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Emily Harrington

„A seven-time U.S. National Champion in sport climbing, Emily made history as the first woman to free climb the Golden Gate route on Yosemite’s El Capitan in under 24 hours. She is also among the few American women to climb 5.14b outdoors, a benchmark of elite technical difficulty. Beyond rock faces, Emily has summited Mount Everest and led expeditions to remote peaks in Nepal, China, Myanmar, and Morocco, demonstrating extraordinary resilience in extreme environments.” - chartwellspeakers.com
 

  • First woman to free-climb El Cap’s Golden Gate in < 24 hrs (2020)
  • Seven-time USA Sport Climbing National Champion
  • Star of Girl Climber documentary (2025), premiered at Mountainfilm
     



„Emily Harrington is an American professional rock climber and mountaineer. She is a five-time US National Champion in sport lead climbing, runner-up in the 2005 IFSC Climbing World Championships, and has made the first female free ascents of several 5.14 routes.” - Wikipédia

„In 2012, she reached the summit of Mount Everest (8,848 m) with the aid of supplemental oxygen, generating enormous surprise in the climbing media. By then, she had already begun ice and mixed climbing, a transformation that would also lead her to Ama Dablam (6,812 m) in 2013 and to climb and ski Cho Oyu (8,201 m) in 2016, alongside her partner Adrian Ballinger. This change of pace ultimately led her to a type of climbing that not everyone is capable of: self-protecting on big walls without fixed anchors. The walls of Yosemite Valley, and especially El Capitan, became her new playground, and a new kind of obsession as well.

In 2015, she spent six days on El Capitan’s Golden Gate route, free-climbing its 41 pitches — 950 meters of vertical granite with difficulties up to 8a. She was the second woman to achieve this feat, after Hazel Findlay (2011), but she soon wanted more. Only three men had ever free-climbed Golden Gate in a single day: Tommy Caldwell, Brad Gobright, and Alex Honnold, and Emily Harrington was determined to be the first woman. She convinced Honnold to belay her and set to work. After two failed attempts, in 2019, stronger and more motivated than ever, she returned. She began climbing in the middle of the night, by the light of her headlamp, on relatively easy terrain, while Honnold belayed her at the base of the wall. A scream broke the monotony of the cold night. Then came Honnold’s cries of concern and his distraught face, terrified but calm: he managed to climb to his partner, stabilize her, protect her spine, and wait by her side for a complex rescue. In the documentary, the darkness of night prevents us from seeing Harrington, but her muffled screams and Honnold’s wild gaze convey far more anguish than any shot in daylight. Harrington suffered multiple injuries, including a traumatic brain injury. Afterward, she faced a long road to recovery, working to regain her lost confidence and overcome her demons. During her convalescence, those who had criticized her for being too thin years earlier now pointed out her supposed excess weight, implying that she would never be able to match the men in such a challenge.” - english.elpais.com


 

Accomplishments again:

  • First woman to free climb El Capitan via the Golden Gate route (VI 5.13) in less than 24 hours
  • Multiple 8000m peak attempts/summits - Mt Everest (2012), Makalu
  • Five-time sport climbing US National Champion
  • Free ascent of Golden Gate, Yosemite California (40 pitches, 5.13b)
  • First female ascent of multiple 5.14 sport climbs
  • Winner of the women’s division at Ouray Ice Festival 2012
  • Summited Cho Oyu (sixth tallest peak in the world) in 2016, achieving a speed record (2 weeks, door to door) and complete ski descent from the summit
     

>>> A top climber was rescued Sunday after she fell while climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park (article, 2019)
 


Girl Climber | Official Trailer (2025)



„The movie, which you can catch for a one-night-only showing this Sunday, August 24, at IMAX theaters nationwide, follows her through countless hours of training, three failed attempts at the ascent (including a 50-foot fall that sent her to the hospital with a concussion), and her wrestling over fear and self-doubt. We caught up with Harrington this week to talk the allure of El Cap, having Alex Honnold as a sidekick, and why crying is a sign of strength.” - 5280.com

>>> Interview: Meet Colorado’s Golden Girl Emily Harrington Ahead of Her New Climbing Flick by Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, AUGUST 21, 2025


Summary:

  • Emily Harrington looked back on her history-making ascent of El Capitan during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, a remarkable feat that is now the subject of Red Bull Studios’ Girl Climber documentary
  • The professional athlete, who became the first woman to top the 3,000-foot mountain's Golden Gate route in less than 24 hours in 2020, reflected on her life goal and how her relationship with climbing has changed since then
  • Harrington discusses her newfound perspective on the extreme sport since welcoming her first child, resulting in a different mentally that she never expected



Information: www.people.com, www.chartwellspeakers.com, www.thenorthface.com

Illustrations: 5280.com, www.favreleuba.com, www.edition.cnn.com, www.nbcnews.com