Beth Rodden

Beth Rodden (born April 5, 1980) is an American rock climber known for her ascents of hard single-pitch traditional climbing routes. She started climbing in 1995 at a climbing gym in Davis, California, won the Junior National championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998, and in 1998 redpointed the sport route To Bolt Or Not To Be, becoming the youngest woman to climb 5.14a. Invited by Lynn Hill, she took part in the first all-female ascent of the Tsaranoro Massif in Madagascar in 1999. With Tommy Caldwell she made the first free ascent of Lurking Fear on El Capitan in 2000, and with her 2005 free ascent of The Nose she became the first woman to free climb two routes on that wall. In October 2005 she free climbed The Optimist, the first redpoint of 5.14b by an American woman, and in February 2008 she made the first ascent of the Yosemite crack Meltdown, proposed at 5.14c, which went without a second ascent for eleven years.