Climbs

Alex Megos's contribution to the legendary School 50. A modern classic.

A route with a complicated history. An indirect line called Dyer Straits was originally climbed by Ian Vickers that used a lot of pegs (although the pegs were not placed by Vickers) [2]. James Pearson then removed the pegs and added a direct start suggesting the lofty grade of E12. The route was quickly repeated by Dave Macleod (who was injured at the time) who suggested a downgrade to E9.

The harsh criticism which was levelled at James from the climbing community for over grading the route led to him moving to Innsbruck to get away from the UK climbing scene.

James has subsequently discussed how, having grown up bouldering and leading short, bold routes on the gritstone, The Walk of Life was well outside his comfort zone and, lacking the skills to recognise his own weaknesses, then led him to suggest such a lofty grade. [1]

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/2HAuDaq2kSHM6L7vdDu6uu?

[2] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/james-pearson-interview-after-the-walk-of-life.html

Ben Moon:

Black Lung is probably one of the coolest problems I've ever done. It's made my year doing it.