Alex Megos repeats Iron Curtain (9a+/b)

Alex Megos has made the third ascent of Adam Ondra’s Iron Curtain (9b) at Flatanger. The second ascent was done by Seb Bouin, who suggested a personal grade of 9a+ as he used knee pads. (c) Benjamin Schelker

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
The route brakes down into 3 cruxes (for me). Right after the anchor of the 7a first pitch you have a section of about 15 moves that are all hard. Then you have two good holds for resting, followed by the actual crux of the route, which is not too much of a crux anymore with the kneepad. After that you have the classic Flatanger pumpy finish with another hard section at the end.

Adam originally gave it 9b without kneepads and Seb gave it 9a+ with kneepads. At this point I think it should be mentioned how extraordinary Adam's ascents were back in the day (especially the years 2012 and 2013), climbing all those lines without kneepads and grading some of them "only" 9b. There are not many kneebars in Iron Curtain, but the one in the crux makes a huge difference and replaces the 8A+ boulder (that Adam did) with a 7C/+ boulder. Coming from the ground this makes it significantly easier of course.

Grade wise I really have a hard time with most routes here. I don't think people will find any crazy kneebar trickery on Iron Curtain, but maybe I'm too inexperienced to see the kneebar trickery 😅😂