As the American climber Brittany Goris reports on her Instagram account, she mangaged the first female ascent of the infamous finger crack ‚Stingray‘ (X/ 5.13d) at the Iguana Dome in Joshua Tree in the USA. It took over 50 attempts to successfully reach the top. The crack, first ascented by Japanese Hidetaka Suzuki in 1988, was and is one of the hardest crack lines in the world. A few months before Hideteka, Local Mike Paul  in the Toperope. After that, the crack remained unrepeated for 22 years, because it was only in 2010 that Sonnie Trotter was able to repeat the crack for the first time. Sonnie Trotter described the crack as „one of the most beautiful cracks I’ve ever seen in my life“. He also rated the line just a little easier than his own creation“ Cobra Crack „(X + / 5.14a) in Squamish. Goris and Prithipal Khalsa tried the route, which the line could repeat three weeks earlier. Both climbers placed all „gears“ in the lead.

„Finally finally FINALLY!!! After almost fifty tries, almost two months of effort, and with a finger so swollen and borderline injured that we nicknamed it „El Gigante,“ on the fourth go of the day I finally sent The Stingray, one of if not the hardest route I’ve ever done. Full video and blog to come later– for now I’m just overwhelmed with happiness, relief, and gratitude to be at the end of this journey. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to @principle_salsa, my partner who was psyched to belay me for two full weeks after he sent, who held off his own celebrations so we could do it together, and who made this entire thing possible from the very beginning. Also huge thanks to @joshholt1 for jugging a static line and sitting in a harness almost a dozen times to get send footage, to @hobogreg for the amazing photos, and to everyone else that has welcomed me to J Tree and made my time here such a profound chapter in my life. The Stingray, 5.13d, First Female Ascent (that I know of, correct me if not!)“

Photo: (c) Hobo Greg

https://youtu.be/2sAX-fwiJNU