Alex Megos Onsights Second 5.14d!
Alex Megos onsights another 9a/5.14d with TCT in Gravere, Italy, four years after he made the world’s first 9a onsight.
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Alex Megos has onsighted his second 9a/5.14d with Stefano Ghisolfi’s TCT in Gravere, Italy, four years after he
made the world’s first 9a onsight.
“OOPS I DID IT AGAIN!” Megos reports on Instagram. “When
people ask if I can onsight 9a I would say ‘no’. I never felt at a level where onsighting 9a felt in reach. But [today] I started to realize that I
might be able to get to that level!
“What a great day at Gravere where I after more than four years did my second 9a onsight! What a feeling!”
In 2013, the German climber became the first person in the world to onsight the grade when he climbed Estado Critico (9a/5.14d) in Siurana, Spain. Ondra is the only other climber to have onsighted 9a and holds
three 9a onsights to his name: La Cabane au Canada at Rawyl, Switzerland in 2013; Il Domani (5.14d) in the Baltzola cave,
Basque country, Spain in 2014; and TCT for its second ascent in 2014.
Ghisolfi established TCT—a link up between L’extrama Cura (8c/5.14b) and Base Jump (8b+/5.14a)—in 2014. He dedicated
the “super project” to the rising Italian star Tito Claudio Traversa, who was killed in a climbing accident the year before, at age 12. Prior to his death, Tito had climbed his fourth 5.14a, and was well on
his way to becoming one of the strongest climbers in the world.
Megos’ onsight of TCT on May 21 was the third ascent of the route, behind Ghisolfi and Ondra.
In an interview with planetmountain.com,
Megos said he was “really surprised” to have onsighted the route. “As I warmed up I felt really bad,” he continued. “I rushed things, didn’t find the
right flow and even felt my injured finger a bit … It was Claudia Ghisolfi [Stefano’s sister] who persuaded me to try the route. And then I
thought, why not?”
When asked if he was close to his limit during the onsight, Megos told planetmountain.com: “I was pretty pumped and spent when I got to the top, but I wasn’t at my absolute limit. What amazed me though
was that I felt exhausted for the rest of the day … I felt completely spent after the onsight.”
In August 2016, Megos established Canada’s hardest sport climb and first 5.15—Fightclub (5.15b) at Ravens Crag, near Banff.
Also read Alex Megos: The Hatchling
Watch Stefano Ghisolfi send his “Super Project” TCT (9a/5.14d):
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