How Austrian climber Babsi Zangerl completed a ‘hard to believe’ historic ascent of El Capitan

On a vertical rockface like El Capitan, the soaring slab of granite in California’s Yosemite National Park, perfection is an elusive, almost impossible goal for professional climbers.

On a vertical rockface like El Capitan, the soaring slab of granite in California’s Yosemite National Park, perfection is an elusive, almost impossible goal for professional climbers. It can take years of experience to master a route to the top of the 3,000-foot wall, such is its difficulty and magnitude. That’s precisely why Babsi Zangerl’s recent “flash” of El Cap is so unique and impressive. In climbing, to “flash” a route is to reach the top on the first attempt without any falls – a feat never before achieved on El Cap prior to Zangerl’s maiden summit of Freerider last month. From bottom to top, she was faultless. “It was hard to believe,” the Austrian climber tells CNN Sport. “I was so surprised that this just happened and that I didn’t fall … I could have fallen so many times on that climb.” Freerider is a popular route up El Capitan, the same one taken by Alex Honnold when he climbed the rockface without ropes or harnesses in the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.” Zangerl has lots of experience climbing on El Cap and around Yosemite but had never previously attempted the 30-plus pitches up Freerider. The challenging Monster Offwidth section – a 60-meter-long (almost 197 feet) crack around halfway through the climb – had put her off, and flashing the route, she says, wasn’t a long-standing target for her.