| From | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Resident | France 🇫🇷 |
| Date of birth | 15th Dec 1985 |
| Age | 40 years old |
| Gender | Male |
| Climbing | |
| Hardest Boulder (Worked) | 8C |
| Hardest Boulder (Flash) | 8A+ |
| Hardest Sport (Worked) | 9a |
| Hardest Trad (Worked) | E12 |
| Hardest Trad (Onsight) | E8 |
| Hardest Trad (Flash) | E9 |
| Notable Partnerships | |
| Caroline Ciavaldini | |
Few climbers have experienced both the highs and lows of elite climbing as publicly as James Pearson.
As a teenager growing up in the Peak District, UK, Pearson established his reputation as a 'keen youth' with fast – and often sketchy – repeats of the boldest grit routes of the day, such as Equilibrium (E10) and a terrifying skyhook-only ascent of Knockin' on Heaven's Door.
He went on to establish hard grit routes of his own, most notably The Groove (E9) at Cratcliffe Tor, a longstanding 'last great problem' with desperate climbing which has seen very few repeats.
In 2008 James famously courted controversy when he established The Walk of Life at Dyers Lookout and gave it the unprecedented grade of E12, suggesting it was far harder than any other trad route in the world at the time. However, the 50m slab pitch was in a style he was unfamiliar with; the route was swiftly down graded to E9 and James became the subject of online vitriol. As a consequence, he left the UK and moved to Innsbruck, where he began to work on widening his abilities.
Around the same time he met his now-wife, competition star Caroline Ciavaldini, who mentored him in sport climbing and training. Moving to France and putting his newfound fitness to good use, Pearson repeated and established a slew of hard sport and trad routes.
In 2012 he climbed his first 9a, Esclatamàsters. On a quick trip home in September 2014 he flashed Something's Burning (E9) in Pembroke, a high water mark for trad style at the time. Later that month he repeated Rhapsody (E11) – a route that 6 years earlier he had publicly dismissed as easy and eliminate, but had been unable to climb.
He made the second ascent of trad super-route Tribe (E11) in 2020, repeated Lexicon (E11) with frighteningly little preparation 2022, and made the long-awaited second ascent of the near-mythical Echo Wall (E11) in 2024.
Undoubtedly Pearson's swansong is his trad route Bon Voyage, climbed in 2023: a fortuitous line of micro-pockets breaking out left from his earlier route Le Voyage (E10). With 9a climbing in a spicy position, Pearson once again suggested E12 – and this time the grade stuck, heralding a new level in trad climbing.
As well as climbing hard trad, Pearson is a devoted boulderer. 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, though the problems have subsequently been downgraded. In more recent years he has consolidated the 8C grade, with repeats of the world class Mystic River (8C) and The Finnish Line (8C).
[1] Interview with Tom Randall
[2] Interview with PlanetMountain, 2008 https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-climbing-interview.html
| From | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Resident | France 🇫🇷 |
| Date of birth | 15th Dec 1985 |
| Age | 40 years old |
| Gender | Male |
| Climbing | |
| Hardest Boulder (Worked) | 8C |
| Hardest Boulder (Flash) | 8A+ |
| Hardest Sport (Worked) | 9a |
| Hardest Trad (Worked) | E12 |
| Hardest Trad (Onsight) | E8 |
| Hardest Trad (Flash) | E9 |
| Notable Partnerships | |
| Caroline Ciavaldini | |
Few climbers have experienced both the highs and lows of elite climbing as publicly as James Pearson.
As a teenager growing up in the Peak District, UK, Pearson established his reputation as a 'keen youth' with fast – and often sketchy – repeats of the boldest grit routes of the day, such as Equilibrium (E10) and a terrifying skyhook-only ascent of Knockin' on Heaven's Door.
He went on to establish hard grit routes of his own, most notably The Groove (E9) at Cratcliffe Tor, a longstanding 'last great problem' with desperate climbing which has seen very few repeats.
In 2008 James famously courted controversy when he established The Walk of Life at Dyers Lookout and gave it the unprecedented grade of E12, suggesting it was far harder than any other trad route in the world at the time. However, the 50m slab pitch was in a style he was unfamiliar with; the route was swiftly down graded to E9 and James became the subject of online vitriol. As a consequence, he left the UK and moved to Innsbruck, where he began to work on widening his abilities.
Around the same time he met his now-wife, competition star Caroline Ciavaldini, who mentored him in sport climbing and training. Moving to France and putting his newfound fitness to good use, Pearson repeated and established a slew of hard sport and trad routes.
In 2012 he climbed his first 9a, Esclatamàsters. On a quick trip home in September 2014 he flashed Something's Burning (E9) in Pembroke, a high water mark for trad style at the time. Later that month he repeated Rhapsody (E11) – a route that 6 years earlier he had publicly dismissed as easy and eliminate, but had been unable to climb.
He made the second ascent of trad super-route Tribe (E11) in 2020, repeated Lexicon (E11) with frighteningly little preparation 2022, and made the long-awaited second ascent of the near-mythical Echo Wall (E11) in 2024.
Undoubtedly Pearson's swansong is his trad route Bon Voyage, climbed in 2023: a fortuitous line of micro-pockets breaking out left from his earlier route Le Voyage (E10). With 9a climbing in a spicy position, Pearson once again suggested E12 – and this time the grade stuck, heralding a new level in trad climbing.
As well as climbing hard trad, Pearson is a devoted boulderer. 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, though the problems have subsequently been downgraded. In more recent years he has consolidated the 8C grade, with repeats of the world class Mystic River (8C) and The Finnish Line (8C).
[1] Interview with Tom Randall
[2] Interview with PlanetMountain, 2008 https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-climbing-interview.html