UKC

Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi has made the second ascent of Alex Megos' Bibliographie, the world's second 9c. He is the third climber to reach the grade after Adam Ondra and Megos.

Read more

Better than an Olympic medal?

I wonder if he had the choice of one or the other which he’d choose…

Obviously an Olympic medal because that would have proved that he is a better climber than Ondra and Megos.

I reckon I might be living for the first 10 at this rate.  Respect. 

That’s amazing, I didn’t realise he was that close. He only started working it this year didn’t he?

But not as good as that Spanish guy whose name I can't remember

How big is that chalk bag?! I know he's climbing 9c so his arse is tiny but christ. Reckon you'd get a full compliment of snooker balls in that thing. 

Bravo as well  

Now suggesting a downgrade to 9b+

Down grade was always on the cards after it took him less time than Perfecto Mundo.  Be interesting if Schubert puts some more time in to it.  

That was nearly 3 years ago now... I'm sure if he started fresh on perfecto mundo in his current shape he'd be a lot quicker still.

Apparently he found better sequences on both cruxes, hence the downgrade. 

Andy F

Ouch, that downgrade must have hurt. He must have been pretty sure about it because there must be a lot of "pressure" to be a 9c climber rather than merely (!!!) a 9b+ climber.

Agreed! Huge respect for being the third person in history to climb 9c and have the class and humility to downgrade it. 

I'm not exactly sure how it works but presumably it's a proposed downgrade, not a downgrade?  If only two people have done a route then there may not really be a consensus yet ?

Sure, all grades are provisional but everyone will assume that this is 'only' 9b+ unless a bunch more people (or Adam) say it's 9c. There's a phrase "exceptional claims require exceptional evidence" which I think is relevant to grading something 9c. That and the fact that Stefano did it quickly will sway people.

Megos has already replied via his Instagram stories in a way that basically said "thanks for being honest, 9b+ it is"

If they used broadly equivalent sequences then it would be two opinions, but he's come up with a sequence that he thinks is noticably easier than the original beta (having tried both), which I think shifts the burden of proof somewhat.

Usually if a route's grade has not been confirmed, this is made clear by stating 'unconfirmed' when the route is reported otherwise there is nothing to stop outrageous claims being made (obvs not in this case). E.g. in the old Lancs guide, a new, unrepeated route had a '†' symbol after it to denote that the grade was unconfirmed. 

To take the case of bouldering, there is not confirmed Font 9A...yet. So it would be a prudent if it was mentioned that they are unconfirmed rather than just taking the proposal at face value as it is just that, a proposal. Take 'No Kpote, graded 9A by Charles Albert but downgraded to Font 8C by a recent repeater