Barbara Zangerl receives Paul Preuss Prize 2025

The International Paul Preuss Society (IPPG) has awarded the Paul Preuss Prize 2025 to Barbara Zangerl, who is now the second woman after Catherine Destivelle to receive this prestigious award. Born in 1988 in Bludenz (Vorarlberg) and raised in Tyrol, Zangerl impressed the IPPG jury with her extreme climbs worldwide. The prize, named after the "father of free climbing" Paul Preuss (1886-1913), will be presented to her on Saturday, September 20, 2025, in Altaussee, the hometown of Paul Preuss, in the presence of numerous famous mountaineers.

The press release of the International Paul Preuss Society states "Babsi had already started climbing at the age of 13 when her brother took her to a climbing gym. This was the spark that ignited her climbing career, which reached its first peak at just 19 years old when she climbed a boulder problem graded 8B. With her send of "Pura Vida," she suddenly became a rising star in the professional bouldering scene. Only temporarily "slowed down" by a herniated disc, she studied radiology during her recovery - a profession she still works in part-time today - because her main occupation and calling is sport climbing.

During this time, she explored other climbing disciplines, feeling particularly drawn to the adventurous nature of trad and sport climbing. In the process, she mastered some of the most difficult routes worldwide, including a total of eight free ascents on El Capitan and the hardest route on the Eiger North Face in record time, as well as several routes graded 9a.

Being named "Adventurer of the Year" 2019 by National Geographic was no reason for her to rest on her laurels - quite the opposite: three years later, she became the first woman to free climb the legendary big wall route "Eternal Flame" on Trango Tower in Pakistan, which she climbed without a single fall together with her partner Jacopo Larcher. This had never been achieved before in big wall climbing at such a high level.

With these spectacular successes, "Babsi" Zangerl has pushed the boundaries of women's sports even further. She also repeated rarely climbed trad routes in Yosemite like "Meltdown" and "Magic Line." Additionally, she climbed some of the most demanding multi-pitch routes in the Alps such as "The Gift" and "Seventh Direction." Worldwide attention came when "Babsi" successfully flashed the 32-pitch route "Freerider" on El Capitan - as the first person ever on the very first attempt and without a single fall."

2013 - Reinhold Messner
2014 - Hanspeter Eisendle
2015 - Albert Precht
2016 - Hansjörg Auer
2017 - Alexander Huber
2018 - Beat Kammerlander
2019 - Bernd Arnold
2020 - Heinz Mariacher
2021 - Catherine Destivelle
2022 - Thomas Huber
2023 - Marko Prezelj
2024 - Dani Arnold
2025 - Barbara Zangerl