James Mchaffie made the 2nd ascent of Neil Carson's LPT testpiece Big Bang today. Big Bang was Britain's first 9a and indeed one of the first in the world. Neil Carson did the first ascent in 1996 after lots of effort and specific training. The route has seen little attention over the years and it seemed like the 2nd ascent may never come. Last year Caff did Infanticide, the 8c that shares the same start as Big Bang. He then tried the direct finish and even put in a good link getting quite high. Caff had the 2nd ascent in his sights and on returning to Wales this year he got on it again and got a consistent method of doing the crux upper slab. Now all that was needed was to build up the specific muscle memory and get it absolutely dialled. He decided to lay down a seige and was down LPT at every available opportunity. Today he put it to bed on a pretty warm and muggy day. It is definitely one of the most significant repeats in Britain of recent years and a brilliant effort for a amazing climber. Back to onsighting e7s now Caff!
Unfortunately i missed the ascent but here is some footage of the moves:
2 comments:
great effort!
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