Alexander Megos climbs Australia's second 9a
Alexander Megos from Germany has made the first ascent of Schweinebaumeln 9a at the Elphinstone, Blue Mountains, Australia
Germany’s Alexander Megos is currently on tour in Australia where, after having made the first ascent of the continent’s first 9a (35) in 2013, he has now doubled his takings with the first ascent of Schweinebaumeln at the Elphinstone in the Blue Mountains.
Bolted by Lee Cossey, this 35m line was just one of the many difficult new projects at this outstanding crag that hit the international limelight at the start of 2015 when local climber Monique Forestier repeated the highly technical 8c Tiger Cat.
Megos is evidently on great form: he managed to flash Tiger Cat prior to sending Schweinebaumeln after five attempts on his second day. And before visiting Australia he had stopped off in Japan where he made short work of the 8C boulder problem Kanoto and repeated Flat Mountain, the 9a/+ put up by Yuji Hirayama in 2003.
