Alex Megos flashes 'Agincourt' at Buoux

Alex Megos has just returned home after his first-ever visit to Buoux, and his sends after a week at this historic French crag are absolutely astonishing. Among the slew of repeats there are über classics such as Miss Catastrophe (8c), Le Spectre du Sur-Mutant (8b+), End of Weakness (8b/+), La Mission (8b), La Rose et le Vampire (8b), CTN (8b), and Tabou (8a+). However, what truly stands out are his flash ascents of La Chiquette du Graal (8b+) and, even more impressively, Agincourt, climbed in the same style.

Agincourt it is a true sport climbing milestone, a ferocious 10-move sequence freed in 1989 by young Englishman Ben Moon who, in doing so, provided France with its first 8c sports climb. At the time it was one of world’s first 8c’s; just two years earlier Germany’s Wolfgang Güllich had managed to break into this realm of difficulties with his Wallstreet in his home Frankenjura.

Although Megos has onsighted much harder routes - he was the first in the world to climb 9a in the cleanest of styles - and even though currently the hardest flash stands at 9a+ thanks to Adam Ondra, until today the idea of flashing Agincourt was quite simply unthinkable. This is a historic achievement, made possible thanks to beta from his climbing partner Felix Neumärker and careful analysis of the video of Seb Bouin repeating the climb in 2018.

Despite its significance, in the nearly 40 years since its first ascent, Agincourt has been repeated rarely. Partly because, being a second pitch, it is difficult to access; partly because it is simply very, very intense and leaves little margin for error. And partly because Buoux offers a style of climbing that, after its golden era in the 1980s, has fallen out of fashion as most top climbers seek challenges elsewhere.

That said, one extraordinary project from those early days has remained a prohibitive dream: Bombé Bleu. Bolted by child prodigy Marc Le Menestrel in 1991 and dubbed Chantier, this striking line of pockets that powers its way through the huge bulge above the sector La Plage and has remained unclimbed, despite receiving attention by many of the world's best, including Ben Moon, Stefan Glowacz, Chris Sharma, Fred Rouhling, Iker Pou, Nicolas Januel, Loic Zehani, Anatole Bosio, Charles Albert, Nicolas Pelorson e Lucien Martinez. Megos obviously couldn’t resist giving it a go. His comment, very concise: hard.

 

 

 

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Un post condiviso da Alexander Megos (@alexandermegos)