Alex Megos on the Second Ascent of Chris Sharma’s ‘Sleeping Lion’
German superstar Alex Megos started the new year off strong: On January 5 he announced his repeat of Chris Sharma’s latest testpiece, Sleeping Lion. The climb took Megos only eight days of effort.
Located in the El Pati sector of Siurana, only a few routes left of the world-famous La Rambla (5.15a), Sleeping Lion is a quintessential Sharma line: big crimpy moves and intense consistency up a beautiful blue-and-white canvas of wall. Sharma projected the line for over a year, falling off the last move—a heinous, shouldery deadpoint—sixteen times from the ground before finally closing his chapter with Sleeping Lion on March 28, 2023. The businessman and father felt he had to prove to himself that he could balance high-level climbing with what he has since called “5.15 living.” To no one’s surprise, Sleeping Lion has already seen much traffic from the world’s best sport climbers, including Stefano Ghisolfi, Felipe Camargo, and Jorge Diaz-Rullo. But Megos made the first repeat.
“Personally, the route was more of an endurance problem,” Megos told Climbing. “I could do all the crux sections of the route quite easily.”
Sleeping Lion begins with a 5.13 sequence to gain the true starting ledge. Immediately off this ledge is a dynamic move which Megos describes as “a one move Kilter Board V9.” Although Megos never struggled with this crux, he mentioned that other climbers with a different climbing style had much more trouble here, whereas his crux—the endurance finish—feels easier for them. After this V9 move, there’s another good rest, after which another jumpy boulder problem leads to the “potato shaped” jug. Megos considers the climbing from here to the top very sustained—one long power endurance section capped by the finishing shoulder move that gave Sharma fits from the ground. It was this move, too, that gave Megos the most difficulty.
“I fell off that move four times,” recalls Megos. “Although I progressed quite fast until day five, it was a little up and down, and I had to wait for the right day to actually get it done.”
In addition to struggling with the hard finish, Megos dealt with a few days of poor, humid conditions. He also broke one of the crux holds off the wall, though after sussing alternate sequences and discussing it with Sharma, they decided the hold needed to be glued back on. Once the glue dried, Megos resumed effort. When he ultimately sent, he suggested a downgrade.
“I would say I gave the route 9b [5.15b] because it compares to other 9b’s I’ve done”, Megos points out. “Not because the route only took me 8 days.” He added that Jorge Diaz-Rullo and Stefano Ghisolfi share the same general opinions, although they have yet to finish the route, and that he and Sharma had an “open discussion” about the route’s grade. “He [Sharma] said he didn’t know exactly how to grade it. Although [he thinks] it’s his hardest route [to date], he totally accepts whatever I think.” Megos closed the grade discussion by simply stating Sleeping Lion didn’t feel as difficult as his previous 5.15c sends, Perfecto Mundo and Bibliographie.
Despite his strong outdoor start, Megos looks to focus much of 2024 on training and competition climbing, hoping to qualify for the Olympics. In Tokyo in 2021, he missed the Olympic finals by one slot, coming in 9th.
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