Josune Bereziartu (born January 19, 1972), also known as Josune Bereciartu Urruzola, is a Basque rock climber. For a decade starting in the late 1990s, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world and is regarded as one of the most important female rock climbers in history. In 2005, Bereziartu almost completely closed the gap with the strongest male climbers by climbing to grade when the world's hardest climb was at 9a+/9b. She is known for being the first-ever female in history to climb grade , , and sport climbing routes. Bereziartu is also known for being the first-ever female in history to onsight , , and graded routes. She was one of the first-ever females to solve bouldering problems at and above. Early life Josune Bereziartu was born on January 19, 1972, in Lazkao, a Basque town of the province of Gipuzkoa, northern Spain. Josune was first inspired to climb after watching a Spanish TV show documenting two girls climbing in the Verdon Gorge, and started climbing at 17. Climbing career In 1998, Bereziartu came to international attention with her repeat of Honky Tonky at Oñate, which made her the first-ever female in history to climb an route. In 1999, she consolidated this achievement by repeating 8c routes White Zombie and Ras at Baltzola. In 2000, Bereziartu set a new record by becoming the first-ever female in history to climb when she redpointed Honky Tonk Mix at Oñate. In October 2002, she set another record by becoming the world's first-ever female climber to climb a route, when she redpointed Fred Nicole's in St Loup, Switzerland. In 2004, she climbed Logical Progression in Japan, another route that was only freed a few years earlier by Dai Koyamada. In May 2005, she set a further record, becoming the first-ever female to climb when she redpointed Bimbaluna in St Loup, in Switzerland; at that time, no male climber had broken the grade barrier, and it would be another three years until Chris Sharma would climb Jumbo Love, the world's first consenus 9b route. Bereziartu also set new records for onsight ascents. In 2000, she made the first-ever female onsight of an route in history when she climbed Bon Vintage at Terradets in Spain. In 2002 she made the first-ever female onsight of an route in history when she climbed Steroid Performance at Horai in Japan. Finally, in 2006, she