BURSTA video was recently released of Alex Megos’s 2013 first ascent of Retired Extremely Dangerous at Diamond Fall in the Blue Mountains by Phat Phriction. Megos was 20 at the time and this was the first 5.14d in Australia.
The footage was originally part of Blue Crush, a documentary about rock climbing in the Blue Mountains, that was directed by Roman Hoffman in 2014 and produced by Phat Phriction. It features Alex Megos, Angie Scarth-Johnson and Wiz Fineron.
Megos needed around 20 attempts over three days to send the project, which was bolted in 1999 by Garth Miller and was known as The Red Project. Australian photographer Simon Carter, who witnessed Megos’ progress stated, had this to say: “I think it is great to see some progression in the top end of Australian climbing. The last time a new grade in Australia was achieved was when Chris Webb Parsons climbed White Ladder (34) at Nowra in 2004… I think it’s good for someone with Alex’s experience to come and set a benchmark like this.” For more from Carter see his 2013 story here.
In 2015, Megos then made the first ascent of Schweinebaumeln at the Elphinstone in the Blue Mountains, which was bolted by Lee Cossey. It became the second 5.14d in Australia. Retired Extremely Dangerous has been repeated at least once by Tom O’Halloran.
Retired Extremely Dangerous
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