“Climbing has been this passport to some really remote destinations that I never would have seen were it not for climbing,” says Sasha DiGiulian. One case in point? Yosemite Valley, as seen from some 2000 feet in the air—while hanging from the face of El Capitán by a harness. Yosemite's El Capitan is the world's largest granite monolith. In December 2025, Sasha DiGiulian became the first woman to climb its Platinum Wall. In December 2025, 33-year-old DiGiulian became the first woman to ascend the mountain's Platinum Wall, an undertaking that required 23 days—nine of which were spent waiting out a torrential rainstorm—to complete. It’s not the first time she has gone—quite literally—where no woman has gone before. From French Polynesia to Madagascar, she ranks among the climbers with the highest number of “First Female Ascents,” meaning she was the first woman to complete a particular route. She is especially known for pursuing these climbs in remote, far-flung corners of the world.…