13-Year-Old Ashima Shiraishi is a Rock Climbing Rockstar

13-year-old Ashima Shiraishi has just shattered two world records—and she did it in just 10 minutes over her spring break.

Breaking rock climbing records for both her age and sex, Shiraishi is thought to the youngest person and the only woman to have ever mastered one of the most technically challenging climbs in the world.

Shiraishi went to Spain this week to tackle Open Your Mind Direct, a 140-foot climb that is rated a 9a + and is considered one of the toughest rock faces to master. Shiraishi has had her eye on the feat for the past year. “I really wanted to try it last year when I was in Spain, but I had to get back to school and didn’t have time,” Shiraishi says. So this year she came with the goal in mind. She worked on the climb for three days, falling occasionally, but getting to understand the complexities of the rock face. It paid off very quickly. “On my fourth day I did it,” she says.  So how did she feel when she finished? “I was surprised. I was relieved. I was really stoked!”

The young climber got her start when she was just six-years old by scaling rocks in Central Park. By age eight, she had persuaded her parents to enter her in competitions. She quickly proved to both her family and the climbing community that this wasn’t just a hobby.” I won the whole female category instead of just the youth category,” she explains about her first competition. Since then she practices five days a week at Brooklyn Boulders and The Cliffs in Long Island City.

Despite her bravery, Shiraishi admits to occasionally getting nervous. “I think in climbing everyone gets a little bit scared,” she says. “ If there is a hard section, I can feel like I’m going to fall off.” But she has found that it’s not just practicing climbing that helps her succeed, but mental preparation as well. “When I am climbing I try to not think about anything, if I think I start to doubt myself,” she explains. “It’s a mental battle to tell yourself to have the confidence that you can actually do it.”

So what’s next? Trying to master a 9b climb, a huge challenge. But Shiraishi is pretty nonchalant about the idea. “Maybe I’ll do it over summer vacation.”