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It’s a normal day for Michaela Kiersch. The 30-year-old professional climber—the first woman in the world to send both V15 boulder and 5.15 sport—is trying one of the hardest routes in California: Everything is Karate (5.14c/d) in Pine Creek Canyon, near Bishop.
Unlike most of Kiersch’s recent big-name projects, this route ascends a sloping seam, requiring what she calls “ultra tech climbing” and finger locks.
“This style is not an obvious strength for me,” she writes on Instagram, “so it’s been cool to see progress every sesh.”
Kiersch is midway up the 70-foot route when she sticks the crux move and “bobbles the feet,” as she describes it. She’s about to take a fall—and from our perspective, she’s in a precarious position. She’s five feet above the last bolt and her feet are just a few inches from slipping under the rope. In past situations like this, we’ve seen falling climbers catch their ankle in the rope and get flipped upside-down.
But this is where her experience as a sport climber shows. When Kiersch falls, dropping at least 15 feet from her last extended draw, she’s careful to keep both her feet on one side of the rope—the side she’s going to fall toward. By the time she whips out of the frame, the rope is safely in front of her.
Some climbers try to keep the rope between their feet, but that’s not the safest technique for lead climbing, especially on a diagonal. It’s an easy way for the rope to get wrapped around your ankles or legs, which can lead to a flip whip. Instead, we recommend keeping the rope in front of your legs at all times.
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.