Last year, Babsi Zangerl did something no one has ever done before—she flashed a route on El Capitan. Thousands of feet of hard climbing with no falls. Her partner, Jacopo Larcher, came really close, taking just one fall during their ascent of Freerider. 

Zangerl has been a climber for over two decades, since she was a teenager at a climbing gym in Austria. But what, and how, she climbs has evolved over that time—she spent her early years as a professional boulderer. 

Zangerl first visited Yosemite fifteen years ago with her friend Hansjörg Auer. She was getting more serious about ropes after sustaining a serious back injury while bouldering. Since that first trip in 2010, Zangerl has returned with Larcher to free climb many of the valley’s classic routes, including Zodiac, Magic Mushroom and the Nose.

In 2018 the pair climbed the North Face of the Eiger. In 2022 they freed Eternal Flame on Pakistan’s Nameless Tower, a trip Larcher wrote about in Alpinist 82. And their list of accomplishments just keeps growing. 

In this episode, Zangerl talks about the beginnings of her climbing career in Austria, her partnership with Larcher, learning the ropes from Hansjörg Auer and much more. 

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Photos of Basi Zangerl by Jacopo Larcher and Jonathan Faeth

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