Michaela Kiersch Sends 'Dreamtime'—Becomes the First Woman to Send 5.15 and V15

Michaela Kiersch, 29, has made the first female ascent of Fred Nicole’s 2000 testpiece, Dreamtime, in Cresciano, Switzerland. This makes her the ninth woman to climb the V15 grade and the first woman to have climbed both 5.15 and V15.*

Kiersch is originally from Chicago. She started climbing in a classically dingy, spray-wall-style gym when she was 7 and spent a decade balancing comps with outdoor trips to the Red River Gorge. She placed fifth at the Youth World Championships in 2008 and competed intermittently on the adult circuit until 2018, when she stepped away to focus on outdoor climbing and school, ultimately earning a doctorate in occupational therapy. She now lives in Salt Lake City and works as an occupational therapist on a contract basis in between climbing trips.

And during those trips, she’s been almost disturbingly productive.

For instance: On a three-week trip to Magic Wood in 2022, she ticked 16 boulders V10 or harder—including Tigris Sit and New Baseline, both of which are V14. And during a six-week trip to Spain this past spring, she onsighted a 5.14a, redpointed a 5.14b and two 5.14c’s, and sent her second 5.15a, Victima Perfecta (5.15a). And this past summer, on a trip to Rocklands, South Africa, she sent 18 double digit boulders, including Fred Nicole’s crimp-classic Amandla (V14)—with a broken pinky finger.

Kiersch’s prodigious tick lists often pay dues to the sport’s history. While working on her doctorate, Kiersch took breaks from her studies to make the first female ascents of Super Tweak (America’s first 5.14b) and Necessary Evil (America’s second 5.14c), and the second female ascent of Dreamcatcher (Chris Sharma’s beautiful 5.14d in Squamish).

Kiersch says she chose Dreamtime for her first V15 in part because of its history. “Fred first established this boulder right when I started climbing,”  she said. “Over the last 25 years, it has always stayed in my mind as the gold standard. I think it would make the top of anyone’s dream list.” 

But she also added that Dreamtime was also, quite simply, the first V15 she’d put real effort into.

“I first tried Dreamtime in 2022 for one session on the stand start (V12),” she said. “I had just sent La Rambla and went to Ticino afterwards. I couldn’t hold any of the holds, and it felt nearly impossible.”

She had intended, she said, to invest some time and skin into a V15 this summer in Rocklands, “but with the broken finger and weather [2024 was an intensely wet Rocklands season] it became clear that it wouldn’t be in the cards.”

So she went home, trained, and then returned to Switzerland “stronger than ever.”

It’s been wet in Switzerland this fall, too, and once things dried out, she had to take a break from the boulders to compete in the Red Bull Dual Ascent—a multi-pitch plastic competition up Switzerland’s Verzasca Dam. But she managed to nonetheless send Dreamtime on her seventh day of effort this year.

The bonus? The rain seems to have let up.

“Now the fun can really begin!” she says.

What, specifically, is she about to have fun on? I asked.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Kiersch said.

* I should note that speaking about “firsts” is complicated by the fact that grades are hard to determine. Ashima Shiraishi, for instance, has climbed two V15s (Horizon in Mount Hiei, Japan, and Sleepy Rave, in Grampians, Australia) and one 5.14d/5.15a (Ciudad de Dios, in Santa Linya, Spain). But while most ascensionists consider Ciudad de Dios hard for the grade, all 13 climbers 8a.nu and six climbers on The Crag have taken the lower grade.