pioneering ascent.

I’m not sure if these were the first all-female FAs in the Gunks, but Krist Raubenheimer and Ann Church did Bunny and Fancy Idiot ( today rated 5.7R) in 1955. Bonnie Prudden is listed as the only person on the FA ofThe Brat—5.7+ in 1946.

Edit to add: I’ve reached my post limit, so will respond to Eric here. The ‘Vulga Tits’ ( presume that is now redacted) FA team was Gerd Thuestad, Kay Arnott, and Evy Goldstone. This was put up in 1968, so well after the FAs I mention above.

Gunkiemike wrote:

I'll have to dig through the guidebooks, but somewhere in them there's mention of the first all-female FA of a new route at the gunks, probably in the 1960s. That could possibly be the first all female FA in the country. Its grade will surely be moderate by today's standards, but given the primitive gear, the rigorous ground-up style of the day, and the dearth of women in the sport at the time, it was surely a pioneering ascent.

Who did Vulga-tits?  Or something like that - don't have my book right here.

Miriam O'Brian was pushing man less climbing ~100 years ago but not sure about the FA aspect.

https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/womenclimb.htm#:~:text=Jan%20Conn%20(left)%20and%20Jane,of%20years%20in%20the%20west.

Jan Conn was the first woman to climb Devils Tower as well as part of the team for the first all female ascent of Devils Tower, she also had a great story about giving some guy (that she didn't care for a male chauvinist type) shit for doing the first womanless ascent of Spire One in the Needles. 

https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/womenclimb.htm#:~:text=Jan%20Conn%20(left)%20and%20Jane,of%20years%20in%20the%20west.