Alex Megos climbs Bibliographie at F9c
- Thursday 6th August 2020
Alex Megos has just redpointed his long-term project Bibliographie, at Ceuse and suggests it's F9c.
When Alex Megos spends multiple days on a project it’s a given that it’s extremely hard. Remarkably, Megos repeated Biographie, Chris Sharma’s Ceuse testpiece, in just a handful of attempts back in 2014. Alex’s first ascent of Bibliographie has taken him about 60 days spread over three years. By comparison, Alex’s previously hardest route, Perfecto Mundo (F9b+) at Margalef, took Alex 16 days. It seems perfectly reasonably therefore that Alex should suggest Biobliographie is F9c. As such, Bibliographie is now the second-ever route to be proposed the highest grade of F9c following Adam Ondra's Silence in the Hanshallaren Cave at Flatanger which was climbed nearly three years ago on Sept 3rd, 2017.
Bibliographie takes the wall right of Biograhie at Ceuse and was originally bolted by Ethan Pringle.
Alex has written about his first ascent on his Instagram page. Here is what he said:
‘Sometimes the odds are against you, but it doesn't mean you don't have a chance.
Yesterday evening, on my last day of the trip, it definitely wasn’t looking good after messing up the first (and only) try I wanted to do that day. I fell relatively low on the route though, so I decided to give it an infamous “one last go”.
I passed the crux in the middle of the route, and found myself on the poor rest before the final hard section. Twice prior to this burn I had fallen on the last hard move of the route, so I wasn’t feeling super confident. Nonetheless I started off after the rest with full pace and only briefly slowed down to adjust one hold and to get it perfectly. I passed my ‘trouble move’ seemingly effortlessly and despite being completely pumped out of my mind, I was able to pull off the sequence of the last four moves.
After clipping the anchor it seemed like all of the days of work I have put into the route were passing in front of my eyes. With approximately 60 climbing days over the past three years "Bibliographie" has been by far my longest project to date.
I know there are many speculations about the grade and I think grades are very subjective. My personal suggestion for the grade is 9c (5.15d). Considering the fact, that "Perfecto Mundo" (9b+) has taken me 16 days of effort, "Bibliographie" with around 60 days and more specific training felt a lot harder.
Of course, as the first ascensionist you don't have your perfect beta from the start, you have doubts whether it is possible or not for you, if you are completely missing something, or if you are just not in the best shape. It is always harder to grade something without any other opinion. I am very curious about what the future of the route will look like, and grateful for other people's opinions.
Independently from the grade, this has been a very valuable experience for me. It marks a personal milestone in my climbing life, one I would have not been able to complete without the support and help of all of my friends and family. Deep gratitude and thanks goes to all of you! (And yes, there is send footage ?)’
To celebrate his achievement he bought a stack of pizzas for the campsite from the local pizza van. Watch Alex trying the route at the start of this film and later at the end.
Follow Alex via his Instagram page here…