Josune Bereziartu

Josune Bereziartu, also known as Josune Bereciartu Urruzola, is a Basque rock climber born on 19 January 1972 in Lazkao in Gipuzkoa, northern Spain. She started climbing at seventeen and, for about a decade from the late 1990s, was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world. She was the first woman to climb routes graded 8c, 8c+, 9a and 9a/9a+, the last with Bimbaluna at St Loup in Switzerland in 2005, and the first woman to onsight 8a+, 8b and 8b+ routes. She also solved boulder problems up to 8C and freed multi-pitch routes such as Yeah Man with Rikar Otegui, while taking part in few competitions.