Niccolò Ceria has made the long-awaited first repeat of Ben Moon's Voyager Low Start, Font 8B+, at Burbage North in the Peak district.

Voyager sit start was first climbed by Ben Moon on 18 November 2006, almost exactly one year after he made the first ascent of the stand start, an ~8B in it's own right. According to Ben "it's quite a long problem about 12 moves and over a minute on the rock."

Several have come close, but until now, no one has succeeded. It's a very condition dependent problem and without wind and the right temps, it's more or less unclimbable. At least that's what I have heard and my sources couldn't be better.

Niky comments:

I have been dreaming about this for so long. I first tried the stand in 2010, falling at the very top after few goes. Unfortunately, after three days I could not reach that point anymore and the week quickly came to an end.

Until yesterday I was not able to make a trip back, despite I have been thinking about Voyager and Sheffield for many long days.

Thanks to Giulia, my girlfriend, I could organize an 8 days trip year this October for hanging on Voyager after 5 years and half.

Today was our first day of climbing and the friction was pretty nice. I fortunately climbed the stand fast and then I figured out a good way to do the bottom. On my first try I linked the sequences and got to the top.

Everything is done and this long wait made the ascent really sweet to me. I unfortunately got a split on the good go, but I could not complain about this nice day :)

It fortunately went fast but I trained a lot in the last month for this. Happy that the effort has been paid off!

Let's hope Niky's split tip heals quickly and that the rest of his stay in the UK continues as well as it started!

Niccolò Ceria is sponsored by: Flathold, La Sportiva, Peter Bouldering and Salewa, Docrock