From Gripped Magazine · Aaron Pardy · · 1m 30s
Laura Rogora just made 5.14d look like a warm-up
Twelve 5.14ds in a single year, plus a six-day ascent of a route that took other climbers 60 sessions.
In brief
Twelve 5.14ds in a single year, plus a six-day ascent of a route that took other climbers 60 sessions. Rogora's edge isn't one breakthrough send, it's the sheer rate at which she repeats the hardest grades in the world. Originally reported by Gripped Magazine.
Twelve 5.14ds this year
Rogora's ascent of Narcissus 9a is her twelfth climb of the grade in 2026. No other woman is close on volume, and very few men are either.
“She continues to make 5.14d look routine”
A messy weekend in Albenga
Day one fell apart on Kalmiamoci, a 5.14a/b she could not read. Day two she cracked the crux, then two footholds snapped near the top.
“The first day was honestly a bit of a disaster.”
She salvaged it anyway
After the holds broke she repeated the lower section on her next attempt and clipped the chains. She capped the day with an onsight of Nuovi Aromi, 5.13b.
“I managed to repeat the lower section on the next go and bring the rope to the chains.”
The kneepad question
Matteo Gambardo put up Narcissus in 2020 and called it 5.14d/15a. Ondra and Bouin repeated it with kneepads and settled on 5.14d. Rogora used one too and agreed.
“I think it could be soft [5.14d] like this.”
Fifty-eight and counting
She became the first woman past 50 routes at 9a or harder, and that number is already 58. A third ascent of Ondra's Big Twin 5.15a sits on the same list.
Six days on Bibliographie
Megos needed 60 sessions on the 5.15c and first called it 5.15d. Bailey took 24, Garnbret 21. Rogora did it in six days, then added five more 9as within a month.
“Rogora's six-day send of a 5.15c route is unprecedented”
What it means
Rogora's edge isn't one breakthrough send, it's the sheer rate at which she repeats the hardest grades in the world.
