Bouldering Focusing initially on bouldering, in 2005, Zangerl solved her first graded problem with her ascent of
X-Ray in Silvretta in Austria. In 2008, aged only 19, she solved
Pura Vida in Switzerland's Magic Wood. At the time, the highest bouldering grade solved by a female climber was , and
Pura Vida was considered at least 8A+/B and possibly 8B. While the
first-ever full graded boulder to be solved by a female is regarded as
Angie Payne's 2010 ascent of
Automator, Zangerl's 2008 ascent of
Pura Vida is regarded as being the hardest boulder solved by a female climber at that time. Zangerl largely avoided the full
competition bouldering circuit but did enter the annual international bouldering competition of
Melloblocco, which she won four times in 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2013. After suffering a herniated L5-S1 disk in her lower back in 2009, she was forced to largely abandon bouldering for a few years and focus on types of climbing that created fewer direct strains on her back.
Sport climbing After retiring from bouldering and taking time off in 2009 to allow her back to recover, Zangerl began to focus on easier
sport climbing routes. While
single pitch sport climbing never became a core focus for Zangerl, by 2018 she was climbing at the grade of when the
highest achieved female sport climbing grade was just two notches higher at . Zangerl made the
first female free ascent (FFFA) of several notable sport routes including
Speed Integrale (9a, 2018),
Everything is Karate (8c+/9a, 2019), and
Sprengstoff (9a, 2021). Zangerl has the
first free ascent (FFA) of her own single-pitch routes including
Gondo Crack in 2017 (which she "
greenpointed" as a traditional route).
Traditional climbing Zangerl's first
traditional climbing route was
Super Krill in 2012. By 2014, she had made the FFFA of 's
Prinzip Hoffnung at
5.14 R 8b/+
E9/E10, which was one of the hardest traditional routes at the time. Over the next few years, Zangerl made the FFFA of several notable traditional testpieces including
Dave MacLeod's
Achemine E9 6c 8b (2016),
Sonnie Trotter's
The Path R (2018), and
Didier Berthod's
Greenspit R (2020). In 2023, she made the fourth-ever ascent of
Beth Rodden's
Meltdown in
Yosemite, which at was still the hardest traditional grade achieved by a female, and one notch behind the
hardest traditional grade of .
Big wall climbing It is in
big wall climbing–in both traditional and sport climbing formats–that Zangerl focused much of her time, and often with climbing and life partner, Jacopo Larcher. While they will swap the easier
leads on big wall routes, they will both individually lead all of the hard
pitches. In 2013, Zangerl became the first-ever female, and only the fourth-ever person, to complete the of extreme
multi-pitch sport climbing alpine routes, that include '
(2013), ' (2013), and '''' (2012). In 2015, Zangerl followed it up with the second-ever female ascent of
Alexander Huber's '''' , and the joint-FFFA, with , of Beat Kammerlander's
Die Unendliche Geschichte (
The Neverending Story) . From 2015, Zangerl, climbing with partner Larcher, made the FFFA of several major big wall routes on
El Capitan including
El Nino (2015),
Zodiac (2016), and
Magic Mushroom (2017). At the time of their ascent,
Magic Mushroom was El Capitan's hardest route after
The Dawn Wall, and their ascent was the first repeat of the route after
Tommy Caldwell had made the FFA in 2008. In 2018, Zangerl and Larcher moved into big wall
alpine climbing routes making the first repeat of the
Eiger's hardest route,
Odyssee at . In 2020, they returned to make the first one-day ascent of the route, taking under 16 hours. In 2022, the pair ventured into high-altitude big-wall climbing on the
Trango Towers, when they made only the third free ascent, and Zangerl the FFFA, of the historic high-altitude big wall route,
Eternal Flame , on the
Nameless Tower in
Pakistan, where the crux is at over . ==Legacy==