When she was 14 years old, her brother brought her and her 16-year-old sister Claudia to the climbing gym in the neighboring village of Flirsch am Arlberg, where she became hooked on the sport.

[1] Focusing initially on bouldering, in 2005, Zangerl solved her first 8A (V11) graded problem with her ascent of X-Ray in Silvretta in Austria.

At the time, the highest bouldering grade solved by a female climber was 8A+ (V12), and Pura Vida was considered at least 8A+/B and possibly 8B.

[1][3] 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.

[5] Zangerl made the first female free ascent (FFFA) of several notable sport routes including Speed Integrale (9a, 2018),[5] Everything is Karate (8c+/9a, 2019),[6] and Sprengstoff (9a, 2021).

[9] Over the next few years, Zangerl made the FFFA of several notable traditional testpieces including Dave MacLeod's Achemine E9 6c 8b (2016),[10] Sonnie Trotter's The Path 5.14a (8b+) R (2018),[11] and Didier Berthod's Greenspit 5.14a (8b+) R (2020).

[15] In 2015, Zangerl followed it up with the second-ever female ascent of Alexander Huber's Bellavista [it] 8b+ (5.14a),[16] and the joint-FFFA, with Nina Caprez [de], of Beat Kammerlander's Die Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) 5.14a (8b+).

[3] American climber Alex Honnold said: "I can't really think of any other women climbing at such a high level in so many different disciplines," and "She's such an unassuming 'world’s best.'

[1] For much of her professional climbing career, Zangerl has also held a part-time job as an assistant medical radiographer in a hospital in Bludenz in Austria.

[3][2] In 2019, Zangerl told National Geographic about her relationship with Larcher: "We're a good team," and "It's easy for us to handle stress on the wall because there's always something to do.