Steely fingered youth bursts onto scene

James Pearson is one of the Uk’s brightest talents and his emerging routes list is unbelievably impressive especially considering the short length of time he’s been climbing.
Born within a stones throw of some of the best grit crags it’s no surprise he has made a name for himself on ‘gods own rock’ but he also seems to have the ability to raise his game on all rock types. James loves doing new routes and has made journeys to some obscure places to do so already and I’m sure more will come.

Portrait of James Pearson - sweet, angelic and very very talented...

A traditional climber first and foremost he’s also getting a pretty worthwhile bouldering pedigree, with his steely fingers pulling down a number of classic hard problems to date and his sight set on many more.

James is still pretty young and if his climbing moves on as fast as it has to date he’ll be cranking E15 in no time…but until then just watch this space for more quick ascents of E8’s E9’s and E10’s.

James sent me this rather modest summary of his climbing to date just before he left for a two month trip to Thailand.....

"I started climbing in 2001/2002.

I mainly bouldered for the first year and then gradually started to get in to trad. My first hard route was Kaluza Klein E7 6C at Robin Hoods Stride. I wore a skateboarding helmet and boots that were too big for me with socks. After that, I bought some proper shoes and started doing more of the routes which really attracted me. The grades were a bit of a jump to "The Zone" E9 6C, "Smoked Salmon" E7 7A, and "Knocking on Heavens Door" E9 6C. I continued to dabble with bouldering and sport climbing but never really got hooked, probably because I was so weak.

James Pearson slaps for the flutings on his ascent of Kaluza Klein E7 6C Cratcliffe UK. Photo: Pearson coll

In the autumn of 2004 I went on a 3 month roadtrip round the US. I mainly bouldered on this trip, got a bit stronger and did the Buttermilker at the Buttermilks my first 8a+ V12. Back home on the grit, I felt pretty good so decided to have a look at Equilibrium E10 7A, Neil Bentleys masterpiece at Burbage South. This had had only two ascents and I thought it would be a cool tick to have - but at this point I didn’t really think I would do it.
However, it took me only 4 days to repeat Equilibrium, making it the quickest (and youngest) ascent by a long way. I felt really good about that and headed off to Fontainebleau for 2 weeks where I repeated Big Dragon V12.

Summer 2005 came along and I felt a little stronger, so I went to America again and this time things clicked quickly and I had a very good trip! It was great for me to go back on problems that were too hard to do the previous year and do them easily, it made me feel a lot stronger and got me psyched. Annoyingly, there were still some problems out of my reach: I tried "Black Lung" 8B in Joes valley quite a bit and even got my hand in the finishing pocket a few times but kept falling.

So although the trip was great I left feeling mentally fatigued and on my return, decided to have a go at doing some training and started to develop a little more strength.

I completerd a lot of my boulder projects in the peak district, giving River Of Life V12 and Hats For Youths V11. I invested a little time in sportclimbing and succeded in climbing the classic Mecca 8b+ at Ravens Tor.

In Summer 2006, I once again headed back to the states, this time to Colorado. I had a fantastic trip and repeated a load of hard problems. I feel like tis trip was the beginning of the current stage of my climbing life and I left feeling great both physically and mentally.

On my return, I climbed a load of classic hard boulders in England and Europe. At the start of 2007 I put up the hardest route on gritstone, The Promise E10 7a. Since then I have spent about 4 weeks in Switzerland which is currently my favourite bouldering venue and have taken my climbing to a new level with 2 flashes of confirmed V13 boulders, The Ganymede Takeover V13 and The Great Shark Hunt V13.

I am leaving for Thailand for 2 months on Monday for some bolt clipping, DWS and a lot of R&R."

James Pearson on one of his latest creations River Of Life V12, Turning stone Edge, Peak Disrtict, UK

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