Does anybody have a good tutorial of how to do the ladder trick in the cave of 1-1? (to skip using the bombs to break open the intended path) I've only been able to do it once, and I have not replicated it. (I'm using Toad)

Not sure if you already figured this out, but there is a good tutorial in the guides section by RetroBob.

I've seen RetroBob's tutorial and I just can't seem to duplicate this trick. Does anyone have a recording paired with an input capture display?

I don't have a recording with inputs, but,all I do is press left and A with in the small frame window. It's almost like a rhythm for me to do now. I always aim for a specific spot on the wall to do it. I press left and A at basically the exact same moment. Of course this applies to the right side as well. I just have better luck going left.

If there's anyone here that can do this trick that's going to be at SGDQ I would love an opportunity to see this performed so that maybe I can figure it out.

I can share my strat, it works almost every time:
1- charge the jump
2- don 't press left till you reached the maximum height
3- press left and get damage
4- grab the shyguy and run to the ladder
5- DON'T throw him until you've touched the leftmost wall
6- As soon as you touch the wall on the left, immediately turn right and throw the shyguy
7- fall down the ladder and press up when you touch the ground
8- Keep the up direction pressed

that's it

I just copied retrobob's explanation and found a good setup for me. I get it almost 100% of the time.

Thanks garadas21, I suspect then my issue is simply that my reaction/timing is too poor to pull this off without more practice.

I've just started learning SMB 2 last week and I had a problem with that trick as well. At first I struggled a lot. I was trying to do it while throwing ShyGuy of the left wall which was doing it sometimes (around 5-10% success rate) because i just couldn't do it of the right wall. After a while I figured out that it's super easy. You just need to turn when you touch the left wall and HOLD the right arrow while throwing him. Then hold up aftery you've reached the bottom. Let me know if that helped.

E:Typo