Megos redpoints Sleeping Lion and proposes 9b

Alex Megos reports on Instagram that he has done the second ascent of Chris Sharma's 9b+, Sleeping Lion in Siurana. Megos says that since it only took him eight days of projecting that 9b should be appropriate. (c) Marco Zanone

“The first few days I only checked out sections of the route, feeling confident that I’ll climb it in two weeks... In the end it took me 8 days and I would suggest 9b, as both the 9b+'s I did took me at least twice as long. Very happy to hear what other repeaters will say in the future!”

Can you give us more insight on Sleeping Lion?
I think the difficulty of the route is due to the many cruxes it has. From the beginning on, all the way to the top there are 4 main sections I would say, and they are all hard. The higher you get, the worse are the rests, so the last section is the redpoint crux, with a weird gaston move. I also had to face the challenge of a broken hold. I broke the hold on my second redpoint attempt on day 4 and I had to wait for Chris' help. He glued it back on, after I found all the pieces of the hold on the ground.

In total, the German has done well over 100 routes 8c+/9a and beyond including two 9b+ FAs, which means he is #2 on that list. Last year, the 30-year-old was #2 in the Lead World Cup. He is also famous for having won nine Euro Youth Cups and for being the first person to onsight 9a, with Estado Critico in 2013.