Hardest traditional climb (female)

The hardest climbing route to have been completed "trad" by a woman is "Meltdown", a route located in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, with an estimated difficulty of 5.14d. The first ascent of this 22-metre vertical seam was made by traditional climber Beth Rodden (USA) on 14 February 2008.

The only other person to have climbed this route trad is Carlo Traversi. Neither climber would give a concrete grade, but the consensus is that the route lies in the 5.14c–5.14d range.

"Traditional climbing" or "trad" is a discipline in which climbers place their own protective gear (consisting of metal chock and spring-loaded camming devices) into cracks and holes in the rock as they ascend. This is different from "sport climbing" which involves climbing a route that has already been equipped with pre-drilled, permanent bolts.

Technical rock climbs in the US and many parts of the world are graded using the Yosemite Decimal System to convey the overall difficulty. The scale starts at 5.0 and continues all the way up to the current hardest grade, 5.15d. The increments in between are 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, etc., all the way up to 5.9. At 5.10, the decimal grades are subdivided further using letters from a to d, so: 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.10d, 5.11a, 5.11b, 5.11c, 5.11d, 5.12a, 5.12b, etc. The additional difficulty between any two grades on the scale (5.9 to 5.10; or 5.13c to 513d) is meant to be relative to the difficulty of the prior grade.

Grades are established based on a rough consensus system. The first ascensionist usually suggests a grade. Repeat ascensionists than either confirm it, or suggest alternative grades.