This recent New York Times article is about an 11-year old girl named
Ashima Shiraishi who is a bouldering phenomenon -- she can complete V13 (!!) routes (that's on a difficulty scale that starts at V0 and goes up to V16).
Amazing doesn't even begin to describe her ability.
After reading the article, which a friend of mine forwarded to us knowing our fondness of the sport, my husband Brian and I pondered about a girl we had seen in September 2009 at Brooklyn Boulders, which had opened to the public just over a month earlier. Living in CT at the time, we were excited to see this new climbing facility and drove down to check it out.
These photos were taken on Saturday, September 12, 2009.
my playing around with the sign which hadn't been hung up yet
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| photo by Brian Tull |
the whole back area was still under construction
it was someone's birthday...
my finishing a V0 or possibly a V0+ or V1
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| photo by Brian Tull |
Brian finishing a route
Now, this was an interesting problem to tackle --
it essentially moves the climber around the green lion head in the center -- no feet involved. Having only started bouldering in May 2009, this route would prove to be very difficult, not only for myself
(I had managed to grab the first hold, but after holding my weight on the starting hold with no feet touching the ground nor wall, I had zero strength to make it any further)
but also difficult for the others I had seen attempt it... difficult except for one
she actually made it look easy
I didn't capture the whole thing since I literally wanted to watch this with my own eyes, but the time from the first photo to the last (9 total) was 22 seconds.
She was mesmerizing to watch, and I'm quite thankful that we had a chance to see her in action since we were literally done and heading out the door.
So, Brian was right -- it was Ashima Shiraishi, who was 8 years old at the time
(her dad, with short blonde hair and glasses, in the photos was the giveaway)
Looking forward to starting my 1-month discounted membership next month...
