Hamish McArthur Climbs His First V17 With Megatron Repeat
Hamish McArthur has made the second ascent of one of the world's most difficult boulders
U.K. climber Hamish McArthur has made the second ascent of Megatron V17 in Colorado’s Eldorado Canyon. It was first climbed in 2022 by Shawn Raboutou. Drew Ruana spent over 100 sessions attempting to repeat it.
Megatron was a long term project for several top climbers, including Daniel Woods, who established a stand start in 2017 called Tron V14. According to Woods, the full Megatron links seven moves of solid V15 into the 10 moves of Tron V14 without any rest.
Ruana discussed the difficulty of Megatron in the Reddit thread r/climbing, explaining that the problem starts on nasty crimps and underclings that feel like they’re going to “rip your pulley.” These moves are followed up by a right hand throw to the start of the Tron. After that crux, several foot moves and a cut are needed to establish on Tron.
Over the past year, McArthur has climbed several hard problems in North America, including Big Z V16 in California. He spent several weeks in Squamish in 2024, where he flashed Frontside V12 and Fool Me Once V14, made the first ascent of Backside Blowout V14, and climbed Sword in the Stone V14, The Singularity V15, and Se7en V14/15. Watch a short film on his time in Squamish below.
Squamish 2024
Megatron V17 FA
Ruana on Megatron
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