Volx and Ceüse updates: Adam Ondra, Alexander Megos and Gabriele Moroni

Alexander Megos is on a roll and after his one-day ascent of Biographie, yesterday the 20-year-old German made the first ascent of a Et dieu créa la Flemme, the extension to the 7b La pinerie bolted by Sylvain Bessier. Megos set his sights on this route after having snapped off the crux hold of a different project – which he now believes is a lot harder, if not impossible even – and has suggested 9a for the new line. Gabriele Moroni is currently visiting Ceuse, too, and the Italian climber made swift work of Mr. Hyde, a fantastic 8c+ nearby.

At Volx, one of France's premier crags during the late 80's, Adam Ondra has made a startling onsight ascent of Super Plafond. The route combines Le Plafond, the 8c first climbed by Ben Moon way back in 1989 (and originally provocatively called Maginot Line), with Terminator and was freed by Jean Baptiste Tribout at 8c+ in 1994.

What makes Ondra's ascent so surprising, as he himself told Planetmountain, is the fact that "no one has ever onsighted a route of this difficulty dates back to before 2000." When asked for further explanation, Ondra pointed out "Well, it's always seemed to me that all the routes I've done that date back to the 90's are really tough for the grade, that's why I really wasn't expecting to onsight it. What's more the route is really short, really bouldery and I had to place all the quickdraws. But I felt strong, everything flowed perfectly and I got lucky!"