​Sasha DiGiulianCredit: Courtesy of Sasha DiGiulian (2)NEED TO KNOWWorld champion climber Sasha DiGiulian waited out historic November weather in a tent attached to El CapitanShe used books, hot meals and breathing exercises to stay mentally grounded during the nine-day delayDiGiulian became the first woman to free climb El Capitan’s 40-pitch Platinum route after 23 daysSasha DiGiulian set out to become the first woman to free climb the longest route on Yosemite’s El Capitan, but a storm derailed her plans for nine days.DiGiulian, 34, is a world champion climber and professional athlete, and she spoke with PEOPLE about the daunting experience and how she stayed mentally grounded while suspended off the side of the mountain for days on end.“We were 10 days in and 400 feet from the top and sending it climbing — sending means successfully free climbing from the bottom to the top without falling. Then we got hit with this storm that was the most rain and bad weather that Yosemite had seen in November since 1973,” she explains.What began as a predicted two days of less-than-ideal weather kept getting worse, with rain, wind, thunder, lightning, hail, snow and ice. DiGiulian then had to attach her tent to the rock’s side. Her dedication and willingness to sleep suspended off the mountain, she says, “comes from wanting to see if I’m capable of doing a climb that I’ve trained for and prepared for and visualized.”Sasha DiGiulian climbingCredit: Courtesy of Sasha DiGiulian“When it was spending nine days through a winter storm hunkered in a vertical cliff face tent, you’re in a portal edge, which is a four-foot by six-foot contraption suspended on the side of a wall. The sacrifice of not being comfortable and being out of my element is a part of that journey of seeing what I’m capable of and being in this arena of climbing and pushing myself,” DiGiulian shares. “The body’s really adaptable,” she continues, adding, “That becomes your new reality and becomes the experience that’s a part of seeing something that, for me, I was just really passionate and driven to see if I could do this climb that I had essentially worked on for three or four years leading up to it.”Sasha DiGiulian’s climbing equipmentCredit: Courtesy of Sasha DiGiulianShe says when the storm came, “it was like nine days of hunkering down in this tent to wait for the possibility to see if I can do it versus going down out of the storm and giving up and then needing to wait another year for the next season.”“That nine-day sacrifice in comparison was not much of a sacrifice at all,” the climber adds.DiGiulian carved a pee trough from an empty water gallon and tried to avoid opening her tent and going outside. “To pass my days, it got really cold and wet on the wall. So a lot of my time I spent trying to dry out my wet clothing. I’d wring it out and then wrap it around my body since the body has a lot of heat that can absorb moisture,” DiGiul