Babsi Zangerl

Barbara Zangerl (born 24 May 1988) is an Austrian rock climber who is considered one of the best all-round female climbers in the world. At various stages in her career, she has climbed at–or just below–the highest grades achieved by a female in every major rock climbing discipline, including bouldering, traditional climbing, sport climbing, multi-pitch climbing and big wall climbing.

She was the first female to climb an 8A+/8B (V12/13) graded boulder route with Pura Vida in 2008, and has repeated some of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world, including Meltdown in 2023, which at 8c+ (5.14c) was the hardest traditional climbing grade by a female climber. Zangerl has redpointed sport climbing routes up to the grade of 9a+ (5.15a) with her ascent of Bombardino 2025.

Zangerl has made the first female free ascent (FFFA) of several notable multi-pitch and big wall climbing routes including the Alpine Trilogy in 2013, three routes on El Capitan (El Nino in 2015, Zodiac in 2015, and Magic Mushroom in 2016), the Eiger's hardest route, Odyssee, in 2018, and one of the hardest high-altitude big wall routes, Eternal Flame on the Nameless Tower in Pakistan, in 2022. Zangerl became the first person in history to flash a route on El Capitan (Freerider in 2024).

In 2019, she was named as the National Geographic 'Adventurer of the Year'. She is also known for her climbing partnership with Italian rock climber Jacopo Larcher.