Mejdi Schalck Climbing Dreamcatcher 5.14d
The route was one of many hard sends for the visiting French climber during a short Squamish trip
Last month, French climber Mejdi Schalck repeated Dreamcatcher 5.14d (9a) in Squamish, B.C. A new film by Five Ten was recently released of his send, which you can watch below. He used Sharma’s original jump beta to exit the slab at the start, cruised the slopey rightward traverse, a power screamed through the nails-hard final crux.
Dreamcatcher doesn’t need much introduction. Now famous worldwide, the route was freed by Chris Sharma back in 2007. Canadian Sean McColl made the second ascent, Squamish local Ben Harnden made the third, and Alex Megos the fourth on only his third attempt. Since then it has seen repeats by several top climbers including Jimmy Webb, Paige Claassen, Michaela Kiersch, and Lucas Uchida, among others. Two visiting Japanese climbers ticked the line this summer – Jun Shibanuma and Hiroto Shimzu. Squamish local Tristan Baills completed the line as well.
“This climb has always been in my mind,” said Schalck about Dreamcatcher on Instagram. “I remember years ago watching the video of [Chris Sharma] doing the FA, the first time being in front of it felt crazy. I’m glad that I was able to send it pretty quickly. After working all the moves, I was able to quickly redpoint up to the last crux, I rested a little bit and few sessions later I sent it! On this special period I wanted to discover a new place to try to clear my mind. The past few weeks has been honestly hard for me, going to Squamish was one of the best decision I’ve made. I had a really good time climbing here.”
After sending the Dreamcatcher, Schalck turned his focus to bouldering. He ended up racking up an incredible tick list, especially considering he had to deal with summer temps. His highlights include redpoints of The Reckoning V14, Deadlift V14, and Black Magic V13 and flashes of Shelter V12/13 and Summoning V12. Making all this more impressive is the fact that Schalck’s Squamish trip was only 16 days long.
Schalck’s trip to Squamish comes after narrowly missing out on the opportunity to compete in the Paris Olympics. He placed seventh overall in the Olympic Qualifier Series, but due to the two-athletes-per-gender-per-country rule, he didn’t qualify for the Summer Games as his French teammates Sam Avezou and Paul Jenft placed above him.
According to his 8a.nu profile, before Dreamcatcher, he had two other 5.14d’s to his name – Shortcut in 2020 and Bio Sharma Graphie L2 in 2023, both located in France.
Mejdi Schalck redpoints Dreamcatcher
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