Watch Emma Twyford Become First British Woman to Climb 5.14d
In 2019, she climbed The Big Bang and now a new film about her send can be watched online
When Emma Twyford powered, crimped and screamed her way to the top of The Big Bang at Lower Pen Trwyn, she ended a three-year battle and entered British climbing’s history books as the first British woman to break the 5.14d barrier.
Twyford said after her send, “It went first go today. Conditions weren’t even that good and there was no wind. I think that helped in a way because I felt no pressure. Angus Kille and I had the crag to ourselves. At the top, I thought to myself did that actually just happen? I wasn’t pumped and it had felt like a path. There was also a fair bit of swearing with the relief of finally getting it done.” Twyford is also a top trad climber who started climbing at 10 and by age 14 was on the national team. She was the British junior bouldering champion and finished fifth at the European youth championships.
This 30-minute film by filmmaker David Petts of Volo Digital is her story. It follows Twyford’s three-year battle to climb The Big Bang at Lower Pen Trwyn in North Wales. Graded 5.14d, The Big Bang is one of the U.K.’s hardest climbs and had only previously been climbed twice in its 23-year history. Petts follows Emma’s journey to success, capturing epic footage on The Big Issue (E9) in Pembroke, Mind Control (8c) in Oliana, Spain and big walling in the Dolomites.
Emma Twyford Makes History
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