Last September, Sasha DiGiulian, accompanied by two other female climbers, succeeded in climbing one of the world's most difficult major routes. The film "Rayu" tells the story.
Rayu is an ultra-technical 8C route in the Picos de Europa, a massif in Spain's Cantabrian mountain range between the provinces of Asturias, León and Cantabria. It was here, in September 2022, that three female climbers pushed back the limits of women's climbing. Sasha DiGiulian, Matilda Söderlund and Brette Harrington became the first female rope party to climb this route. The Rayu film (visible below in full), produced and unveiled by the American climber's sponsor, looks back on this feat by the three women.
Rayu was opened in 2020 by Iker Pou, Eneko Pou and Kico Cerdá, who spent five weeks on site to reach the end of this south face of the Peña Santa de Castilla. No one else succeeded, leaving the three Spaniards as the sole authors of the feat. Sasha DiGiulian came up with the idea of becoming the first women's climbing team to achieve this feat, and asked Sweden's Matilda Söderlund (who has already climbed 9A) and American Harrington (who specializes in long routes) to take part in the adventure.
After a spectacular first half of the climb in 6C, the three women reached a ledge with enough space to spend the night. They then moved on to more technical and steep passages up to a succession of cruxes in 8C. At the top, the view of the Atlantic was the reward for this great first and only second ascent on Rayu.
And yet, for several days, we had to contend with sharp rocks (to the point of making Brette Harrington's fingers bleed) and capricious weather. "There were some incredible storms when we were there," explains Sasha DiGiulian. "A huge hurricane hit off the coast of Portugal and we suffered the consequences here. Some days it was foggy, other days it rained, and there were thunderstorms..." Nothing, however, to stop the three climbers from reaching the summit of Rayu.
