PlanetMountain caught up with Alex Megos after his one day ascent1 of Biographie (5.15a):
I warmed up by checking out the moves on Biographie, this took circa 1 hour. Then I started to make the attempts, and had circa 30 – 40 minutes rest between each go. Conditions were very good and my first feeling was: I’m going to send it today.
His thoughts on why he didn’t try to flash or onsight the route are interesting to read as well.
- I’ve seen a lot of people refer to him having done it in three attempts, but I think it was actually four. But who’s counting, right? ↩
Talking about Sharma’s Three Degrees of Separation, Megos says, “As to Three Degrees, yes, I’ve tried it, but with that dyno I don’t stand a chance…”
So it’s 5.14d for Sharma, but if you’re too short (I’m assuming) for the dyno, then…5.15what?
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The videos of Alex Megos give the impression that he is on the taller side. At the very least he climbs tall.
Maybe he just doesn’t have any hops.
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Megos is pretty short. At last year’s legend’s only comp he was described as having the shortest ape of any climbers, including Sean McColl.
Also at some point Ondra speculated that Three Degrees of Separation was substantially harder than 14d.
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I think Ethan Pringle said the same thing. btw, Pringle and Ondra are not short climbers. My sense is that 3 Degrees might perfectly fit Sharma, but almost no one else in the world.
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Well Jan Hojer said he tried 3 Degrees for 20 days in this article in what I assume was the summer of 2014: http://www.klettern.de/community/leute/mit-16-deutscher-meister-mit-18-action-directe-jan-hojer-interview.767977.5.htm?skip=1 So, maybe height is not be the determining factor since he is taller than Sharma? However, it’s very possible that he could complete the dynos in isolation but didn’t possess the power endurance to complete them on red-point.
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The article you linked is clearly from 2012.
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Yea my brain was attempting to type 2012 but for some reason my fingers disagreed. Whoops.
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the video of three degrees makes me want to climb 5.whatever. looks like such an amazing line. I don’t know who all has tried it but if I was strong enough I would for sure try it. Just looks so good
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Speaking of Sharma dynos, there’s also the Mallorca arch, Es Pontas, that hasn’t been repeated. Maybe five or ten years from now when someone repeats one of these things, Sharma will retroactively be given the first 5.15c…
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