Sean Bailey has made the second repeat of Alex Megos’ famous route “Bibliographie” in Céüse. Initially thought to be the world’s second 9c, it was repeated by Stefano Ghisolfi who suggested a downgrade, and again by Sean.
Sean Bailey has been out in Céüse for a couple of months now, working this route as well as other hard climbs at the world famous crag. He says of the route: “I was lucky to get through the middle crux pretty quick but proceeded to pump off the final boulder 12 or something times“.
He spent two seasons working it, first with Stefano Ghisolfi and others, just a few months after Alex Megos originally sent it, then coming back this year with friends including Miho Nonaka. After not qualifying for the Olympics in 2020, Sean started to focus on outdoors climbing, at first with some impressive boulders.
Since then he’s got back into competing and done incredibly well in 2021, taking two first places in Lead at Villars and Chamonix as well as a first in Bouldering at Salt Lake City. We’re sure Sean will be working hard on some projects closer to home this sending season, and will be back in force on the comp scene for 2022.
Back in August of 2020 Alex Megos reported he’d sent the route, initially saying he thought it deserved a grade of 9c. He’d sent one 9b+ before and spent way more time on “Bibliographie“. A year later Stefano Ghisolfi then climbed it and suggested a 9b+ grading – which Alex agreed to.
The area is home to the world’s first 9a+ “Biographie”, climbed in 1996 by Chris Sharma. The 9b+ is named as it’s just a few meters to the left of this original. Céüse has an incredible range of hard climbs so regularly attracts the world’s best climbers. As well as a 9a+ and 9b+, you also have a large handful of 9a’s and a massive amount of 8a to 8c+ problems to work on.
You can take a look at the video below from the last season featuring Stefano Ghisolfi just before he sent “Bibliographie”, Sean Bailey trying it, Dave Graham, Alizée Dufraisse, Miho Nonaka, and more.
That leaves Adam Ondra’s “Silence“ as the only person to have climbed a 9c / 5.15d. It’s seen attempts but it’s a more remote area and has less other climbers about and warmups to work on. Check out some of the rest of the world’s hardest climbs.
Photo by Ben Neilson on Instagram who’s taken some excellent shots of climbers in Céüse this season.
