News Flash: Alex Megos Sends New 5.15d with Bibliographie

Top Olympic-qualified climber Alex Megos, who opened the first 5.15 in Canada in 2016 with Fight Club 5.15b in Banff, has completed his project Bibliographie in Ceuse, France, and suggested the grade of 5.15d.

It’s only the second route ever climbed at the grade. The first was by Adam Ondra with Silence in Norway. Silence has never been repeated. Both grades, for now, are suggested until repeated.

This send wouldn’t have happened this week without covid-19 because Megos would’ve been at the Olympics right now.

The 26-year-old German has sent many hard sport routes including Perfecto Mundo 5.15c, First Round First Minute 5.15b and over a dozen 5.15a lines many being first ascents. This May, he made the first ascent of Upgrade U, the hardest boulder in Frankenjura at V15.

Read what Megos has to say about the route below. This is a breaking story, stay tuned for more.

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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 ?) Pic @ken_etzel

A post shared by Alexander Megos (@alexandermegos) on Aug 6, 2020 at 12:00pm PDT

Fight Club 5.15b