Michaela Kiersch gets her Golden ticket
- Sunday 15th January 2017
Jan 15th; 2017
If you're short on psyche watch Michaela Kiersch as she battles against considerable odds to become the first women to send The Golden Ticket (5.14c/F8c+) in The Red River Gorge, Kentucky.
Michaela Kiersch on/off the double dyno on The Golder Ticket. (Video grab from film)
A science major, Michaela Kiersch stacked the cards against herself when she got involved with The Golden Ticket. She has limited time to climb/train, the crag is a seven hour drive away, the route has numerous deadpoints as well as a monster double-handed dyno which come high on the route. Inconveniently, the crux comes after that – on the headwall. And if all that isn’t enough, her diminutive stature – she’s 5’1” tall – cranks the odds even higher against her succeeding.
Yet despite all that, Kiersch makes the first ever redpoint of The Golden Ticket by a women. It’s an inspirational achievement of one of the Red River Gorge’s iconic hard routes. Watch the wonderful film about her ascent by Andy Wickstrom and Just Go Climb below.