Climb	Type	Suggested Grade	Date of Ascent	Notes
Ali Hulk (extension total sit start)	Sport Route	9b/5.15b	25th July 2020	Second female ascent of a 9b. Video
Erebor	Sport Route	9b/+	3rd Oct 2021	Since it’s graded a 9b/+, this makes it the hardest route ever done by a female. Video and Instagram Post
Pure Dreaming Plus	Sport Route	9a+/5.15a	30th May 2020	Laura’s first 9a+ route! Instagram Post
Terapia d’urto	Sport Route	9a+/5.15a	11th April 2021	Instagram Post
Iron Man	Sport Route	9a/5.14d	24th Sep 2021	FA Instagram Post
Grandi Gesti	Sport Route	9a/5.14d	28th Feb 2016	Laura was 14 years old when she did Grandi Gesti.
Joe-Cita	Sport Route	9a/5.14d	27th Feb 2017	Rock & Ice Magazine
Bogaboo Rider	Boulder	V11/8A	3rd April 2023	Instagram Post
Dal Profondo Del Lato Oscuro	Boulder	V11/8A	3rd April 2023	Instagram Post
New Base Line (Stand start)	Boulder	V12/8A+	Oct 2021	Instagram Post
Sofasurfer	Boulder	V12/8A+	Oct 2021	Instagram Post
Foxy Lady	Boulder	V11/8A	Oct 2021	Instagram Post
Eurotrash	Boulder	V12/8A+	26th May 2021	Instagram Post

Learning the Ropes

Laura Rogora’s journey to becoming one of the top climbers in the world began at a very young age. At the tender age of five, Laura began climbing and it wasn’t long before she was hooked. This was all thanks to her father, Enrico.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for young Laura. The first time she went up, she cried from fear when she reached the top. As she got the hang of it, Laura’s natural talent and enthusiasm for climbing began to shine through. And before long, she was scaling walls like a pro. Did I also mention she’s 5ft? This petite climber from Rome puts us all to shame.

Being from Rome, Laura didn’t have many opportunities to climb as the main sport climbing crags are in northern Italy. Since she started competing at a young age, training for comps was all done inside, so she utilized indoor climbing gyms to train where she could hone her skills and prepare for competitions. She eventually made the move to Trento in the north so she can be closer to natural rock.

Competition Climbing

Laura has had a pretty impressive track record in the comps. She has won a total of 3 gold in the IFSC World Youth Championships, 1 silver, and in 2020, Laura won her first women’s lead Climbing World Cup in Briancon, France.

Olympics

In 2019, Laura qualified for the Olympics in the combined event in Toulouse. She was one of two athletes representing Italy, along with Lodovico Fossali. 

Laura didn’t do as well in the Olympic circuit, coming in 15th out of 20 females in the combined event, and getting knocked out in the semi-finals. Reflecting back on her performance, she knew she had a few weaknesses. Speed was by far her weakest discipline as her times were slower compared to the other climber. After qualifying for the Olympics, she mentioned:

‘For speed I have only weaknesses. Compared to the others, I do much longer times.’

Lead is where she performs the best, but at the Olympics, she couldn’t quite get there. There’s always 2024. We believe in you Laura!

Laura’s Mental Training for Climbing

For Laura Rogora, there are many similarities between climbing and maths. In an interview with the Olympics channel, she spoke about how both activities require problem-solving skills, and how the challenge of both comes from figuring out the right sequence of moves or steps to take. Following in her father’s footsteps, she enrolled to study maths at the University of Rome, but had to pause it due to qualifying for the Olympics. 

In climbing, each route is like a unique problem that needs to be solved. Climbers have to assess the route, plan out their moves, and execute them with precision. Similarly, in maths, there are problems to be solved, and the solution requires a specific sequence of steps to be taken.

Laura isn’t the only one who has made this correlation, with Stefano Ghisolfi comparing climbing with solving the Rubik’s cube. In fact, 75% of climbers that competed in the 2020 Olympics could solve the Rubik’s cube. Pretty impressive, right?

Notable Ascents

There is no denying that Laura is one of the smallest climbers out there, making it hard to reach holds and lacking explosive power. However, Laura has never let this stop her from trying some of the hardest routes in the world. What she lacks in height, she makes up with intricate technique and unrivaled stamina.

Laura has sent some of the hardest routes in the world, notably, Ali Hulk and Erebor.

Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension Total

A huge achievement from Laura is her ascent of the Ali Hulk sit start extension total 9b. Ali Hulk is located in Rodellar, Spain and links up a number of different routes. Ali Baba and Hulk are the boulder problems, chuck in a sit start to it, a harness and rope, a total finish to the top and you have Ali Hulk sit start extension total. What a mouthful.

The route starts off as a sit start, which Laura said wasn’t too difficult, but adds on another 20 moves to the stand start which is already a 9a+. Once you get to the 9a+ section, there are a couple of hard moves, toufas, gastons and a drop knee at the end before entering the boulder problem. Did I mention that this is all overhung? Yeah. 

Once the boulder problem finishes, Laura hangs from a double kneebar while her father ties in a rope to her harness. Not something we are used to seeing in sport climbing! Here, she takes a good rest before she makes her way up the rest of the route which is a solid 8c+. She is still hanging horizontally by the way. Once she gets to the second kneebar rest, the extension to the top starts. Laura clipped the chains after working on the route for 6 days. Very impressive work. 

When Laura clipped the chains, she became the second woman after Angela Eiter to climb a grade of that difficulty. 

Erebor

In October 2021 Laura added yet another incredible route to her name. Erebor, located in Eremo di San Paolo, in Italy, was first bolted and FA’d by fellow Italian climber, Stefano Ghisolfi. 

Stefano couldn’t quite decide between a 9b and a 9b+, citing that it’s not quite at the level of Perfecto Mundo, so decided to give it a 9b/+ grade. Still, this was a tremendous feat by Laura and makes it the hardest sport climb ever done by a woman.

Erebor consists of an intense overhang and dynamic movements which Laura actually skipped. Not being able to do the dyno, she found some practically non-existing crimps to use instead of jumping to the dyno. The crux is at the start of the route, but the rest of the climb consists of decent rests and a boulder problem to the chains. 

Laura has a whole list of hard climbs on her resume. At the age of 14, she climbed a 9a, becoming the second youngest person in the world to do that.