Alex Megos – back in the news with a flash of Mr. Big (F9a)

• Sunday 19th January 2025

Alex Megos has used his current form to add another F9a flash to his CV; this time it was Mr. Big also at Margalef.

Just days after making the first ascent of Tuareg Blanco (F9b/+), now one of Margalef’s hardest routes, Alex Megos threw his rope bag down a few routes to the right at Raco de les Espadelles beneath Tom Bolger’s 2021 route, Mr. Big (F9a). Known for its resistance style of climbing it was a perfect candidate for a flash attempt.

Writing his ascent up afterwards on Instagram Alex described his ascent: ‘After watching multiple people on Mr. Big for the past 2 weeks I felt ready to give it a solid flash go. I'm not sure about the grade, as I only tried it once 😅. It definitely fits my style very well and I think I'm in decent shape at the moment. I'll let other people decide on the grade. Most importantly, it's a super fun route to climb! Probably the best of the harder ones in Margalef! Thanks a lot @tom_bolger for putting up this stellar line! Thanks also to @chevycrespo and @_vtrojan_ for the detailed beta 🙏🏼’

Watch Alex climbing the route on in a video clip on his Instagram here.

Alex Megos was the first climber ever to on-sight F9a when he did Estado Critico back in 2013; since then he on-sighted a second F9a, TCT, in 2017. In addition Megos has also flashed both Underground and Intermezzo F9a; Mr. Big is therefore his third flash at F9a level.

Currently, in addition to Alex Megos only Adam Ondra and Jakob Schubert have flashed/on-sighted routes of F9a; Adam Ondra alone has flashed F9a+ with his ascent of Supercrackinette at St Leger in 2018.