Katherine Choong makes first female ascent of Tarragó at Montserrat

The line is just wild: 5 pitches: 6b, 8b, 8a, 8b+, 7c+/8a. The rock isn’t exactly perfect though: dusty, fragile conglomerate, holds breaking every other try… But the climbing is super athletic and sustained, on a massive overhang, surrounded by the magical landscape of Montserrat (Catalunya).

I thought I’d be able to send it pretty quickly. No crazy hard moves, and the style seemed to fit me well. But it turned out to be way tougher than expected! On my first ground-up go, I fell at the very top of pitch 4 (8b+). The following days, I couldn’t even get past the first crux of the 8b+, and fighting my way through pitch 2 (8b), which I only sometimes sent on my second try, drained me completely.

On the 15th of October, after a day of rain, the rock was still slightly humid. I sent P2, then made it through the first crux of P4, getting close to the spot where I’d fallen on day one… when suddenly I was hanging in the rope again, a hold broke in my hand. The situation felt hopeless. Failing because of something beyond my control was even more frustrating than falling from my own mistake.

I took a breath, found a new beta, rested, and went for one final try. This time, in a full-on fight, shaking on each holds, everything finally came together. I clipped the anchor. I topped out the final pitch in thick fog, completely drained but deeply happy. What a journey.

Many thanks to Jim Zimmermann, my partner, who was extremely close to sending it, but the conditions during the last two days we had left were the worst of the trip: fog wrapped the cliff in humidity all day long. We’ll be back!

All the pitches were climbed on lead and sent in a single day. The route was open by David Tarragó, first freed by the Pou brothers in 2013, and later repeated by Edu Marín, Seb Berthe and Jorge Díaz-Rullo. Thanks to all of them for the vision and the inspiration!

- Katherine Choong, Switzerland