Aidan Roberts has made the second ascent of The Origin Sit (f8C), at Dinas Rock, Swansea, Wales.

The boulder, which was established by Eliot Stephens in 2021, was Wales' first boulder at 8C, and was described by Stephens as his 'hardest so far' when he made the first ascent. Stephens also made the first ascent of the stand start The Origin (f8B+) in 2019, but - after taking a quick look - wrote off the possibility of a lower start, as he couldn't find one that he thought was feasible.

Returning in 2021, he took a closer look and found a number of holds that offered themselves to a lower start. The resulting sit start cut out the bottom two moves of the stand start - which were around 7B/+ - and substituted in five moves at around 8A+ - with the first move being standalone 8A.

It took Stephens around ten sessions to work out the sequence for the lower half and link it into the existing stand start, you can watch a short film documenting his process on the boulder here.

Roberts first climbed the stand three years ago, after Stephens had already established the sit, but didn't try the lower moves. At the time, he said that the boulder was 'likely [his] hardest this year'.

Returning to Dinas Rock more recently, Aidan was able to quickly piece together the sit start and link the whole boulder together. Sharing news of the ascent on Instagram, he said:

'A historic addition to UK climbing from Eliot Stephens as Wales' first 8C boulder and safe to say pretty proper at the grade in my opinion. Thanks for establishing this one and the tour of some of South Wales' classic crags and projects!'

'I climbed the stand about three years ago but didn't sample the lower moves and was surprised at how much the sit added. A physical undercut section at the start leads to some powerful moves with close feet before joining the crux of the stand start. The bottom section felt harder for me and the full thing certainly tested my pretty average power endurance. I huffed and puffed but was happy to get to the top before a much needed plunge on the warm summers evening'.

'After a long time projecting, it's been fun to have quite playful sessions where the challenge feels to be managing all the factors on the day rather refining the sequences over many, many sessions. It feels a slightly more exploratory era in my climbing. Trying lines which take a day but offer great challenge to complete in the smaller time frames. It feels to be a different test of skill and tactics and a genre of climbing that was almost all I knew until just a few years ago. With this approach, I feel to have been able to sample so many different places and features and much more variety in movement, offering a different means to connect to my body'.

'It's been a very pleasant reminder of all the avenues of climbing there is to explore, and I haven't yet even ventured far from bouldering…'