Angie Payne

Aged 19, and in her first year in college, Payne won a clean sweep of all three of the American Bouldering Series 5, national championship events, (and thus became the overall ABS 5 champion),[7] and two Professional Climbers Association (PCA) competitions, (and also the overall PCA championship),[8] for the 2003-2004 boulder season.[3][4] Payne finished second overall (2012), and third overall (2006, 2007, and 2015) in the annual US Bouldering Open National Championships (what the ABS became post-2004).[3] Amongst other podiums and victories in individual competitions,(e.g. the 2006 SENDFEST in Salt Lake City,[9] and the 2010 Triple Crown Series at Horse Pens 40 in Steele, Alabama[10]),[1] in 2013, Payne won the Hueco Rock Rodeo at Hueco Tanks, in Texas.[11]

From 2004 to 2009, Payne completed the first female ascent of numerous bouldering problems graded V10 (7C+) to V12 (8A+),[1][4] as well as making the third female ascent of the classic Midnight Lightning in 2004,[6] and earning an honourable mention in Climbing magazine's 2007 Golden Piton Award for her climbs,[4][12] and winning her the 2007 Everest Award for Female Boulderer of the Year, at the 2007 Teva Mountain Games (Chris Sharma won the male award).[13] In early 2008, Payne climbed Chbalank in Hueco Tanks at V11/V12, and in September 2008, she climbed Dave Graham's European Human Being in the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) at "hard" V12 (8A+) and her first V12.[1][14] In February 2009, she climbed Atomic Playboy in Fontainebleau in France, another V12 (8A+).[14] In June 2010, she climbed Clear Blue Skies, and made the first female ascent of No More Green Grasses, at Mount Blue Sky, both at grade V12 (8A+).[1][15]

On August 17, 2010, Payne became the first-ever female in history to complete a confirmed 8B (V13) boulder, with her ascent of The Automator in the RMNP (Anna Stöhr would complete the second-ever female ascent of an 8B (V13) just one month later).[3][5][16] She won a second honourable mention in Climbing magazine's 2010 Golden Piton Awards.[17] In 2012, Payne, rock climber Ethan Pringle, and mountainer Mike Libecki went to the Kangertittivatsiaq fjord in south east Greeland on a bouldering and climbing expedition.[18][19] In July 2014, Payne sent her second 8B (V13) boulder, Freaks of the Industry, in Lower Chaos Canyon in the RMNP,[20] a project she had spent several seasons working on, and which she ranked as one of the achievements she was most proud of in her career.[3][21]

In 2015, Payne branched into big wall climbing, ascending the 3,264-foot spire of Poumaka in French Polynesia, with Libecki,[5][22] which was captured in the film, Poumaka (2016).[23]