Bibliographie 9b+ (first graded 9c)

Bibliographie is a 35 meter sport route on the Céüse face in France, bolted into the limestone just right of the more famous Biographie. It links a powerful opening section into a boulder problem in the middle and a long, sustained finish, with almost no rest across the whole pitch. First graded 9c (5.15d), it now carries a consensus grade of 9b+ (5.15c), placing it among the hardest sport climbs ever confirmed by repeat ascents.

History

American climber Ethan Pringle bolted the route in 2009. Alex Megos began working it in June 2017 and made the first ascent on August 5, 2020, after roughly 60 days of effort spread across three years, at the time only the second confirmed 9c in the world after Silence in Flatanger, Norway. Stefano Ghisolfi made the second ascent on August 24, 2021, and afterward the grade consensus settled at 9b+. It has since become a reference point for that grade, with seven climbers reported to have completed it, including Janja Garnbret's first female ascent.

On film

Rotpunkt: Bibliographie (2021) documents Alex Megos's return to Céüse, the wall above Gap he calls one of the best sport cliffs in the world, to project the line he would go on to free that August. The film follows the process of working the route's three distinct sections over repeated sessions, culminating in the first ascent that made Bibliographie one of the hardest confirmed sport climbs anywhere.