Alex Megos Sends an Oriane Bertone V14 in Fontainebleau
Megos climbed both the stand and low versions of the bloc in a single session
Alex Megos recently climbed Satan i Helvete V13 and Satan i Helvete (Low) V14 in Fontainebleau, France. The technical yet powerful sandstone bloc has a complex history due to rock breakage. The sit (Assis) version of the problem was first established in 2005 by Sébastien Frigault and graded V15. In 2013, holds broke and the problem has not been repeated since. Oriane Bertone made the first post-break ascent of the low start in 2020 when she was only 15 years old. She proposed a grade of V15, but the consensus among other ascensionists is now V14, which she agrees with. Other post-break ascensionists include Yannick Flohé, Simon Lorenzi, and Camille Coudert.
“Accomplishment is the accumulation, the acceptance that our falls, our adjustments, our fears, our doubts, our abandonments and our surpassings are neither useless nor lost,” said Bertone after her ascent in 2020. “That the way taken may be the right one, and that the longest path sometimes hides more treasures than the shortest path. It is thanks to all these stages, these stops, these injuries, these fears, tears and these questions that each in his own way progresses and advances.”
“What a weird day,” said Megos on Instagram. “The first 30 [minutes] I was trying to warm up on the boulder and didn’t really feel like it was possible. At some point, it just clicked, and within 10 [minutes] I climbed the higher start twice and the version ‘départ bas’ as well. The higher version twice because right before I started climbing, the phone fell over, and it filmed the ground. Thankfully, Felix came and filmed the two other ascents.”
Megos, 32, has had an epic year. In January, the German climber made the first ascent of Tuareg Blanco 5.15b/c in Margalef, Spain. The next day, he flashed Mr. Big 5.14d. In March, he achieved the first-ever flash of the historic Agincourt, France’s first 5.14b. In April, he made another first ascent with Le Grand Saccage 5.15a/b and onsighted Dévers Sévère 5.14b/c in Buoux, France. In August 2025, he made the third ascent of Adam Ondra’s Iron Curtain 5.15a and Kangaroo’s Limb 5.15a in Flatanger, Norway. Megos spent the month of August in Flatanger projecting B.I.G. 5.15d, one of three routes of the grade in the world. He battled skin issues on the climb, as well as frigid temps and rain.
