Sasha
DiGiulian
United States
·
Climbing
Date of birth | 23 October 1992 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Alexandria, VA |
Age | 33 |
Nationality | United States |
Career start | 2010 |
Disciplines | Ice Climbing / Climbing Lead |
Sasha DiGiulian was just six years old, at her brother's birthday party in her home town of Alexandria, Virginia, when she fell in love with a climbing wall. It wouldn't take her long to take the climbing world by storm.
"My brother had a birthday party at a climbing gym when I was six, so 1998. And I just really enjoyed it. I grew up doing lots of different sports, I had been skiing since I was two and I did figure skating competitively, swam, played team soccer; all these different sports."
Contest wins and setting records
She was just seven when she won her first regional contest and started sport climbing outside. Her first Junior Continental Championships followed at 11, remaining undefeated in that contest for the rest of her junior career. In 2010, at 17, she won her first National Sport Climbing Championships against women of all ages, and won the Female Overall World Championship title a year later.
At 18, she became the third woman in history – and the first North American woman – to climb a 5.14d route, on a wall in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. She describes the climb as "a big breakthrough moment". "It was the hardest climb achieved by a woman in the world and the first 9a done by a North American woman."
While a full-time college student at New York’s Columbia University, studying non-fiction writing and business, Sasha expanded her resumé of impressive alpine climbs, achieving first female ascents everywhere from Kentucky to South Africa to the Italian Dolomites.
In 2015, she became the first woman to climb a notoriously difficult route called Magic Mushroom on the North Face of Switzerland’s famed Eiger and to date she has over 30 first female ascents to her name.
She graduated from Columbia in 2016 and relocated to Boulder, Colorado, a climbing epicentre. “I fell in love with the fact that, in climbing, there’s an endless spectrum of personal achievements and it’s a physically and mentally demanding sport. It’s also served as my vehicle to explore the remotest corners of the world and has been my gateway to creating a global community.”
Conquering the most challenging ascents
In 2017, Sasha, along with Jon Cardwell and Marcus Garcia, completed the first continuous free ascent of Yosemite National Park’s 1,700ft [518m] Misty Wall – a feat that took 14.5 hours to complete.
Two years later, in 2019, Sasha, Savannah Cummins and Angela Vanwiemeersch completed an all-female ascent of Pico Cão Grande in São Tomé and Principe, a small island nation just off the west coast of central Africa.
In 2022, Sasha led the hardest climb ever achieved by an all-female team on Rayu (5.14b) in Spain.
"I was the expedition leader, so I put the team together and came up with the idea, I planned all our equipment and food down to every single day. That level of preparation and planning everything is exciting for me, I really enjoy that process."
Spreading her love of climbing
In 2023, the adventurer, environmentalist and entrepreneur released her book Take the Lead, a raw account of her life under the scrutiny of social media, navigating a male-dominated sport and tackling her most heart-stopping climbs. Her juxtaposition of grit and success paired with pure humility brings a balance few athletes of her calibre can attain.
In 2024, Sasha completed her first Ironman 70.3 triathlon during a trip to Panama. “I chose Panama because it was good timing for my climbing career,” Sasha explained. “I’m on climbing objective trips through the spring, summer and fall, so it was a fun cross-training challenge to get me through winter.”
Later the same year, her ground-breaking Red Bull Media House-produced documentary Here to Climb premiered on the global streaming service HBO MAX, taking her story to the wider world.