Gripped Magazine
Katie Lamb Makes V15 First Ascent in Yosemite
Katie Lamb recently announced her first ascent of 130 BPM V15 (8C), found near the junction of Highways 120 and 140 in Yosemite Valley. This is Lamb’s sixth problem V15 or harder and her first FA of the grade. The 28-year-old American climber is at the very cutting edge of hard bouldering, and has been for years. In March last year, she became the first woman in history to climb V16 with her top of The Dark Side in Yosemite. Lambs’ first ascent of 130 BPM is the first time a woman has opened an entirely new V15. Previous first ascents at the grade have been variations of other problems, such as Jana Švecová’s Nova and Tokyo Drift.
“I often feel unlucky in the lottery of predisposed climbing skill sets because, among the people I climb with, I almost never do a project first,” said Lamb on Instagram. “So I’ve spent a lot of time trying to physically emulate the best of what I see in others, maybe falling into the modern trap of believing there’s always a fix to make myself look, feel, and climb exactly how I want to.
“I did the moves on this project in a couple sessions. The crux—three tension moves on one terrible foot and slanted edges—suited me well. But I inexplicably lost one move once I started trying from the bottom. In becoming overly analytical about how it should be done, I’d lost the instinctive feel for it. I’d run up against the limits of understanding movement cerebrally at the expense of tuning into embodied intuition. It all came together right at the end of the season with a little shift toward these intangible traits: instinct and intuition.”
Lamb is one of the best boulderers in the world. Her first female ascent of The Dark Side V16 was historic, making her the first woman to achieve the grade. It was the second time she became the first woman to climb V16. Back in 2023, she climbed Box Therapy, which, at the time, was considered V16. After her ascent, the problem was downgraded to V15 by Shawn and Brooke Raboutou, a grade assessment that the first ascensionist, Daniel Woods, agreed with.
In October last year, she topped Bügeleisen V14 and Hide and Sick V14. Both problems are located in Maltatal, Austria, and impressively, Lamb topped both problems during the same bouldering session. Lamb also had a very sendy 2024. In May that year, she made the first ascent of 24 Karat, a stunning V11 highball in Yosemite. In August, she topped Equanimity V15, a line Jimmy Webb described as a “contender for the hardest technical boulder in the world.” Later in the year, she made first female ascents of David Fitzgerald’s Echo Chamber V14 and Webb’s Fallen Angel V15, both located in Tahoe. She also topped The Rookery V14 in Yosemite.
The post Katie Lamb Makes V15 First Ascent in Yosemite appeared first on Gripped Magazine.