Megos upgrades Ramonet's 9a to 9b

Alex Megos reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Ramon Julian Puigblanque's Mejorando Imagen in Margalef. The FA was done in 2013 after seven tries during three days and the 159 cm tall, who is one of the best ever male Lead competition climbers, graded it 9a. It had been bolted by Iker Pou a couple of years earlier and he had thought it was 9a+ or 9b. (c) Ken Etzel

It should be mentioned that several other Ramonet FAs have been upgraded like La Reina Mora from 8c to 9a. Another example is his FA of La Rambla 9a+ which was put up with a direct harder straight finish, compared to how it is climbed into the neighbouring route today. Several other of his FAs have never been repeated. In total, he has 38 9a's and 13 9a+' in his scorecard, out of which 20 FAs. As a matter of a fact, all his last seven 9a and 9a+ since 2015, have all been FAs.

Megos says he was close to having done it on his third day but then it took him another week to finish it off. "Pulling up on the draws I decided to give it one more try to at least drive back home with bleeding fingers. I lowered to the ground, my expectations were nonexistent. I had no chance to climb it on my 6th try. I climbed so badly, I barely stuck the crux move and then I kept climbing badly to the top."