In August 2013, Sasha DiGiulian traveled to the Dolomites to attempt Bellavista, a dream years in the making. After two weeks of working on the crux pitches, she climbed the entire route in a single push, becoming the first woman to climb a 5.14b big wall, breaking a major barrier in the sport.
Then a sport climber, DiGiulian was incredibly strong on single-pitch routes, but unaccustomed to the complexity of big walls. “I had climbed 5.14d, so I thought the 5.14b pitches wouldn’t be so hard, but I learned how much the logistics, weather, and fatigue add up,” she says.
Big wall climbing forced DiGiulian to embrace a greater sense of adventure and combine multiple skills, which became her new obsession. “I love long days on the wall, working on a project, being away from the chaos of the rest of life,” DiGiulian says. “It’s all-encompassing.”
However, breaking the barrier came with its own set of challenges. Despite leading all of the hard pitches of Bellavista, online trolls claimed that her climbing partner, Edu Marin, had led her up the route. “Every time I do a project with a guy, people assume my partner leads the hard pitches, even if there is photo or video evidence otherwise,” DiGiulian says. “It’s really aggravating.”
Fortunately DiGiulian had bonafides to back it up. After an undefeated run as a competition climber, winning four PanAmerican titles, three National titles, and Female Overall World Championships title in 2011, she transitioned to sport climbing, then to big walls. She has more than 30 female first ascents and 12 first ascents, most recently leading an all-women team up a 2,000-foot limestone wall in Spain dubbed “the hardest multi-pitch route ever climbed by an all-female team.”After each groundbreaking climb, a steady stream of harassment would follow. In 2018 DiGiulian shared her experience being bullied in an Instagram post that quickly went viral. “It had been building for a long time, away from the public eye,” recounts DiGiulian. “I had tried to resolve it in other ways, but nothing worked. I’m glad that I said something.” The post became a watershed moment, catalyzing a much larger conversation about sexism in climbing.
DiGiulian believes a lot of the skepticism comes from being an outsider. “I don’t look or act like a stereotypical climber. I’m not a dirtbag eating cans of tuna; I had blood fingers with pink nails.” DiGiulian says. “I’m a kid from the big city with feminine traits, which led people to not believing my story.”
Growing up in New York City, DiGiulian started climbing when she was just six years old at her brother’s birthday party. At 12, she won her first Continental Championships and soon after signed her first sponsor, MadRock. After graduating high school she won her first World Champs, then deferred her acceptance to Columbia University to focus on climbing.
Months later she sent Pure Imagination, an iconic route in the Red River Gorge, on just her sixth try. At the time it was rated 5.14d, making her the first North American woman to climb the grade. The news made headlines around the world and landed her a guest appearance on Oprah.
“I’ve been in the spotlight since I was a teenager,” DiGiulian says. “Over my career, I opened doors and got bloody going through them, but hopefully that helps female climbers have less friction. That would make me happy, for others to have less criticism.”
When she was young, DiGiulian said the pressure would get to her more. “I was dealing with an eating disorder, so being fat shamed was really hard on my mental health,” she says. “There are people who count my entire career as a fraud or fake. We say haters gonna hate, but I’m not bulletproof.”
In 2020 DiGiulian’s career was derailed by hip dysplasia. “My femur would pop out of its socket while training and an MRI showed that my cartilage was degenerating,” she says. The injury resulted in five surgeries, which took two years to recover from. “I was flattened, literally and figuratively. I had to find a purpose outside of climbing.”
She used the time to write a book and start a company, while working on her mental health. “Therapy helped a lot. I turned over a lot of stones and found ways to stop listening to the haters. I’ve always felt like an outsider and the break helped me recognize that I don’t need to be an insider to feel grounded.”
Her company, Send Bars, focuses on issues she cares about most. “Climbing is a sport with a lot of eating disorders and lack of nutrition. It can be unhealthy at times, but food can be empowering if we allow it to. That’s the goal of the company.”
The confidence gained away from climbing helped when she returned to the sport. “After most female sends, the routes are immediately downgraded by male climbers,” DiGiulian says, “but I’ve learned to just be proud of what I’ve done and confident in who I am.”
Downgrading is assigning a lower grade to a route after it’s established, ostensibly due to factors like the rock changing over time. However, it is often used as a subtle way to demote the accomplishments of female climbers, one of the ways that sexism shows up in climbing.
Despite her public appeal for more respect in the climbing community, DiGiulian still receives malicious messages and negative comments about her weight, makeup, clothes and relationships. “I get a lot of hate for being a sellout,” says DiGiulian, “but now see that a lot of it comes from jealousy.”
Over time, she has learned to use negativity as fuel. “I know I’m challenging the hierarchy of climbing. Bro culture is threatened by my success, so they try to take me down. I try to focus on the positive impact I’ve had, like helping the sport go mainstream, creating more opportunities for everyone.”
DiGiulian hopes to be remembered for establishing a new baseline for female climbers, including how they are recognized, treated and paid. For example, she was the North American climber to be sponsored by Adidas, who now has dozens of comp, sport, and big wall climbers on their roster. “I’m never going to be the strongest climber ever, but I’m proud that my success has helped create an easier path for young climbers growing into the industry.”
More than anything, DiGiulian recognizes the privilege of being a professional climber. “We’re role models as much as we’re rock climbers. Going public about bullying was hard for me, but it catalyzed a massive shift towards respect and equity. It created more accountability for the actions of everyone, and that’s the golden rule in society.”
