French climber Sébastien Bouin has made the fourth ascent of Bibliographie 9b+ at Céüse, France.

Bibliographie was bolted and named by Ethan Pringle. The line tackles the steep ground to the right of the famous blue streak of Biographie 9a+.

The line was first climbed by Alex Megos in 2020 after spending 60 days on the route and given a provisional grade of 9c. At the time, it was only the second proposed 9c in the world.

Subsequent repeats by Stefano Ghisolfi and Sean Bailey in 2021 saw the consensus on the route's difficulty settle at 9b+.

Séb commented in a press release: "Bibliographie was a big goal for this year. Since Alex did the first ascent of this one, I was really psyched to try something really hard from someone else, here in France. Even if Céüse is very far away from my own natural climbing style. I was really motivated to go through the process on Bibliographie.

"I am usually alone when trying my projects in France and not many people try them, but Biblio was something different. You know, a 9b+ in my 'local' area, already with 3 ascents by top climbers... it was obvious that I had to try it."

The route breaks down into a powerful 8b+, a rest, ten moves then a four-move 8A+ boulder problem, topped off with 25 moves of 9a climbing to the chains.

Conditions were challenging for Séb this year: He said:

"It was raining almost every day, and we had to wait, patiently, for a good window to make an attempt."

Séb fell 11 times at the top of the route after the main crux. He explained:

"I think I underestimated this last part of the route. It doesn't look or feel that hard when you do this single section in isolation. Yet, when you are coming from the ground, it was way different. I remember Sean Bailey actually fell 13 times up there, so I am happy that he still holds the record."

Over the last 18 months, Séb has established DNA 9c (UKC News) and America's hardest sport climb, Supreme Jumbo Love Direct Start 9b+ (UKC News). With a new 9b+ in his anti-style under his belt, Seb says he's keen to return to something more up his street:

"Bibliographie is not a route that particularly suits my strengths, so it was a great challenge to do a 9b+ on tiny crimps for me. But, now it's time to go back to something a little more my style."