Angela Eiter
Angela Eiter (born 27 January 1986 in Arzl im Pitztal) is an Austrian professional rock climber. She is a champion in lead climbing competitions, winning three IFSC Lead Climbing World Cups in a row, from 2004 to 2006 and four IFSC World Championships. In 2011, she achieved her 25th win in World Cup and her 42nd podium. She is also one of the strongest sport climbers in the world, and in 2017, became the first-ever female in history to climb a route, "La Planta de Shiva". In 2020, she became the first-ever female in history  to complete the first free ascent of a route, "Madame Ching". Climbing career. Competition climbing. Eiter started climbing at age eleven when her school offered her the chance to try the sport. Her parents accompanied her to the climbing gym in Imst. At fifteen, she climbed her first indoor . In 2002, having reached the age of sixteen, she began to participate in the World Cup lead climbing. In 2003, she won her first Cup race at Aprica. Since then she has won three World Cups in a row: in 2004, in 2005, winning eight out of nine events and in  2006, winning seven out of ten events. She won four world championships in the lead climbing specialty: the 2005 edition in Munich, the 2007 edition in Avilés, the 2011 edition in Arco, and the 2012 edition in Paris. For her achievements she was awarded the La Sportiva Competition Award in 2006. In September 2008, during the third round of the World Cup in Bern, she had a serious accident damaging her left shoulder, for which she underwent arthroscopic surgery. She had to prematurely end the season and deal with nine months' rehabilitation. She started to compete the following July at  the Climbing World Championship 2009 in Qinghai. Rock climbing. On September 6, 2014, Eiter climbed the route "Hades" at Nassereith, Austria. She is the sixth woman to climb this grade or higher. On October 22, 2017, she climbed "La Planta de Shiva" (Villanueva del Rosario, Spain), widely considered to be a route, becoming the world's first-ever female to climb at grade. In 2020, she did the first free ascent (FFA) of "Madame Ching" (which she named after Ching Shih) in Imst, Austria, and suggested the grade of 9b (5.15b) for it, which would make it the world's  first-ever female FFA at that grade.