UKC

Margo Hayes has repeated Chris Sharma's iconic Biographie, 9a+, at Céüse, France. This was the first female ascent and Margo's second of the grade after La Rambla which she repeated in February.

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In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant news, iconic route

In reply to UKC News:

As well as being the living end back in the day, wasn't this route known for a big dyno crux?
Have the girls found new beta to crimp their way through the dyno?

In reply to JLS:

Not sure it does, isn't that a different Ceuse Sharma route? But given Margo and Janja are top indoor comp boulderers, I wouldn't put it past them to manage a big dyno.

In reply to UKC News:

Well, the male top grade moved as well, so it is clear the gender gap stays exactly same, right?

In reply to UKC News:

Awesome!!!

In reply to pbla4024:


Depends. How long did it take? Not sure about Margo, but Janja close on the 6th go.

If this is more in line with the redpoint effort of one of the top guys climbing 9b, that does seem pretty close.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

It's a good point. Silence took Ondra around 50 days, lots of specific training and enlisting a physio at the crag to help work out specific weakenesses. Added to that Ondra is really in a class of his own. Without Ondra I don't think men's climbing would have got beyond 9b.

If Janja nearly did this on her sixth attempt then she probably could climb a grade harder I'd have thought. So yeah the grade gap seems closer than ever.

Great effort by Margo. Presumably that's why she wasn't at Edinburgh?

In reply to UKC News:

Hopefully this is the end of "woman does landmark hard route; cue downgrade discussions" syndrome.

In reply to AlanLittle:

Indeed. Wasn't it even rumoured to be hard for the grade after a hold fell off low down and Enzo Oddo had to do a hard boulder problem through that section?

Well done Margo, and hopefully Janja will get back on it soon too.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

Must have been Three Degrees of Separation I was thinking about...

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/69866/three_degrees_of_separation_repe...

In reply to stp:


Josune climbed 9a/+ back in 2005, at a time when the hardest climbed grade was 9a+ (Barring the usual suspect wild cards), so the grade gap was back there pretty damn close

In reply to john arran:

I think that's correct - and considering it took Sharma such an effort even before the break it must be nails!

When I started climbing Biographie and La Rambla were the two hardest routes in the world - it's incredible to do them both aged just 19. Aside from the climbing, it's very impressive for a teenager to back herself to travel half way round the world to take on a challenge like this.
Chapeau Margo!

In reply to Brendan:

Good heavens. When I started climbing Grand Illusion was the hardest route in the world.

In reply to AlanLittle:

Ha! Action Directe/Hubble* for me........

(Depending on who you ask, I think Akira had just been done too but that's a whole other can of worms....._)

In reply to Mr Lopez:

I could never quite work out why she never seemed to get the credit she deserved for that?

In reply to UKC News:

Solid 9a+ according to the talk on the town. It has gotten a tiny bit harder since Sharma did it. After breakage it's around 8A up to the second bolt, it used to be 7C/+. (This according to someone who tried it before and after breakage)

In reply to UKC News:

Inspirational climbing. I will be making sure my young daughter sees this tonight.

In reply to UKC News:

Margo simply knows "that the brain is the most important muscle" as Wolfgang Güllich said: Check this out: vimeo.com/234503747

Cheers from the Frankenjura
Hannes

In reply to UKC News:

Great stuff! It'd be interesting to compare grade progress with breadth of participation over time. So 20 years ago there were far more men climbing than women and so the hard routes were naturally more often male ascents.

Now participation must be closer to 50:50 and so it's much closer and more even.
Two exceptions (which actually reinforce my point):
1. Adam Ondra - a bit like Usain Bolt: a step change in talent and application; has raised standards for men and women
2. Lynn Hill - the Adam Ondra of her era

In reply to Deadeye:


Interestingly, and despite doing precisely nothing to "encourage" female participation over male, we (the BMC) have seen more female than male entrants in youth comps. Not always, and not consistently in the same age group, but it is interesting, and really good) that climbing seems to be a sport that attracts girls as well as boys, with no concessions made at all.
So it doesnt come as a real surprise that females are coming out with these exceptional performances on rock as well as in comps. And it is a VERY good thing.

In reply to Brendan:


Yes, especially so, if you try to campus the darn thing... I vividly remember the clip of Sharma doing the FA... let's just say that the climbing wasn't all that pretty to watch, in fact it makes new strong n00bs like masters of the stone and technical wizards a'la certain mr. Dawes.

Though, when lookin' at Sharma climb nowadays, it seems that he has finally found these lower appedixes that most call legs, and actually uses them.

In reply to UKC News:

It will be interesting to see what she does next. She's leaving France where she's been for the last year, presumably back to the states. There aren't that many routes there graded 9a+ (3 maybe?) and one 9b (Jumbo Love). Maybe she'll concentrate more on comps and indoors.