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Ethan Pringle (born May 30, 1986, in San Francisco, California) is an American rock climber with notable ascents in sport climbing (his 2015 repeat of Jumbo Love, the world's first 9b-graded route), in traditional climbing (his 2016 ascent of Blackbeard's Tears, one of the world's hardest traditional climbs), and in bouldering. He has also been active in competition climbing, winning the American national competition lead climbing championships in both youth and adult formats, and silver at the World Youth Championships.
Pringle won the gold in the men's USA national championships in lead in 2005, silver in 2004, and bronze in 2009. He won the silver at the men's USA national championships bouldering in 2006 and 2012. He also won bronze in the men's USA national championships in speed in 2004.
In 2009, Pringle suffered a severe tear of his labrum at the men's USA national championships in bouldering, which nearly ended his professional climbing career, and from which he only recovered over a year later.
During 2007, Pringle and Sharma spent weeks trying to make the first free ascent (FFA) of Jumbo Love at Clark Mountain. Injury caused Pringle to withdraw from the project, and in September 2008, Sharma freed the route, which is now regarded as the first-ever graded sport climb in history.
Recovering from his serious injury in 2009–2010, Pringle began to make FFAs of routes including Spicy Dumpling (2010, China's hardest sport climbing route) and Arrested Development (2012). In 2015, Pringle completed the first repeat of Jumbo Love, and later that year visited the famous Hanshelleren Cave in Norway, repeating Adam Ondra's 2012 route Thor's Hammer , and making his own FFA of The Eye of Odin at . The following year, Pringle made the FFA of Everything is Karate, one of America's hardest sport routes at the time at .
Sport climbing
Pringle came to international attention with his September 2007 repeat of Chris Sharma's groundbreaking 2001 route, Realization/Biographie , in Ceuse, France. At the time, 9a+ was the highest recognized consensus grade for a sport climbing route in the world. He followed his up with a short visit to Rodellar in Spain, where he several routes up to , including Iron Man (this was just before the Patxi Usobiaga made the first-ever onsight of an graded route in December 2007).
Traditional climbing
Pringle is also known for traditional climbing. In October 2008, Pringle made the second repeat of Cobra Crack, Sonnie Trotter's famous graded traditional climbing route; considered one of the world's hardest at the time. In 2016, Pringle made the FFA of Blackbeard's Tears on the Redwood Coast in California, which at , was regarded as one of the hardest – if not the hardest – traditional climbing routes at the time.
Notable ascents
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Onsight
Traditional climbing
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Bouldering
See also
External links
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