Andy Lamb Makes Second Ascent of The Megg, Canada’s First Proposed V16
With his new beta, the American climber thinks the problem is in the V14 range
On January 23, Squamish local Gabe Lawson sent his long-term project, naming it The Megg and assigning it a difficultly of V16 – the first of the grade in Canada. The problem had been a longstanding open project in Squamish. Many of the town’s best climbers had worked the line over the years and several international pros had given it a try.
The Megg is located on the backside of the famous Space Monkey boulder in Magic Kingdom area of the North Wall boulders. In classic Squamish form, the 20-foot-tall problem features bad feet, terrible slopers, crystal crimping, and highly technical movement. “It’s kind of two sections,” Lawson told me back in January the day after his first ascent. “One that’s very powerful and then one that’s very, very delicate. And the tricky thing is that you can’t de-contract at all – there’s just no stance [in between].”
On June 4, American climber Andy Lamb made the much anticipated second ascent of The Megg. Lamb may not be a household name, but his climbing resume is seriously impressive. In the summer of 2021, he repeated Daniel Woods’ Creature of the Black Lagoon V16. He has many V15s to his name, including Delirium in Colorado, The Nest in Red Rocks, and the Swiss classics The Story of Two Worlds and Dreamtime. Originally from Lexington, Massachusetts, Lamb is the brother of Katie Lamb, arguably the best female boulderer in the world.
In his typical non-spray style, not much noise was made by Lamb or others about his repeat of Canada’s first-proposed V16. To learn more, I reached out to Lamb to get his thoughts on The Megg – his projecting process, his beta, his thoughts on the grade, and what he’s up to next.
When did you first start trying The Megg? How many sessions did it take to send? I think I first tried it last summer (2022) for two days, then one or two days in the winter after Gabe did it, and then two days this spring – so five to six sessions in total.
You and Gabe are quite different in height – how did your beta differ from his? Our betas for the hard part were quite different. We did the first move the same way, but then I think Gabe did two bumps with the left hand. I instead did one bump with the right to get a bit higher on the arete, and then one bump with the left to get the same right hand. So I actually didn’t use one of the left hands he used and I think he didn’t use one of the right hands I used.
Any thoughts on the grade? I think it’s more in the V14 range. The first five moves are the hardest, then the top adds a bit (I did it on a rope first), but I’d expect that people who can climb the bottom wouldn’t fall on the top more than a few times if they have good beta. I climbed on it with a few other people and they thought it was a similar grade range. I’m really curious to see what experiences other people have on it though; it’s techy, subtle, and condition dependent, basically quintessential Squamish.
Any other big Squamish projects you’re stoked on? I’ve tried Seven [V14] a bunch of days (Lucas Uchida did it earlier this spring). I’m traveling for the summer, but on my last day in Squamish I found some beta that works better for me and came pretty close, so I’m excited to get back on it in the fall. I’ve also tried the Room Service Sit project a ton, probably at least 30 days now. It basically adds about seven moves into Room Service Low. I did it in two parts with a pretty big overlap, but still not sure if it’s close yet. It’s an amazing proj though, so I’m psyched to get back on it in the fall!
Back in January, I sat down with Lawson the day after he sent The Megg for a lengthy interview where we discussed the history of the problem, his projecting process, his beta, and his rationale for the V16 grade. You can read the full interview here. I remember him telling me that if anyone in town could repeat The Megg, it would be Andy Lamb.
After talking with Lamb about his second ascent of The Megg, I reached out to Lawson to get his thoughts on Lamb’s send and new proposed grade.
“I personally feel like if it was V14 it would have been done a long time ago, given everyone who’s tried it,” Lawson told me. “I used a different sequence bumping out left, which for me is what the difficulty boiled down to so I still think what I did was probably V16 or super hard V15, which may just be my own fault for not finding better beta.
“When we tried the boulder last year nobody got to that move so I haven’t actually tried Andy’s beta yet, so indeed it could be easier that way. Still to this day I don’t think anyone’s done all the moves [the way I did it] and tons of pros have tried it – pros who climb V14 in a day or two. For me personally it was harder than Singularity but that could just be because of the nature of figuring out such a puzzle in terms of sequences and beta vs. knowing what to do on an established boulder.
“In any case, well done to Andy – I got to spot him on his ascent and he climbs super fluidly. On a cool side note, I only found this out recently but Chris Sharma and Jeremy Smith tried [The Megg] in the early 2000s, so it’s actually been around longer than I’d thought. I think it’s cool that V16 is still up for grabs for a Canadian, the real crux is actually just finding one.”
Lawson also mentioned to me that he’ll be releasing the footage of his first ascent of The Megg in the future in his upcoming film Dreamlines and/or through Mellow.
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