UKC

Alex Megos has made the fourth ascent of Chris Sharma's Dreamcatcher, 9a, at Squamish, Canada. Quite unexpectedly, he made the quickest ascent to date. He did it in a day.

This was the only route I knew when I came to Canada! And today I grabbed the 4th ascent of it in one day! "Dreamcatcher"...

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In reply to UKC News:

I thought for a moment that Ondra should be on the list of ascentionists but checked and found that he made a flash attempt in 2015 but didn't finish it.

Awesome looking route. Whenever I see a photo of it, I can never quite tell which way is up!

In reply to Jimbo C:
Compare and contrast:
youtube.com/watch?v=UlcQ3mxlNfs&
youtube.com/watch?v=8cFdX1ypCXA&
vimeo.com/119887141

Ondra does the move to the rail statically... but then looks less comfortable on it.

In reply to JJL:

>

Unsurprising I guess if on a flash attempt. But yes a stunning line, unusually for a sport route!

In reply to UKC News:
What an amazing effort to do this in one day.

Video of Megos ascent - vimeo.com/180455358

As an aside - I thought clipping the chains was essential for having completed the route? Surely not a "send" if there is (what appears to be) two 12" QD's end-to-end hanging from the chains - especially when there appears to be a clearly defined tick on a finishing hold that Megos did not reach?

Its an honest question...

In reply to UKC News:

You're so bloody right, Kid Parkinson. This little coward simply omitted the evident crux of this route, which, with any doubts included in a distant analysis, seems to reach a solid 12 sup. level (Australian scale of course). But he looked so pumped all along the ascent that he surely would have failed in that definite step!

In reply to KidParkinson:

It's an interesting question. Usually a well equipped route ends either at the top of the crag or a good and logical stopping place (like a big jug, a hands off rest or easy ground). This makes the clipping of the belay irrelevant. I'm surprised this doesn't go to the top because it's so close. I'd hazard a guess that those final moves are so easy they're trivial to do. I'd also guess that the long quickdraws are there to prevent the rope chaffing on the rock when lowering off. They allow the 'biners to dangle just below, rather than above, that little roof. But I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing here.

Megos certainly seems pretty ethical when it comes to his ascents, the first person I've heard of distinguishing between a first try ascent and a flash, so I'd doubt there's anything flawed with his tactics here.

In reply to UKC News:

Hands down the most static 9a I've ever seen. Amazing.

In reply to UKC News: Watch his footwork between 00:24 and 00:54. It could be smoother. But he is probably not used to climbing slabs.

In reply to stp:

Actually that's what I tried to express in my ironic reply. Doubting about the quality of such an amazing ascent for omitting a ridiculous, insignificant 4th degree last step is nothing but "looking for the hair in the soup" as we call it in my language. If there is any climber in the top-ranking who shows complete transparence and fairplay in everything he does on the rock and around it, that's Alex.