Elias Iagnemma has made the first ascent of Big Slamm in Tintorale, Abruzzo, Southern Italy. He has proposed a grade of 9A/V17.

The boulder is Iagnemma's second at the grade, after he became the fourth person to climb Nalle Hukkataival's Burden of Dreams, the world's first 9A boulder. Despite all previous ascensionists of Burden of Dreams opting for the original beta as crafted by Hukkataival, Iagnemma used a wildly different beta, using a left heel hook on the start hold of the boulder in order to establish on the final crimp, before launching into a paddle dyno for the final move.

As for Big Slamm, Iagnemma seems to have taken a less dynamic and more straightforward approach. Starting from sitting, Big Slamm climbs up the left hand side of a steep prow, staying on via a series of small crimps, compression, and marginal heel hooks, before moving left onto the face of the boulder and into the 8B/+ stand start.

Having discovered the boulder a year and a half ago in Tintorale, an area which Iagnemma has spent years developing, Big Slamm took Iagnemma a total of thirty-five sessions to climb.

'What a dream!' Iagnemma said on social media, 'After a year and a half of attempts in a total of 35 sessions I managed to get to the [top] of this King Line. My King Line'. It was truly a crazy fight between conditions, mind and body. Many times I thought about throwing in the towel because I thought it was impossible to link all those extreme moves'.

'The boulder is divided into a first 8A Boulder movement, a second 8A (hard) Boulder movement and ends with a stand start of 8B/+… It is incredible how it is a precise climb where every part of the body, shoe, and flap of skin must deform perfectly in those minimal sandstone holds'.

'Regarding the grade evaluation I feel like giving it V17/9A, since the intensity is very similar to that of Burden of Dreams but with much more adverse environmental conditions, since it is located in a valley where the humidity rate is very often at very high levels and finding the right conditions remains really difficult'.

'I am really happy with this climb of mine and to be able to share it with the entire climbing community. That said, I now hope that some top climber decides to take a nice trip to southern Italy'.