| From: | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Resident: | France 🇫🇷 |
| Date of birth: | 15th Dec 1985 |
| Age: | 40 years old |
| Gender: | Male |
| 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 | |
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.
[1] Interview with Tom Randall
[2] Interview with PlanetMountain, 2008 https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-climbing-interview.html