© Robert Bösch

Regularly described as one of the world’s best all-round climbers, Barbara ‘Babsi’ Zangerl is known for her boundary-pushing versatility across trad climbing, big wall climbing, alpine routes, sport climbs and bouldering.

The 31-year-old Austrian was the first woman to climb an 8b grade bouldering route, the first woman to free climb El Capitan’s Magic Mushroom route (as part of only the second ever free ascent with partner Jacopo Larcher) and the first woman to nail the Alpine Trilogy of 5.14a sport routes.

When I got in touch with Babsi she was in Yosemite waiting for bad weather to clear up so she could climb The Nose on El Cap. During her downtime she was able to answer my questions on fear, free climbing and sending what at first seems impossible. Enjoy!

Hey guys,

Just a little heads-up that I’ll be tweaking my posting days and how often I post over the next couple of months, and will probably be alternating between one post and two a week for a while. Don’t panic, I’ll still be bringing you interviews with incredible women regularly, it’s just I need a bit of time to work on some other exciting Lessons in Badassery projects and also earn some money via my day job (always helpful!).

This week will be a ‘one interview’ week (starting tomorrow with the incredible climber Babsi Zangerl) and the following week I’ll post on Tuesday and Friday again.