Lara Neumeier is one of Germany’s best trad and big wall climbers, describing big walls as ‘the ultimate adventure’. She was born in the Allgau mountains of Germany, near the Austrian border and first put on a climbing harness at the age of two. A love of rock climbing began early…

In 2023, Lara and BABSI Zangerl made the first female ascent of the route Muir Blast and El Corazon on El Capitan, a 5.13 climb. The 35 pitches, which they free climbed, took them 6 days. Amazingly, this was her first big wall climb on El Cap. The following year she would return to El Cap, and free El Nino via Pineapple Express variation with Nemo Feurle. Closer to home she recently made the fourth repeat – the first female ascent – of the trad-route Psychogramm at Bürser Platte, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria which has a grade of 8b+.

She now has a new project – repeating the famous Alpine trilogy of hardest climbs put up by Beat Kammerlander, Thomas Huber and Stefan Glowacz, back in the day. First was Silbergeier (8b+) on the Swiss side of the Rätikon, the next was End of Silence, a 14 pitch 8b+ in her native Berchtesgarden Alps. Only the third remains: Des Kaisers neue Kleider (The Emperor’s New Clothes).

In this episode, Lara reflects on her achievements to date, her current targets and her desire to inspire others to climb.

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