Ascent Log
| Climber | Suggested Grade | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shawn Raboutou | V17/9A | 2022 | FA. Video |
Climb Profile
The Route
This seventeen-move masterpiece had been a futuristic project for several top climbers for quite a while until young crusher Shawn Raboutou made the first ascent in 2022. This was shortly after his send of Alphane. Having announced two V17 FAs in the span of three months, Shawn cemented his position as the world’s top boulderer. This is on top of his FA of The Story of Three Worlds V16, second ascent of Insomniac V16, and numerous sends of hard boulders in the V13-V15 range during 2022 thus making it likely the best year of bouldering anyone has ever had anywhere.
The Tron boulder sits in solitude, begging to be climbed, on top of a talus field in the lush woods of Eldorado Canyon. Local Colorado developer Chad Greedy had the initial vision of the Megatron line over ten years ago, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the dream began to actualize with Daniel Wood’s FA of Tron V14.
Woods describes Tron as having powerful moves on positive holds, which face the wrong direction, creating a strange compression. Megatron is the low start to this v14, interestingly named after Chad Greedy’s deceased chameleon. Megatron adds seven moves of V15 directly into the V14 with no rest in between.
The problem involves powerful climbing on nasty holds that doesn’t let up in difficulty until the top. It requires a high combination of power, precision, and endurance. Ruana described the right-hand throw to the start hold of Tron as being one of the hardest moves he’s ever done – this is truly saying something coming from the 23-year-old who has climbed over one hundred boulders V14 or harder.
It wasn’t until Shawn Raboutou came into the picture and started projecting Megatron that Greedy’s vision was truly realized.
Wall of Glory
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First Ascent: Shawn Raboutou
2022
Shawn Raboutou started seriously trying the boulder in the Fall of 2021. He described the crux move (the move into the start hold of Tron) as being the make or break; he would have some sessions where he would do it two out of four times and fall off the last move and others where it felt extremely low percentage.
Shawn sent the boulder in 2022, (it is unclear exactly when as, surprise-surprise, he didn’t announce his send for months after) in horrible conditions– it was eighty degrees in the canyon. This makes the send even more impressive as typically with higher levels of bouldering, having good crisp conditions, for greater friction on the rock, becomes crucial for success.
When speaking of his ascent Raboutou said, “Ultimately when I did it I think I became a better climber; maybe not just physically, but mentally, and I think that’s half the game of climbing [is] pushing the mental barriers of what you think is possible.” This is a good message for all of us– whether you’re working V17s or V3s, climbing can be used to break down mental barriers and thus to grow as a human being.
Other Attempts
Megatron has not seen any repeats since Shawn’s send. Drew Ruana has put in an astonishing 70+ days of effort into the boulder. Daniel has also spent many days in the canyon slowly chipping away at the moves and links. It will be interesting to see who will be able to gnab the second ascent in the coming months or years.
Megatron FAQs
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Video Library
