Nationality American/Japanese Name Ashima Shiraishi | Role Rock Climber | |
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Born April 3, 2001 (age 23)
New York, NY ( 2001-04-03 ) Occupation Student and Rock Climber Type of climber Bouldering, Sport Climbing Highest grade Redpoint: 5.15a (9a+)
Bouldering: V14 (8B+) Parents Hisatoshi Shiraishi, Tsuya Shiraishi Similar People Alex Puccio, Sasha DiGiulian, Chris Sharma, Brooke Raboutou Profiles | ||
Rock climbing with ashima shiraishi
Ashima Shiraishi (born April 3, 2001 in New York, NY) is an American rock climber. Something of a child prodigy, she has quickly become one of the strongest female climbers of all time and is widely considered to be the best teenage climber of either gender. She started climbing at age six at Rat Rock in Central Park with her dad. She has since become a top boulderer and sport climber whose accolades include first place finishes in international competitions, multiple first female and youngest ascents, and several corporate sponsorships. She is featured in several short documentary-style films and is the subject of the documentary short "Return to the Red" (2012).. Yet she jokes that her only "claim to fame" is that actor and teen heartthrob Ansel Elgort climbs at her home gym.
Contents
- Rock climbing with ashima shiraishi
- Meet Rock Climbing Phenom Ashima Shiraishi
- Biography
- Climbing World Championships
- Boulders
- Redpointed routes
- References
The New York Times has called her a "bouldering phenom". Outside Magazine has described her as a "young crusher". At age 13 she became the second female, and youngest person, to climb a sport route with a difficulty grade of 5.14d/5.15a (9a/9a+). In 2016, she achieved the first female ascent of the V15 Horizon in Mount Hiei, Japan and became the first female climber to climb the grade.
Meet Rock Climbing Phenom Ashima Shiraishi
Biography
Ashima was born in New York, NY on April 3 of 2001. She is the only child of Tsuya and Hisatoshi Shiraishi who immigrated from Japan in 1978 to New York, NY. Her father, Hisatoshi "Poppo" Shiraishi was trained as a dancer in Butoh. When she was 6, her parents took her to Central Park and she discovered Rat Rock where she first started to rock climb and later started climbing at Brooklyn Boulders in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
She started climbing competitively at age 7, in 2008, and paired with coach Obe Carrion, an accomplished climber. Their partnership ended in 2012, largely due to tensions and disagreements between Carrion and Ashima's father (who has been her coach since then).
Ashima first made a name for herself by bouldering at a very high level at a very young age. At age 8, she climbed the classic boulder problem Power of Silence (V10), in Hueco Tanks, Texas. At age 9, she also climbed Chablanke (V11/12) and Roger in the Shower (V11) in Hueco Tanks, and several other difficult boulders. At age 10, she climbed Ethan Pringle's notorious Crown of Aragorn (V13) also in Hueco Tanks. She is the youngest person ever to climb this grade, and one of very few female climbers to climb a confirmed V13.
She has also excelled in lead climbing. At age 11, on October 2012, she climbed Southern Smoke at the Red River Gorge, a grade 5.14c (8c+) sport climb, becoming the youngest person to climb a route of this difficulty.
In 2013, Ashima continued to excel at both bouldering and lead climbing, adding to her ticklist a 5.14a (Slow Food at Céüse) two more V13s (One Summer in Paradise and Automator) and finally two 5.14c's (24 Karats and 50 Words for Pump). On July 2014, she climbed what might be her first V14, Golden Shadow; however, there is a suggestion that Golden Shadow is V13 or V13/V14. She was the second officially recorded female climber (after Tomoko Ogawa) to successfully climb a V14 problem. On the first day of 2015, she climbed her second V14 (V13/V14), The Swarm, claiming the first female top-out of the problem.
At age 13, Ashima climbed her first 5.14d/9a, Open Your Mind Direct R1 in Santa Linya. The route was thought to be harder while Ashima was attempting it, for she had broken a hold near the top. Although, on Christmas Day of 2015, Edu Márin Garcia climbed the route past Ashima's end point to the second top and confirmed Ashima's route as a 5.14d/9a. In the same climbing trip Ashima climbed 'Ciudad de Dios', making her the youngest athlete to climb a 5.14d/5.15a (9a/9a+) and the second female climber to climb at this level. The route has been climbed by 6 other athletes, but there is still no definite consensus on whether the grade is 5.14d or 5.15a.
In 2015, 2016, and 2017 Ashima won the IFSC World Youth Championships for both Lead and Bouldering in the Female Youth B category. In 2016, she also became the first female climber to climb an 8C/V15 boulder problem, which she did at Mount Hiei in Japan.
In 2017, she was the winner in the female sport category at the USA Climbing Sport & Speed Open National Championships (SCS nationals) held in Denver, Colorado, and placed second at the USA Climbing Bouldering Nationals (ABS nationals) to 10-time champion Alex Puccio. In the same year, she started competing in the Climbing World Cup as an adult.
She is sponsored by Evolv, The North Face, Clif Bar, Petzl, Coca-Cola Japan, All Nippon Airways and Nikon.
Alongside fellow American climber Kai Lightner, she is featured in the short film "Young Guns" in Reel Rock 11 (by Sender Films). The film covers her successful attempt of the 8C (V15) climb in Japan in 2016.
Climbing World Championships
Youth
Boulders
8C (V15):
8B+ (V14):
8B (V13):
Other Bouldering Achievements:
Redpointed routes
9a or 9a+ (5.14d or 5.15a) - (grade that has not reached consensus):
9a (5.14d):
8c+ (5.14c):
8c (5.14b):