Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
3538 Climbers
7011 Climbs
18139 Ascents
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James Pearson
James pearson is an all round climber from the peak district in the UK.
Growing up, James established himself with fast repeats of many hard and scary gritstone routes such as Equilibrium, at the time one of the hardest gritstone routes around, as well as putting up hard routes of his own such as The Promise at Burbage North.
As well as climbing hard trad James also repeated many hard boulder problems. Most notably in 2007 he flashed three problems in the 8A+/B range Ganymede Takeover, The Great Shark Hunt and Schule des Lebens. At the time each of these was considered 8B which would make these ascents some of the hardest flashes in the world at the time though these problems have subsequently been downgraded.
In 2008 James courted controversy when he established The Walk of Life at Dyers Lookout and gave it the unprecedented grade of E12, suggesting it was harder than any other route in the UK at the time. The route is now considered E9, and on reflection James has admitted the route was not in his style which is why it felt as hard as it did for him.
After the controversy around The Walk of Life James moved to Europe and spent a lot of time becoming a more well rounded climber. Around the same time he met his now-wife Caroline Ciavaldini. Putting his training to good use James has now repeated and established a slew of hard sport and trad routes around the world. Notable ascents include many hard onsight and flashes in Pembroke in South Wales, a repeat of Dave MacLeod's Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, Jacopo Larcher's Tribe and the first ascent of Le Voyage.
In 2023 James once again suggested E12 for Bon Voyage, it has held this grade after a handful of repeats.
References
[1] Interview with Tom Randall
[2] Interview with PlanetMountain, 2008 https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-climbing-interview.html
James pearson is an all round climber from the peak district in the UK.
Growing up, James established himself with fast repeats of many hard and scary gritstone routes such as Equilibrium, at the time one of the hardest gritstone routes around, as well as putting up hard routes of his own such as The Promise at Burbage North.
As well as climbing hard trad James also repeated many hard boulder problems. Most notably in 2007 he flashed three problems in the 8A+/B range Ganymede Takeover, The Great Shark Hunt and Schule des Lebens. At the time each of these was considered 8B which would make these ascents some of the hardest flashes in the world at the time though these problems have subsequently been downgraded.
In 2008 James courted controversy when he established The Walk of Life at Dyers Lookout and gave it the unprecedented grade of E12, suggesting it was harder than any other route in the UK at the time. The route is now considered E9, and on reflection James has admitted the route was not in his style which is why it felt as hard as it did for him.
After the controversy around The Walk of Life James moved to Europe and spent a lot of time becoming a more well rounded climber. Around the same time he met his now-wife Caroline Ciavaldini. Putting his training to good use James has now repeated and established a slew of hard sport and trad routes around the world. Notable ascents include many hard onsight and flashes in Pembroke in South Wales, a repeat of Dave MacLeod's Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, Jacopo Larcher's Tribe and the first ascent of Le Voyage.
In 2023 James once again suggested E12 for Bon Voyage, it has held this grade after a handful of repeats.
References
[1] Interview with Tom Randall
[2] Interview with PlanetMountain, 2008 https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-climbing-interview.html
Pics + Vids
Featuring 8779 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
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Explore
Fancy a look around? You can browse by climber or by climbs, or you can check out some lists. For example
- All sport ascents of 9b or above
- British women who have climbed 7C or above
- British men who have climbed 8c or above
Podcasts
Featuring 3933 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Laura Pineau on The Ground Up Podcast, July 2025
- Garrett Gregor on The Testpiece Podcast, September 2024
- Steven Dimmitt on The Nugget, April 2022
- Amity Warme on Climbing Gold, May 2025
Library
Featuring 11021 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- Jade - Adam Ondra - Flash Film
- Alpine Journal 1974 228-236 Echevarria Andes (1974) Journal
- Avon and Cheddar (1992) Guidebook
Recent updates
The first route to breach Avon's Main Wall. Named for Macavity the Mystery Cat, from T.S. Elliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
Macavity, Macavity: he defies the law of gravity.
Misspelt Mercavity for many years.
Chris Sharma started climbing in the 1990s aged 12 before winning the US national championships 2 years later. He went on to reinvigorate hard sport climbing in the US, quickly repeating many of the hardest lines before establishing his own hard routes such as Necessary Evil in 1997, the first 8c+/14c in the USA.
Through the rest of his career he took sport climbing in to the modern era by cementing the 9a+ and 9b grades with a string of cutting edge ascents throughout Europe (Golpe de Estado, Neanderthal, Stoking the Fire and many more), as well as adding some of the hardest routes in America with climbs such as Jumbo Love and Dreamcatcher.
Somewhat uniquely amongst his contemporaries, Chris' climbing has been well documented from a young age due to a close relationship with videographers Josh Lowell and Brett Lowell.
Alongside his sport climbing Chris is a prolific deep water soloist, climbing many of the existing hard lines and then adding many of his own: Es Pontas, Alasha, Black Pearl, Big Fish and Vision Quest being some of the hardest DWS lines in the world.
In 2023 he added Sleeping Lion (9b) in Siurana. Initially suggested at 9b+ it has settled at 9b after several repeats, but remains an impressive new addition at one of Spain's most famous crags.
References
[1] Interview with Jack Geldard for UKClimbing.com, 29th August 2012 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/chris_sharma_talks_9b+-4894
[2] Rampage by Josh Lowell and Brett Lowell, 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqe_w2JTlKM
[3] Best of the West, 2005 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6VZzVPnlVA
[4] Interview with Alex Honnold on Climbing Gold, 2nd April 2021 https://www.climbinggold.com/episodes/chapter-03
[5] Interview with gripped.com (2026) https://gripped.com/uncategorized/chris-sharma-on-5-16-and-how-do-you-know-when-youve-climbed-a-new-grade/
References
References
Prospective repeaters may want to consider attempting a second ascent in a hybrid DWS/lead manner above a high spring tide. [2]